Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited

Danjeli Schembri

Calum Armstrong

Fabio Cappello

Michael Lee Jones

Marina Villanueva Barreiro

Steven Osman

Oliver George Hume

Michael Eder

Hogarth Andall

Alexei Smith

Bee Lay Tan

Philip Cockram

Mark Jacobus Breugelmans

Mandana Jenabzadeh

Pritpal Singh Panesar

William Michael James Hollingsworth

Christopher Buchanan

Lewis Thresh

Jun Leung

Lewis Barn

Giacomo Costantini

A data processing apparatus includes circuitry configured to: receive a first signal indicative of one or more words communicated from a first user of online content to one or more second users of online content; classify the one or more words using the first signal; receive one or more second signals indicative of one or more physiological characteristics of the first user within a time period of a start of the communication of the one or more words; classify the one or more physiological characteristics using the one or more second signals; based on a classification of the one or more words and a classification of the one or more physiological characteristics, generate an action signal indicating that an action associated with the first user of the online content is to be taken, the action signal indicating a characteristic of the action determined based on a combination of the classification of the one or more words and the classification of the one or more physiological characteristics; and output the action signal.

Data processing apparatus and method

A data processing apparatus includes storage circuitry to store audio data for a plurality of respective dialogue recordings for a content and to store text data indicative of a sequence of respective words within the audio data for each of the plurality of respective dialogue recordings, analysis circuitry to compare the text data for a current dialogue recording with predetermined text data for the content and to output comparison data for the current dialogue recording, the comparison data indicative of one or more differences between the text data for the current dialogue recording and the predetermined text data, selection circuitry to select one or more candidate dialogue recordings from the plurality of respective dialogue recordings for the content in dependence upon the comparison data, and recording circuitry to modify at least a portion of the audio data for the current dialogue recording in dependence upon the audio data for one or more of the candidate dialogue recordings to obtain modified audio data and to store the modified audio data for the current dialogue recording.

Apparatus and method for analysis of audio recordings

A system for positioning objects within an environment includes: an input unit operable to receive data representative of at least a portion of an environment comprising one or more features associated with the environment; an object determining unit operable to identify, for one or more objects, one or more features associated with each respective object, and operable to determine which of the one or more objects are to be positioned within the environment; and an object positioning unit operable to position the one or more determined objects within the environment in dependence upon at least one of the features associated with the environment and at least one of the features associated with each respective determined object, where the object positioning unit is operable to utilise a machine learning model, trained using one or more examples of one or more other objects positioned within at least a portion of one or more other environments in dependence upon at least one feature associated with each respective other environment and at least one feature associated with each respective other object as an input, to position the one or more determined objects within the environment.

System and method for positioning objects within an environment

An audio personalisation method for a first user includes: testing a first user on a calibration test, the calibration test comprising requiring a user to match a test sound to a test location, either by controlling the position of the presented sound or controlling the position of the presented location, for a sequence of test matches, each test sound being presented at a position using a default head related transfer function 'HRTF', receiving an estimate of each matching location from the first user, and calculating a respective error for each estimate, to generate a sequence of location estimate errors for the first user; and comparing at least some of the location estimate errors for the first user with estimate errors of the same locations previously generated for at least a subset of a corpus of reference individuals; identifying a reference individual with the closest match of compared location estimation errors to those of the first user; and using an HRTF, previously obtained for the identified reference individual, for the first user.

Audio personalisation method and system

A data processing apparatus includes circuitry configured to: receive a first signal indicative of one or more words communicated from a first user of online content to one or more second users of online content; classify the one or more words using the first signal; receive one or more second signals indicative of one or more physiological characteristics of the one or more second users in response to the communicated one or more words; classify the one or more physiological characteristics of the one or more second users using the one or more second signals; determine, based on a classification of the one or more words and a classification of the one or more physiological characteristics of the one or more second users, whether to generate an action signal, the action signal indicating that an action associated with the first user of the online content is to be taken; and when it is determined an action signal is to be generated, generate and output the action signal.

