Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation

Michael P Hollier

Gary Spittle

Michael Eckert

Xuejing Sun

Richard James Cartwright

A method for processing audio data, the method comprising: receiving audio data corresponding to a plurality of instances of audio, including at least one of: (a) audio data from multiple endpoints, recorded separately or (b) audio data from a single endpoint corresponding to multiple talkers and including spatial information for each of the multiple talkers; rendering the audio data in a virtual acoustic space such that each of the instances of audio has a respective different virtual position in the virtual acoustic space; and scheduling the instances of audio to be played back with a playback overlap between at least two of the instances of audio, wherein the scheduling is performed, at least in part, according to a set of perceptually-motivated rules.

Scheduling playback of audio in a virtual acoustic space

The present document relates to setting up and managing two-dimensional or three-dimensional scenes for audio conferences. A conference controller () configured to place an upstream audio signal () associated with a conference participant within a 2D or 3D conference scene to be rendered to a listener () is described. An X-point conference scene with X different spatial talker locations () is set up within the conference scene, wherein the X talker locations () are positioned within a cone around a midline () in front of a head of the listener (). A generatrix () of the cone and the midline () form an angle which is smaller than or equal to a pre-determined maximum cone angle. The upstream audio signal () is assigned to one of the talker locations () and metadata identifying the assigned talker location () are generated, thus enabling a spatialized audio signal.

Placement of talkers in 2D or 3D conference scene

A conference controller () configured to place an upstream audio signal () associated with a conference participant and a sound signal within a 2D or 3D conference scene to be rendered to a listener () is described. The conference controller () is configured to set up a X-point conference scene with X different spatial talker locations () within the conference scene, X being an integer, X&#x3e;0; assign the upstream audio signal () to one of the talker locations (); place a sound signal at a spatial sound location () within the X-point conference scene; and generate metadata identifying the assigned talker location () and the spatial sound location and enabling an audio processing unit () to generate a spatialized audio signal based on a set of downstream audio signals () comprising the upstream audio signal () and the sound signal.

Placement of sound signals in a 2D or 3D audio conference

From a plurality of received voice signals, a signal interval in which there is a talker collision between at least a first and a second voice signal is detected. A processor receives a positive detection result and processes, in response to this, at least one of the voice signals with the aim of making it perceptually distinguishable. A mixer mixes the voice signals to supply an output signal, wherein the processed signal(s) replaces the corresponding received signals. In example embodiments, signal content is shifted away from the talker collision in frequency or in time. The invention may be useful in a conferencing system.

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San Carlos, CA, United States of America

Michael P Hollier