Spatial audio apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10818300-B2
Application number	US-201816169493-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2018
Priority date	Dec 10, 2012
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

An apparatus including: an input configured to receive from at least two microphones at least two audio signals; at least two processor instances configured to generate separate output audio signal tracks from the at least two audio signals from the at least two microphones; a file processor configured to link the at least two output audio signal tracks within a file structure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving one or more audio signals from a plurality of microphones of an apparatus to capture an audio scene;
processing the one or more audio signals to de-emphasize and/or emphasize at least a first part of the audio scene based at least on a user input; and
generating at least a first audio track comprising the processed one or more audio signals.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the processing of the one or more audio signals comprises emphasizing at least the first part of the audio scene, wherein the emphasizing of at least the first part of the audio scene comprises at least one of:
amplifying at least the first part of the captured audio scene, wherein amplifying at least the first part of the captured audio scene comprises processing the one or more audio signals to emphasize audio from a direction and/or spatial region associated with at least the first part of the captured audio scene; or
attenuating one or more different second part of the captured audio scene, wherein attenuating the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene comprises processing the one or more audio signals to deemphasize audio from a direction and/or spatial region associated with at least the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene.

3. The method as in claim 2 , wherein the user input is received at a user interface of the apparatus, and wherein the user interface comprises at least one first user interface input for controlling an amount of the amplifying and/or the attenuating of one or more parts of the captured audio scene.

4. The method as in claim 3 , wherein the at least one first user interface input comprises a slider user interface input, and wherein the amount of the amplifying and/or the attenuating is proportional to a location of the user input along the slider.

5. The method as in claim 2 , wherein the user input is received at a user interface of the apparatus, wherein the user interface comprises at least one second user interface input for defining a width of the direction and/or the spatial region corresponding to the first part of the captured audio scene.

6. The method as in claim 5 , wherein the at least one second user interface input comprises a slider user interface input, and wherein the width of the direction and/or the spatial region corresponding to the first part of the captured audio scene is proportional to a location of the user input along the slider.

7. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the processing of the one or more audio signals comprises de-emphasizing at least the first part of the audio scene, wherein the de-emphasizing of at least the first part of the audio scene comprises at least one of:
amplifying one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene, wherein amplifying the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene comprises processing the one or more more audio signals to emphasize audio from a direction and/or spatial region associated with at least the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene; or
attenuating at least the first part of the captured audio scene, wherein attenuating at least the first part of the captured audio scene comprises processing the one or more audio signals to deemphasize audio from a direction and/or spatial region associated with at least the first part of the captured audio scene.

8. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
processing the one or more audio signals to generate at least one second audio track, wherein the first audio track and the at least one second audio track each have a different recording type; and
storing the first audio track and the at least one second audio track in a file such that the first audio track and the at least one second audio track are separate audio tracks representing, at least in part, audio recordings of the audio scene, and wherein the respective recording type of the first audio track and the at least one second audio track comprises at least one of:
a multichannel audio recording;
a stereo audio recording;
a mono audio recording; or
an audio object audio recording.

9. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory memory comprising computer code, the at least one non-transitory memory and the computer code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least:
receiving one or more audio signals from a plurality of microphones of the apparatus to capture an audio scene;
processing the one or more audio signals to de-emphasize and/or emphasize at least a first part of the audio scene based at least on a user input; and
generating at least a first audio track comprising the processed one or more audio signals.

10. The apparatus as in claim 9 , wherein the processing of the one or more audio signals comprises emphasizing at least the first part of the audio scene, wherein the emphasizing of at least the first part of the audio scene comprises at least one of:
amplifying at least the first part of the captured audio scene, wherein amplifying at least the first part of the captured audio scene comprises processing the one or more audio signals to emphasize audio from a direction and/or spatial region associated with at least the first part of the captured audio scene; or
attenuating one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene, wherein attenuating the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene comprises processing the one or more audio signals to deemphasize audio from a direction and/or spatial region associated with at least the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene.

11. The apparatus as in claim 10 , wherein the user input is received at a user interface of the apparatus, and wherein the user interface comprises at least one first user interface input for controlling an amount of the amplifying and/or the attenuating of one or more parts of the captured audio scene.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the at least one first user interface input comprises a slider user interface input, and wherein the amount of the amplifying and/or the attenuating is proportional to a location of the user input along the slider.

13. The apparatus as in claim 10 , wherein the user input is received at a user interface of the apparatus, wherein the user interface comprises at least one second user interface input for defining a width of the direction and/or the spatial region corresponding to the first part of the captured audio scene.

14. The apparatus as in claim 13 , wherein the at least one second user interface input comprises a slider user interface input, and wherein the width of the direction and/or the spatial region corresponding to the first part of the captured audio scene is proportional to a location of the user input along the slider.

15. The apparatus as in claim 9 , wherein the processing of the one or more audio signals comprises de-emphasizing at least the first part of the audio scene, wherein the de-emphasizing of at least the first part of the audio scene comprises at least one of:
amplifying one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene, wherein amplifying the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene comprises processing the one or more audio signals to emphasize audio from a direction and/or spatial region associated with at least the one or more different second parts of the captured audio scene; or
attenuating at least the first part of the captured audio scene,

Assignees

• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Yliaho Marko Tapani
• Koski Ari Juhani

Classifications

• H04S7/30 Primary

  Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field · CPC title

• H04S2400/15

  Aspects of sound capture and related signal processing for recording or reproduction · CPC title

• H04R1/406

  microphones · CPC title

• H04R3/005

  for combining the signals of two or more microphones (specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407) · CPC title

• H04R5/027

  Spatial or constructional arrangements of microphones, e.g. in dummy heads · CPC title