A data processing apparatus comprising-includes circuitry configured to: receive one or more pairs of first and second frames of a video image to be output for display; determine a first value indicative of a brightness of one or more pixels of the first frame in each pair; determine a second value indicative of a brightness of a corresponding one or more pixels of the second frame in each pair; based on a difference between the first and second values of each pair, adjust a pixel value of the one or more pixels of the first frame in each pair or adjust a pixel value of the corresponding one or more pixels of the second frame in each pair to reduce the magnitude of the difference between the first and second values of each pair; and output the first and second frames of each pair with the adjusted pixel value of the one or more pixels of the first frame or with the adjusted pixel value of the corresponding one or more pixels of the second frame for display.

The invention provides techniques for intelligently positioning speech in a virtual environment. Factors such as user preferences, the location of virtual environment audio and/or visual events, avatar location, and others can be taken into account when selecting a suitable location for the speech. The virtual environment can be a game environment, a meeting environment, an augmented reality environment, a virtual reality environment, and the like. The invention can be implemented by an audio processing unit which may be part of a game console.

3D spatialisation of voice chat

A data processing apparatus includes input circuitry to receive audio data for a plurality of respective dialogue recordings for a video game, classification circuitry comprising one or more machine learning models to receive at least a portion of the audio data for each dialogue recording and trained to output classification data indicative of a quality classification of a dialogue recording in dependence upon one or more properties of the audio data for the dialogue recording, and storage circuitry to store identification data for one or more of the plurality of dialogue recordings in dependence upon the classification data.

Apparatus and method for audio data analysis

A system for determining the impulse response of an environment, the system comprising an audio emitting unit operable to emit a predetermined sound in the environment, an audio detection unit operable to record the sound output by the audio emitting unit, and an impulse response generation unit operable to identify an impulse response of the environment in dependence upon a frequency response of the audio emitting unit and/or the audio detection unit, and a difference between the predetermined sound and the recorded sound.

Impulse response generation system and method

A user input method includes the steps of inputting real events arising from a user acting as a spectator of content, analysing the real events to estimate user sentiment, and modifying an aspect of computer-controlled character behaviour in response to estimated user sentiment.

User input method and apparatus

A hearing aid that includes a microphone, a signal processor, and a speaker transmits a signal to a computer. The signal transmitted to the computer can be the input to the microphone (before processing) or the output to the speaker (after processing). This enables the capturing of a HRTF that does not or that does include the enhancements of the hearing aids.

Using Bluetooth / wireless hearing aids for personalized HRTF creation

An audio personalisation method for a user includes: testing the user with an audio test, the audio test comprising: moving a portable device, comprising a position tracking mechanism and a speaker, to a plurality of predetermined test positions relative to the user's head; when within a threshold distance of a predetermined test position, playing a test sound through the speaker of the portable device; and detecting the test sound using a microphone proximate to each of the user's ears, and associating resulting measurement data with the predetermined test position, where the resulting measurement data derived from the detected test sounds is characteristic of the user's head morphology; for a corpus of reference individuals for whom respective HRTFs have been generated, comparing the measurement data from the user's audio test or a head-related transfer function 'HRTF' derived from this measurement data with corresponding measurement data of some or all respective reference individuals in the corpus or HRTFs of some or all respective reference individuals in the corpus; identifying a reference individual whose measurement data or HRTF best matches the measurement data or HRTF from the user's audio test; and using the HRTF of the identified reference individual for the user.

A HRTF used for 3D spatialized audio is combined with, e.g., by concatenation, additional settings to provide a more comfortable, accessible, and enjoyable experience for a listener such as a player of a computer game listening to audio through a headset. A single transfer function is thus created that includes the other settings, and once the transfer function is computed the run-time processing can be treated as a single combined transfer function rather than multiple separate stages, resulting in computational savings. The additional settings pertain to hearing aids normally worn by the listener as well as a room-related function specific to a particular listening venue.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Danjeli Schembri