Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Marina Villanueva Barreiro

Fabio Cappello

Calum Armstrong

Danjeli Schembri

Michael Lee Jones

Alexei Smith

Oliver George Hume

Andrew James Bigos

Timothy Edward Bradley

Matthew William Sanders

Gilles Christian Rainer

Audio communication apparatus comprises a set of two or more audio communication nodes; each audio communication node comprising: an audio encoder controlled by encoding parameters to generate encoded audio data to represent a vocal input generated by a user of that audio communication node, the encoded data being agnostic to which user who generated the vocal input; and an audio decoder controlled by decoding parameters to generate a decoded audio signal as a reproduction of a vocal signal generated by a user of another of the audio communication nodes, the decoding parameters being specific to the user of that other of the audio communication nodes.

Audio processing

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

An image rendering method for rendering a pixel at a viewpoint includes, for a first element of a virtual scene, having a predetermined surface at a position within that scene; providing the position and a direction based on the viewpoint to a machine learning system previously trained to predict a factor that, when combined with a distribution function that characterises an interaction of light with the predetermined surface, generates a pixel value corresponding to the first element of the virtual scene as illuminated at the position, combining the predicted factor from the machine learning system with the distribution function to generate the pixel value corresponding to the illuminated first element of the virtual scene at the position, and incorporating the pixel value into a rendered image for display, where the machine learning system was previously trained with a training set based on images comprising multiple lighting conditions.

Image rendering method and apparatus

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

An image rendering method for rendering a pixel of a virtual scene at a viewpoint includes: downloading a machine learning system corresponding to a current or anticipated state an application determining the virtual scene to be rendered from among a plurality of machine learning systems corresponding to a plurality of states of the application; providing a position and a direction based on the viewpoint to the machine learning system previously trained to predict a factor; combining the predicted factor from the machine learning system with a distribution function that characterises an interaction of light with a predetermined surface to generate the pixel value corresponding to an illuminated first element of the virtual scene at the position; and incorporating the pixel value into a rendered image for display.

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.

Audio personalisation method and system

An audio personalisation method for a user, to reproduce an area-based or volumetric sound source, includes the steps of, for a head related transfer function 'HRTF' associated with the user, smoothing HRTF coefficients relating to peaks and notches in the HRTF's spectral response, responsive to the size of the area or volume of the sound source; filtering the sound source using the smoothed HRTF for the notional position of the sound source; and outputting the filtered sound source signal for playback to the user.

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Acoru{hacek over (n)}a, Spain

Marina Villanueva Barreiro