A computer implementation of psychoacoustic grouping rules
We are building a computer model of sound organization and understanding in human listeners. In particular, we would like to be able to detect and locate acoustic events that will be perceived as separate objects. Our model aims to duplicate this aspect of the auditory system although the level of correspondence is speculative given our current state of knowledge. We describe an implementation of grouping rules corresponding to the psychoacoustic cues of harmonicity, common onset, continuity and proximity. We increase the system's robustness by adding a second layer of grouping that looks for corroboration between primary groupings. We believe that such a system of repeated hierarchic grouping is critical for the successful modeling of auditory functions.