Combination of immersive and binaural sound

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10979809-B2
Application number	US-202016797872-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 21, 2020
Priority date	Dec 13, 2018
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

The present subject matter provides a technical solution to the technical problems facing sound localization by separating sounds and reproducing the separated sounds using a set of loudspeakers and a set of headphones. A general soundtrack that is meant to be experienced throughout the room would play through the loudspeakers, and specific sounds that are meant to be experienced near the listener would be played through a binaural representation in the headphones. The headphones may be selected to avoid occluding the ear, allowing sound produced at the loudspeakers to be heard clearly. This separation and reproduction of sounds using a combination of a loudspeaker and headphone provides a technical solution to the technical problem facing typical surround sound systems by localizing sounds for listeners in any location within a room. This improves reproduction accuracy of location-specific audio objects, including audio objects above or below a coplanar speaker configuration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An immersive sound system comprising:
one or more processors;
a storage device comprising instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to:
receive a surround sound audio input;
decompose a first subset of the surround sound audio input into a scene sound component specific to a room;
decompose a second subset of the surround sound audio input into a user sound component specific to a headphone user.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes instructions further configuring the one or more processors to:
decompose a plurality of audio objects to the scene sound component, each of the plurality of audio Objects including an associated audio object position; and
decompose a sound source to the user sound component, the sound source including a playback audio signal with an associated rendering method.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes instructions further configuring the one or more processors to:
decompose egocentric audio to the scene sound component, the egocentric audio including audio specific to each headphone user; and
decompose allocentric audio to the user sound component, the allocentric audio including audio specific to a room.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user sound component includes a moving sound object.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user sound component includes an elevated sound object, the elevated sound object having an associated position above a listener location.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user headphone includes stereo headphones, and wherein a head related transfer function (HRTF) is used to create a perception of surround sound from a location around the user headphone.

7. An immersive sound system method comprising:
receiving a surround sound audio input;
decomposing a first subset of the surround sound audio input into a scene sound component specific to a room; and
decomposing a second subset of the surround sound audio input into a user sound component specific to a headphone user.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes:
decomposing a plurality of audio objects to the scene sound component, each of the plurality of audio objects including an associated audio object position; and
decomposing a sound source to the user sound component, the sound source including a playback audio signal with an associated rendering method.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes:
decomposing egocentric audio to the scene sound component, the egocentric audio including audio specific to each headphone user; and
decomposing allocentric audio to the user sound component, the allocentric audio including audio specific to a room.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes:
decomposing diegetic audio to the scene sound component, the diegetic audio including audio visible on a video screen or implied to be present on a scene displayed on the video screen; and
decomposing non-diegetic audio to the user sound component, the non-di egetic audio not visible on the video screen or not implied to be present on the scene displayed on the video screen.

11. The method of claim 7 , further including:
outputting the scene sound component to a plurality of loudspeakers; and
outputting the user sound component to a user headphone.

12. The method of claim 7 , further including:
determining a plurality of audio channels associated with surround sound audio input, ach of the plurality of audio channels having an associated loudspeaker location;
receiving loudspeaker configuration information, the loudspeaker configuration information indicating the number and location of each of the plurality of loudspeakers;
identifying one or more unmatched channels based on a comparison between the plurality of audio channels and the loudspeaker configuration information; and
outputting the one or more unmatched channels to the user headphone.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the user sound component includes a moving sound object.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the user sound component includes an elevated sound object, the elevated sound object having an associated position above a listener location.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein the user headphone includes stereo headphones, and wherein a head related transfer function (FIRM is used to create a perception of surround sound from a location around the user headphone.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions that, when executed with a processor of a device, cause the device to:
receive a surround sound audio input;
decompose a first subset of the surround sound audio input into a scene sound component specific to a room; and
decompose a second subset of the surround sound audio input into a user sound component specific to a headphone user.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes instructions further causing the device to:
decompose a plurality of audio objects to the scene sound component, each of the plurality of audio objects including an associated audio object position; and
decompose a sound source to the user sound component, the sound source including a playback audio signal in a final mix with an associated rendering method.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes instructions further causing the device to:
decompose egocentric audio to the scene sound component, the egocentric audio including audio specific to each headphone user; and
decompose allocentric audio to the user sound component, the allocentric audio including audio specific to a room.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes instructions further causing the device to:
decompose diegetic audio to the scene sound component, the diegetic audio including audio visible on a video screen or implied to be present on a scene displayed on the video screen; and
decompose non-diegetic audio to the user sound component, the non-diegetic audio not visible on the video screen or not implied to be present on the scene displayed on the video screen.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the decomposition of the surround sound audio input includes instructions further causing the device to:
output the scene sound component to a plurality of loudspeakers; and
output the user sound component to a user headphone.

Assignees

• Dts Inc

Inventors

• Slack Brian

Classifications

• H04S7/308

  Electronic adaptation dependent on speaker or headphone connection · CPC title

• H04R2420/05

  Detection of connection of loudspeakers or headphones to amplifiers · CPC title

• H04S2420/01

  Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD] · CPC title

• H04S2400/11

  Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field (H04S2420/13 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04S2400/03

  Aspects of down-mixing multi-channel audio to configurations with lower numbers of playback channels, e.g. 7.1 -> 5.1 (H04S2400/01 takes precedence) · CPC title