Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation

Dolby International Ab

Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd.

Nicolas R Tsingos

Charles Quito Robinson

Antonio Mateos Sole

Christophe Chabanne

Dirk Jeroen Breebaart

Freddie Sanchez

Remi Samuel Audfray

Jurgen W Scharpf

Lie Lu

C Phillip Brown

Alan Jeffrey Seefeldt

Rhonda J Wilson

Sunil Bharitkar

David S McGrath

Sripal S Mehta

Heiko Purnhagen

Christof Fersch

Thomas Ziegler

Prinyar Saungsomboon

Farhad Farahani

Robert Andrew France

Andrew Jonathan Dowell

Michael David Dwyer

Mark Franklin Davis

Lianwu Chen

Mark R P Thomas

Brett Graham Crockett

Scott Levine

Stephen Morris

Pradeep Kumar Govindaraju

Ming Wang

Scott J Daly

Jeffrey R Baker

Toni Hirvonen

Giulio Cengarle

Mingqing Hu

Dossym Nurmukhanov

Poppy Anne Carrie Crum

Vivek Kumar

Spencer Hooks

Patrick Griffis

S Spencer Hooks

Ian Eric Esten

Micah Taylor

Brian George Arnott

Mark Tuffy

Zachary Gideon Cohen

Stanley G Cossette

Dirk Jeroen Breebart

Louise D Fielder

Daniel Paul Darcy

Satej Suresh Pankey

Vimal Puthanveed

An apparatus and method of rendering audio. A binaural signal is split on an amplitude weighting basis into a front binaural signal and a rear binaural signal, based on perceived position information of the audio. In this manner, the front-back differentiation of the binaural signal is improved.

Rendering binaural audio over multiple near field transducers

Embodiments are described for an adaptive audio system that processes audio data comprising a number of independent monophonic audio streams. One or more of the streams has associated with it metadata that specifies whether the stream is a channel-based or object-based stream. Channel-based streams have rendering information encoded by means of channel name; and the object-based streams have location information encoded through location expressions encoded in the associated metadata. A codec packages the independent audio streams into a single serial bitstream that contains all of the audio data. This configuration allows for the sound to be rendered according to an allocentric frame of reference, in which the rendering location of a sound is based on the characteristics of the playback environment (e.g., room size, shape, etc.) to correspond to the mixer's intent. The object position metadata contains the appropriate allocentric frame of reference information required to play the sound correctly using the available speaker positions in a room that is set up to play the adaptive audio content.

System and method for adaptive audio signal generation, coding and rendering

Multiple virtual source locations may be defined for a volume within which audio objects can move. A set-up process for rendering audio data may involve receiving reproduction speaker location data and pre-computing gain values for each of the virtual sources according to the reproduction speaker location data and each virtual source location. The gain values may be stored and used during 'run time,' during which audio reproduction data are rendered for the speakers of the reproduction environment. During run time, for each audio object, contributions from virtual source locations within an area or volume defined by the audio object position data and the audio object size data may be computed. A set of gain values for each output channel of the reproduction environment may be computed based, at least in part, on the computed contributions. Each output channel may correspond to at least one reproduction speaker of the reproduction environment.

Methods and apparatus for rendering audio objects

Some disclosed methods involve encoding or decoding directional audio data. Some encoding methods may involve receiving a mono audio signal corresponding to an audio object and a representation of a radiation pattern corresponding to the audio object. The radiation pattern may include sound levels corresponding to plurality of sample times, a plurality of frequency bands and a plurality of directions. The methods may involve encoding the mono audio signal and encoding the source radiation pattern to determine radiation pattern metadata. Encoding the radiation pattern may involve determining a spherical harmonic transform of the representation of the radiation pattern and compressing the spherical harmonic transform to obtain encoded radiation pattern metadata.

Methods, apparatus and systems for encoding and decoding of directional sound sources

Methods for generating an object based audio program which is renderable in a personalizable manner, e.g., to provide an immersive, perception of audio content of the program. Other embodiments include steps of delivering (e.g., broadcasting), decoding, and/or rendering such a program. Rendering of audio objects indicated by the program may provide an immersive experience. The audio content of the program may be indicative of multiple object channels (e.g., object channels indicative of user-selectable and user-configurable objects, and typically also a default set of objects which will be rendered in the absence of a selection by a user) and a bed of speaker channels. Another aspect is an audio processing unit (e.g., encoder or decoder) configured to perform, or which includes a buffer memory which stores at least one frame (or other segment) of an object based audio program (or bitstream thereof) generated in accordance with, any embodiment of the method.

