# HRIR-Former: Grid-Free Time-Domain Reconstruction of Head-Related Impulse Responses with a Spatially Encoded Transformer

Source: [HRIR-Former: Grid-Free Time-Domain Reconstruction of Head-Related Impulse Responses with a Spatially Encoded Transformer](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/69cb55390636e5bf4afca0da>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2026-06-17T05:00:14.085Z

Authors: Shaoheng Xu, Chunyi Sun, Jihui Zhang, Amy Bastine, Prasanga N. Samarasinghe, Thushara D. Abhayapala, Hongdong Li

Published: 2026-03-30T03:39:16.000Z

## Abstract

Individualized head-related impulse responses (HRIRs) enable binaural rendering, but dense per-listener measurements are costly. We address HRIR spatial up-sampling from sparse per-listener measurements: given a few measured HRIRs for a listener, predict HRIRs at unmeasured target directions. Prior learning methods often work in the frequency domain, rely on minimum-phase assumptions or separate timing models, and use a fixed direction grid, which can degrade temporal fidelity and spatial continuity. We propose HRIR-Former, a time-domain, grid-free binaural Transformer for reconstructing HRIRs at arbitrary directions from sparse inputs. It uses sinusoidal spatial features, a Conv1D refinement module, and auxiliary interaural time difference (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) heads. On SONICOM, it improves normalized mean squared error (NMSE), cosine distance, and ITD/ILD errors over prior methods; ablations validate modules and show minimum-phase preprocessing is unnecessary.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

- [HRIR spatial up-sampling on SONICOM free-field HRIRs (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/hrir-spatial-up-sampling-on-sonicom-free-field-hrirs-test.md>): HRIR spatial up-sampling; SONICOM free-field HRIRs (test); ITD Error (E): 10.6.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27998>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.27998.pdf>)