Characterization of external ear impulse responses using Golay codes

Abstract

This report explains the use of a complementary series, Golay codes, for probing the impulse response of the external ear. The codes are used to measure both the resonance of the human ear canal, using a sealed sound-delivery system, and to measure the transfer function of the pinna, using a free-field source. With two series of 512 binary numbers, the improvement in signal-to-noise ratio over a single impulse approaches the theoretical value of 30.1 dB [10 log(2.512)]. This technique has many of the same properties as maximal-length sequences [M. R. Schroeder, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 66, 497-500 (1979)], but it has the added advantage that the sequence length is an integer power of two and is, therefore, particularly convenient to use with modern Fourier transform techniques.