Audio spatial rendering apparatus and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9854378-B2
Application number	US-201414768676-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 30, 2014
Priority date	Feb 22, 2013
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

An audio spatial rendering apparatus and method are disclosed. In one embodiment, The audio spatial rendering apparatus includes a rendering unit for spatially rendering an audio stream so that the reproduced far-end sound is perceived by a listener as originating from at least one virtual spatial position, a real position obtaining unit for obtaining a real spatial position of a real sound source, a comparator for comparing the real spatial position with the at least one virtual spatial position; and an adjusting unit for, where the real spatial position is within a predetermined range around at least one virtual spatial position, or vice versa, adjusting the parameters of the rendering unit so that the at least one virtual spatial position is changed.

First claim

We claim:

1. An audio spatial rendering apparatus comprising:
a rendering unit for spatially rendering an audio stream so that the reproduced far-end sound is perceived by a listener as originating from at least one virtual spatial position;
a real position obtaining unit for obtaining a real spatial position of a real sound source;
a comparator for comparing the real spatial position with the at least one virtual spatial position; and
an adjusting unit for, when the real spatial position is within a first predetermined range around at least one virtual spatial position, or vice versa, adjusting the parameters of the rendering unit so that the at least one virtual spatial position is changed, wherein the adjusting unit is configured not to adjust the parameters of the rendering unit when the real spatial position is inside a second predetermined range of a near-end microphone array.

2. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the adjusting unit is configured to adjust the parameters of the rendering unit so that the at least one virtual spatial position is rotated around the listener away from the virtual spatial position, and/or the at least one virtual spatial position is moved to a position closer to the listener.

3. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the real position obtaining unit, the comparator and the adjusting unit are configured to work in a calibration stage of the audio spatial rendering apparatus or in real time.

4. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a sound activity detector for detecting the start and end of a far-end sound in the audio stream, wherein the real position obtaining unit and/or the adjusting unit is configured to work when there is no far-end sound.

5. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the sound activity detector comprises a voice activity detector, and the real position obtaining unit and/or the adjusting unit is configured to work when there is no far-end speech.

6. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an energy estimator for estimating the energy of the real sound source, wherein the adjusting unit is configured not to adjust the parameters of the rendering unit when the estimated energy is higher than a predetermined threshold.

7. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a timer for determining a length of time of the lasting of the real sound source, wherein the adjusting unit is configured not to adjust the parameters of the rendering unit when the length of time is less than a predetermined threshold.

8. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rendering unit is configured to spatially render the audio stream based on a head-related transfer function and/or an inter-aural time difference and/or an inter-aural intensity difference.

9. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the rendering unit is further configured to spatially render the audio stream based on ratio of direct-to-reverberation energy.

10. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the real position obtaining unit comprises a microphone array and is configured to estimate the real spatial position of the real sound source based on sounds captured by the microphone array and using a direction-of-arrival algorithm.

11. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the real position obtaining unit is configured to estimate the real spatial position of the real sound source using a generalized cross correlation-phase transform (GCC-PHAT) algorithm.

12. The audio spatial rendering apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the real position obtaining unit comprises an input unit via which the real spatial position of the real sound source is input.

13. An audio spatial rendering method comprising:
obtaining at least one virtual spatial position from which a reproduced far-end sound to be spatially rendered from an audio stream is perceived by a listener as originating;
obtaining a real spatial position of a real sound source;
comparing the real spatial position with the at least one virtual spatial position;
adjusting, when the real spatial position is within a first predetermined range around at least one virtual spatial position, or vice versa, adjusting the parameters of the rendering unit so that the at least one virtual spatial position is changed, wherein the adjusting unit is configured not to adjust the parameters of the rendering unit when the real spatial position is inside a second predetermined range of a near-end microphone array; and
spatially rendering the audio stream based on the parameters.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer program instructions recorded thereon, when being executed by a processor, the instructions enabling the processor to execute an audio spatial rendering method comprising:
obtaining at least one virtual spatial position from which a reproduced far-end sound to be spatially rendered from an audio stream is perceived by a listener as originating;
obtaining a real spatial position of a real sound source;
comparing the real spatial position with the at least one virtual spatial position;
adjusting, when the real spatial position is within a first predetermined range around at least one virtual spatial position, or vice versa, adjusting the parameters of the rendering unit so that the at least one virtual spatial position is changed, wherein the adjusting unit is configured not to adjust the parameters of the rendering unit when the real spatial position is inside a second predetermined range of a near-end microphone array; and
spatially rendering the audio stream based on the parameters.

Assignees

• Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp

Inventors

• Sun Xuejing
• Spittle Gary

Classifications

• 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

• H04S7/30 Primary

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