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The purpose of this paper is to present a system for customized binaural audio delivery based on the extraction of relevant features from a 2-D representation of the listener’s pinna.

The most significant pinna contours are extracted by means of multi-flash imaging, and they provide values for the parameters of a structural head-related transfer function (HRTF) model. The HRTF model spatializes a given sound file according to the listener’s head orientation, tracked by sensor-equipped headphones, with respect to the virtual sound source.

A preliminary localization test shows that the model is able to statically render the elevation of a virtual sound source better than non-individual HRTFs.

Results encourage a deeper analysis of the psychoacoustic impact that the individualized HRTF model has on perceived elevation of virtual sound sources.

The model has low complexity and is suitable for implementation on mobile devices. The resulting hardware/software package will hopefully allow an easy and low-tech fruition of custom spatial audio to any user.

The authors show that custom binaural audio can be successfully deployed without the need of cumbersome subjective measurements.

This paper aims to explore how accountants manage the processes of identity (re)construction after identity crisis, resulting from increasing pressures and regulatory requirements, considering both introspective and the extrospective issues.

The study drew on an integrated framework drawing on Luigi Pirandello’s views about identity crises and the search for individual coherence and possible representation strategies. It used an ethnographic approach based on photo-elicitation, conversations and documentary sources to explore the identity reconstruction processes of Italian Commercialisti.

Several conditions caused an identity crisis among Commercialisti, including regulatory requirements, public administration demands and increasing power of IT providers. Commercialisti reacted to these circumstances by re-constructing their image through strategies designed to impress both themselves and others.

The paper has implications for the accounting profession in general and in Italy, suggesting that further pressure may result in rapid change efforts among accountants. It provides a broader and more systematic understanding of the threats to the role of accountants and suggests how they can manage complexity to create new opportunities. It also encourages accountants to focus on alternative roles as a possible new strategy that few have tried.

The paper provides a novel contribution to the understanding of identity crisis issues and related representation strategies in the accounting profession. Unlike past contributions, it made a full assessment of both the dynamics of an identity crisis and the micro-level responses to it, in a new, non-Anglo-Saxon context.