Methods and systems for interactive rendering of object based audio

Embodiments are disclosed for hybrid near/far-field speaker virtualization. In an embodiment, a method comprises: receiving a source signal including channel-based audio or audio objects; generating near-field gain(s) and far-field gain(s) based on the source signal and a blending mode; generating a far-field signal based, at least in part, on the source signal and the far-field gain(s); rendering, using a speaker virtualizer, the far-field signal for playback of far-field acoustic audio through far-field speakers into an audio reproduction environment; generating a near-field signal based at least in part on the source signal and the near-field gain(s); prior to providing the far-field signal to the far-field speakers, sending the near-field signal to a near-field playback device or an intermediate device coupled to the near-field playback device; providing the far-field signal to the far-field speakers; and providing the near-field signal to the near-field speakers to synchronously overlay the far-field acoustic audio.

Method, systems and apparatus for hybrid near/far virtualization for enhanced consumer surround sound

Audio perception in local proximity to visual cues is provided. A device includes a video display, first row of audio transducers, and second row of audio transducers. The first and second rows can be vertically disposed above and below the video display. An audio transducer of the first row and an audio transducer of the second row form a column to produce, in concert, an audible signal. The perceived emanation of the audible signal is from a plane of the video display (e.g., a location of a visual cue) by weighing outputs of the audio transducers of the column. In certain embodiments, the audio transducers are spaced farther apart at a periphery for increased fidelity in a center portion of the plane and less fidelity at the periphery.

Methods, apparatus and systems for audio reproduction

The present invention is directed to systems, methods and apparatus for processing media content for reproduction by a first apparatus. The method includes obtaining pose information indicative of a position and/or orientation of a user. The pose information is transmitted to a second apparatus that provides the media content. The media content is rendered based on the pose information to obtain rendered media content. The rendered media content is transmitted to the first apparatus for reproduction. The present invention may include a first apparatus for reproducing media content and a second apparatus storing the media content. The first apparatus is configured to obtain pose information indicative and transmit the pose information to the second apparatus; and the second apparatus is adapted to: render the media content based on the pose information to obtain rendered media content; and transmit the rendered media content to the first apparatus for reproduction.

Methods, apparatus and systems for optimizing communication between sender(s) and receiver(s) in computer-mediated reality applications

Diffuse or spatially large audio objects may be identified for special processing. A decorrelation process may be performed on audio signals corresponding to the large audio objects to produce decorrelated large audio object audio signals. These decorrelated large audio object audio signals may be associated with object locations, which may be stationary or time-varying locations. For example, the decorrelated large audio object audio signals may be rendered to virtual or actual speaker locations. The output of such a rendering process may be input to a scene simplification process. The decorrelation, associating and/or scene simplification processes may be performed prior to a process of encoding the audio data.

Method, apparatus or systems for processing audio objects

The positions of a plurality of speakers at a media consumption site are determined. Audio information in an object-based format is received. Gain adjustment value for a sound content portion in the object-based format may be determined based on the position of the sound content portion and the positions of the plurality of speakers. Audio information in a ring-based channel format is received. Gain adjustment value for each ring-based channel in a set of ring-based channels may be determined based on the ring to which the ring-based channel belongs and the positions of the speakers at a media consumption site.

Methods, apparatus and systems for position-based gain adjustment of object-based audio

Embodiments are described for a method of rendering audio for playback through headphones comprising receiving digital audio content, receiving binaural rendering metadata generated by an authoring tool processing the received digital audio content, receiving playback metadata generated by a playback device, and combining the binaural rendering metadata and playback metadata to optimize playback of the digital audio content through the headphones.

Binaural rendering for headphones using metadata processing

Improved tools for authoring and rendering audio reproduction data are provided. Some such authoring tools allow audio reproduction data to be generalized for a wide variety of reproduction environments. Audio reproduction data may be authored by creating metadata for audio objects. The metadata may be created with reference to speaker zones. During the rendering process, the audio reproduction data may be reproduced according to the reproduction speaker layout of a particular reproduction environment.

System and tools for enhanced 3D audio authoring and rendering

Described herein is a method () of rendering an audio signal () for playback in an audio environment () defined by a target loudspeaker system (), the audio signal () including audio data relating to an audio object and associated position data indicative of an object position. Method () includes the initial step () of receiving the audio signal (). At step () loudspeaker layout data for the target loudspeaker system () is received. At step () control data is received that is indicative of a position modification to be applied to the audio object in the audio environment (). At step () in response to the position data, loudspeaker layout data and control data, rendering modification data is generated. Finally, at step () the audio signal () is rendered with the rendering modification data to output the audio signal () with the audio object at a modified object position that is between loudspeakers within the audio environment ().

Spatial audio signal manipulation

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Nicolas R Tsingos