Apparatus and method for reproducing a spatially extended sound source or apparatus and method for generating a description for a spatially extended sound source using anchoring information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12238504-B2
Application number	US-202217811941-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2022
Priority date	Jan 14, 2020
Publication date	Feb 25, 2025
Grant date	Feb 25, 2025

Abstract

An apparatus for reproducing a spatially extended sound source having a defined position or orientation and geometry in a space has an interface for receiving a listener position. The apparatus having a projector for calculating a projection of a two- or three-dimensional hull associated with the sound source onto a projection plane using the listener position, information on the geometry of the sound source, and on the position of the sound source; a sound position calculator for calculating positions of at least two sound sources for the spatially extended sound source using the projection plane; and a renderer for rendering the at least two sound sources at the positions to obtain a reproduction of the sound source having two or more output signals, configured to use different sound signals for the different positions.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for reproducing a spatially extended sound source comprising a defined position or orientation and geometry in a space, the apparatus comprising:
an interface configured for receiving a listener position;
a projector configured for calculating a projection of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional hull associated with the spatially extended sound source onto a projection plane using the listener position, information on the geometry of the spatially extended sound source, and information on the position of the spatially extended sound source;
a sound position calculator configured for calculating positions of at least two sound sources for the spatially extended sound source using the projection plane; and
a renderer configured for rendering the at least two sound sources at the positions to acquire a reproduction of the spatially extended sound source comprising two or more output signals, wherein the renderer is configured to use different sound signals for the different positions, wherein the different sound signals are associated with the spatially extended sound source,
wherein the renderer is configured for rendering the at least two sound sources relative to a fixed location and/or orientation of the spatially extended sound source in response to a specific information received.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
further comprising a detector is configured to detect a momentary listener position in the space using a tracking system, or wherein the interface is configured for using position data input via the interface.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , configured for receiving a scene description, the scene description comprising the information on the defined position or orientation and the information on the defined geometry of the spatially extended sound source, and at least one basis sound signal associated with the spatially extended sound source,
wherein the apparatus further comprises a scene description parser configured for parsing the scene description to retrieve the information on the defined position or orientation, the information on the defined geometry and the at least one basis sound signal, or
wherein the scene description comprises, for the spatially extended sound source, at least two basis sound signals of the at least two basis sound signals and location information for each basis sound signal with respect to the information on the geometry of the spatially extended sound source, and wherein the sound position calculator is configured to use the location information for the at least two basis sound signals when calculating the positions of the at least two sound sources using the projection plane.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the projector is configured to compute the hull of the spatially extended sound source using the information on the geometry of the spatially extended sound source and to project the hull in a direction towards the listener using the listener position or orientation to acquire the projection of the two-dimensional or three-dimensional hull onto the projection plane, or
wherein the projector is configured to project a geometry of the spatially extended sound source as defined by the information on the geometry of the spatially extended sound source in a direction towards to the listener position and to calculate the hull of a projected geometry to acquire the projection of the two-dimensional or three-dimensional hull onto the projection plane.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the sound position calculator is configured to calculate the sound source positions in the space from hull projection data and the listener position.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the sound position calculator is configured to calculate the positions so that the at least two sound sources are peripheral sound sources and are located on the projection plane, or
wherein the sound position calculator is configured for calculating such that a position of a peripheral sound source of the peripheral sound sources is located on the right of the projection plane with respect to the listener and/or to the left of the projection plane with respect to the listener, and/or on top of the projection plane with respect to the listener and/or at the bottom of the projection plane with respect to the listener.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the renderer is configured to render the at least two sound sources using panning operations depending on the positions of the sound sources to acquire loudspeaker signals for a predefined loudspeaker setup, or
binaural rendering operations using head related transfer functions depending on the positions of the sources to acquire headphone signals.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein a first number of basis source signals is associated with the spatially extended sound source, the first number being one or greater than one, wherein the first number of basis source signals is related to the same spatially extended sound source,
wherein the sound position calculator determines a second number of sound sources used for the rendering of the spatially extended sound source, the second number being greater than one, and
wherein the renderer comprises one or more decorrelators for generating a decorrelated signal from one or more basis source signals of the first number, wherein the second number is greater than the first number.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the interface is configured to receive a time-varying position of the listener in the space,
wherein the projector is configured to calculate a time-varying projection in the space,
wherein the sound position calculator is configured to calculate a time-varying number of sound sources or time-varying positions of the sound sources in the space, and
wherein the renderer is configured to render the time varying number of sound sources or the at least two sound sources at the time varying positions in the space as the different sound signals.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the interface is configured to receive the listener position in six degrees of freedom, and
wherein the projector is configured to calculate the projection depending on the six degrees of freedom.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the projector is configured
to calculate the projection as a picture plane such as a plane perpendicular to a sight line of the listener, the picture plane being the projection plane, or
to calculate the projection as a spherical surface around a head of the listener, the spherical surface being the projection plane, or
to calculate the projection as the projection plane being located at a predetermined distance from a center of the listener's head, or
to calculate, as the projection plane, the projection of the hull of the spatially extended sound source from an azimuth angle and an elevation angle being derived from spherical coordinates relative to the perspective of a listener's head, the hull being a convex hull.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the sound position calculator is configured to calculate the positions so that the positions are uniformly distributed around the projection of the hull, or so that the positions are placed at extremal or peripheral points of the hull projection, or so that the positions are located at horizontal or vertical extremal or peripheral points of the projection of the hull.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the sound position calculator is configured to determine, in addition to positions for peripheral sound sources, positions for auxiliary sound sources located on or before or behind or within the p

Assignees

• Fraunhofer Ges Forschung

Inventors

• Herre Jürgen
• Adami Alexander
• Wefers Frank

Classifications

• H04S2400/01

  Multi-channel, i.e. more than two input channels, sound reproduction with two speakers wherein the multi-channel information is substantially preserved · CPC title

• H04S2420/03

  Application of parametric coding in stereophonic audio systems · 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

• H04S2400/13

  Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in stereophonic sound systems · CPC title

• H04S2400/11

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