Methods, systems, and computer readable media for conducting interactive sound propagation and rendering for a plurality of sound sources in a virtual environment scene

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9977644-B2
Application number	US-201514812785-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2015
Priority date	Jul 29, 2014
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for conducting interactive sound propagation and rending for a plurality of sound sources in a virtual environment scene are disclosed. According to one method, the method includes decomposing a virtual environment scene containing a plurality of sound sources into a plurality of partitions and forming a plurality of source group clusters, wherein each of the source group clusters includes two or more of the sound sources located within a common partition. The method further includes determining, for each of the source group clusters, a single set of sound propagation paths relative to a listener position and generating a simulated output sound at a listener position using sound intensities associated with the determined sets of sound propagation paths.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for conducting interactive sound propagation and rendering for a plurality of sound sources in a virtual environment scene, the method comprising:
decomposing a virtual environment scene containing a plurality of sound sources into a plurality of partitions;
forming a plurality of source group clusters, wherein each of the source group clusters includes two or more of the sound sources located within a common partition;
determining, for each of the source group clusters, a single set of sound propagation paths relative to a listener position;
generating a simulated output sound at a listener position using sound intensities associated with the determined sets of sound propagation paths, wherein generating a simulated output sound includes sorting each of the sound propagation paths based on an amount of Doppler shifting exhibited by the sound propagation path; and
rendering a sound intensity using fractional delay line interpolation on a first group of the sound propagation paths that exhibits an amount of Doppler shifting that exceeds a predefined threshold.

2. A method for conducting interactive sound propagation and rendering for a plurality of sound sources in a virtual environment scene, the method comprising:
decomposing a virtual environment scene containing a plurality of sound sources into a plurality of partitions;
forming a plurality of source group clusters, wherein each of the source group clusters includes two or more of the sound sources located within a common partition;
determining, for each of the source group clusters, a single set of sound propagation paths relative to a listener position;
generating a simulated output sound at a listener position using sound intensities associated with the determined sets of sound propagation paths, wherein generating a simulated output sound includes sorting each of the sound propagation paths based on an amount of Doppler shifting exhibited by the sound propagation path; and
rendering a sound intensity using a partitioned block convolution algorithm on a second group of the sound propagation paths that exhibits an amount of Doppler shifting that fails to exceed a predefined threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the sound sources are formed into source group clusters based on a location relative to the listener position.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the simulated output sound includes specular and diffuse reflections that are determined by tracing rays backwards from the listener position to at least one of the sound sources.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the plurality of source group clusters includes merging two or more source group clusters into a single merged source group cluster.

6. A system for conducting interactive sound propagation and rendering for a plurality of sound sources in a virtual environment scene, the system comprising:
a processor;
a scene decomposition module (SDM) executable by the processor, the SDM is configured to decompose a virtual environment scene containing a plurality of sound sources into a plurality of partitions;
a sound source clustering (SSC) module executable by the processor, the SSC module is configured to:
form a plurality of source group clusters, wherein each of the source group clusters includes two or more of the sound sources located within a common partition; and
determine, for each of the source group clusters, a single set of sound propagation paths relative to a listener position; and

a hybrid convolution audio rendering (HCAR) module executable by the processor, the HCAR module is configured to:
generate a simulated output sound at a listener position using sound intensities associated with the determined sets of sound propagation paths by sorting each of the sound propagation paths based on an amount of Doppler shifting exhibited by the sound propagation path, and
render a sound intensity using fractional delay line interpolation on a first group of the sound propagation paths that exhibits an amount of Doppler shifting that exceeds a predefined threshold.

7. A system for conducting interactive sound propagation and rendering for a plurality of sound sources in a virtual environment scene, the system comprising:
a processor;
a scene decomposition module (SDM) executable by the processor, the SDM is configured to decompose a virtual environment scene containing a plurality of sound sources into a plurality of partitions;
a sound source clustering (SSC) module executable by the processor, the SSC module is configured to:
form a plurality of source group clusters, wherein each of the source group clusters includes two or more of the sound sources located within a common partition; and
determine, for each of the source group clusters, a single set of sound propagation paths relative to a listener position; and

a hybrid convolution audio rendering (HCAR) module executable by the processor, the HCAR module is configured to:
generate a simulated output sound at a listener position using sound intensities associated with the determined sets of sound propagation paths by sorting each of the sound propagation paths based on an amount of Doppler shifting exhibited by the sound propagation path; and
render a sound intensity using a partitioned block convolution algorithm on a second group of the sound propagation paths that exhibits an amount of Doppler shifting that fails to exceed a predefined threshold.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the sound sources are formed into source group clusters based on a location relative to the listener position.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the simulated output sound includes specular and diffuse reflections that are determined by tracing rays backwards from the listener position to at least one of the sound sources.

10. The system of claim 6 wherein the SSC module is further configured to merging two or more source group clusters into a single merged source group cluster.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by a processor of a computer cause the computer to perform steps comprising:
decomposing a virtual environment scene containing a plurality of sound sources into a plurality of partitions;
forming a plurality of source group clusters, wherein each of the source group clusters includes two or more of the sound sources located within a common partition;
determining, for each of the source group clusters, a single set of sound propagation paths relative to a listener position;
generating a simulated output sound at a listener position using sound intensities associated with the determined sets of sound propagation paths, wherein generating a simulated output sound includes sorting each of the sound propagation paths based on an amount of Doppler shifting exhibited by the sound propagation path; and
rendering a sound intensity using fractional delay line interpolation on a first group of the sound propagation paths that exhibits an amount of Doppler shifting that exceeds a predefined threshold.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions that when executed by a processor of a computer cause the computer to perform steps comprising:
decomposing a virtual environment scene containing a plurality of sound sources into a plurality of partitions;
forming a plurality of source group clusters, wherein each of the source group clusters includes two or more of the sound sources located within a common partition;
determining, for each of the source group clusters, a single set of sound propagation paths relative to a listener position

Assignees

• Univ North Carolina Chapel Hill

Inventors

• Schissler Carl Henry
• Manocha Dinesh

Classifications

• H04S2420/07

  Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing · CPC title

• H04R27/00 Primary

  Public address systems (circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; {monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007}; amplifiers H03F) · CPC title

• H04S7/30

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

• H04S7/302

  Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation (H04S7/301 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/165 Primary

  Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path · CPC title