Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Oliver George Hume

Fabio Cappello

Matthew William Sanders

Timothy Edward Bradley

Marina Villanueva-Barreiro

Maria Chiara Monti

Danjeli Schembri

Michael Lee Jones

Michael Eder

Marina Villanueva Barreiro

Jason Craig Millson

Patrick John Connor

Nigel John Williams

David Erwan Damien Uberti

Colin Jonathan Hughes

Scott Wardle

Mark Jacobus Breugelmans

Mandana Jenabzadeh

Robert Keith John Withey

Hogarth Andall

Michael Karl Werle

Stephen Anthony Hack

Richard Downey

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

A user input device includes an optical window facing onto a region of skin of the user when the user input device is in normal use, a monochromatic light source arranged to emit light through the optical window, a spectral dispersal unit adapted to disperse the spectrum of light reflected back from the region of skin of the user, the reflected light no longer being wholly monochromatic due to Raman scattering, and a light sensor operable to detect at least some of the dispersed spectrum of light and output corresponding light data.

Biometric system and method

An image processing system for modifying one or more images of a user to change a cardiovascular activity that is measurable from the one or more images, the system comprising: an image receiving section configured to receive image data comprising a plurality of image frames; a region selection section configured to select one or more regions where the colour of the skin of the user changes temporally in the image data, wherein the colour changes are indicative of the cardiovascular activity of the user; and a modifying section configured to modify the colour change of the one or more selected regions in one or more image frames to create modified image data, as described elsewhere herein.

Image processing system and method

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

A display modification system for use with a display device, including a camera operable to capture images of at least a portion of the display device, an image analysis unit operable to derive the value of one or more parameters associated with the display of images by the display device in dependence upon the captured images, a modification determination unit operable to determine a modification to be applied to a content display process associated with the display device, where the modification includes changes to a content rendering process for generating content to be displayed by the display device and/or one or more display settings associated with the display device, and a modification communication unit operable to transmit information identifying the determined modification to one or both of the display device and a processing device operable to render content for display by the display device.

Display modification system and method

A content modification system comprising a content receiving unit operable to receive content comprising a virtual environment and one or more active elements, an input receiving unit operable to receive inputs from one or more users, an element addition unit operable to generate one or more virtual elements within the virtual environment in response to the received inputs, the virtual elements being unable to be interacted with by the one or more active elements, and a content generation unit operable to generate modified content comprising the virtual environment, the one or more active elements, and the one or more generated virtual elements.

Content enhancement system and method

An encoding apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises an input unit operable to obtain a plurality of training images, said training images being for use in training a machine learning model. The apparatus also comprises a label unit operable to obtain a class label associated with the training images; and a key unit operable to obtain a secret key for use in encoding the training images. The apparatus further comprises an image noise generator operable to generate, based on the obtained secret key, noise for introducing into the training images. The image noise generator is configured to generate noise that correlates with the class label associated with the training images such that a machine learning model subsequently trained with the modified training images learns to associate the introduced noise with the class label for those images. A corresponding decoding apparatus is also provided.

Encoding and decoding apparatus

A content generation system, the system comprising an input obtaining unit operable to obtain one or more samples of input text and/or audio relating to a first content, an input analysis unit operable to generate n-grams representing one or more elements of the obtained inputs, a representation generating unit operable to generate a visual representation of one or more of the generated n-grams, and a display generation unit operable to generate second content comprising one or more elements of the visual representation in association with the first content.

Content generation system and method

A data processing apparatus includes input circuitry to receive viewpoint data indicative of respective viewpoints for a plurality of spectators of a virtual environment, detection circuitry to detect a portion of the virtual environment viewed by each of the respective viewpoints in dependence upon the viewpoint data, selection circuitry to select one or more regions of the virtual environment in dependence upon at least some of the detected portions, and output circuitry to output data indicative of one or more of the selected regions.

Apparatus and method for data aggregation

A system for generating audio content in dependence upon an input audio track comprising audio corresponding to one or more sound sources, the system comprising an audio input unit operable to input the input audio track to one or more models, each representing one or more of the sound sources, and an audio generation unit operable to generate, using the one or more models, one or more audio tracks each comprising a representation of the audio contribution of the corresponding sound sources of the input audio track, wherein the generated audio tracks comprise one or more variations relative to the corresponding portion of the input audio track.

Audio generation system and method

A method of obtaining a head-related transfer function for a user is provided. The method comprises generating an audio signal for output by a handheld device and outputting the generated audio signal at a plurality of locations by moving the handheld device to those locations. The audio output by the handheld device is detected at left-ear and right-ear microphones. A pose of the handheld device relative to the user's head is determined for at least some of the locations. One or more personalised HRTF features are then determined based on the detected audio and corresponding determined poses of the handheld device. The one or more personalised HRTF features are then mapped to a higher-quality HRTF for the user, wherein the higher-quality HRTF corresponds to an HRTF measured in an anechoic environment. This mapping may be learned using machine learning, for example. A corresponding system is also provided.

Method and system for generating an HRTF for a user

A method of determining blending coefficients for respective animations includes: obtaining animation data, the animation data defining at least two different animations that are at least in part to be simultaneously applied to the animated object, each animation comprising a plurality of frames; obtaining corresponding video game data, the video game data comprising an in-game state of the object; inputting the animation data and video game data into a machine learning model, the machine learning model being trained to determine, based on the animation data and corresponding video game data, a blending coefficient for each of the animations in the animation data; determining, based on the output of the machine learning model, one or more blending coefficients for at least one of the animations, the or each blending coefficient defining a relative weighting with which each animation is to be applied to the animated object; and blending the at least simultaneously applied part of the two animations using the or each determined blending coefficient, the contribution from each of the at least two animations being in accordance with the or each determined blending coefficient.

Method and system for determining blending coefficients

A system for determining prioritisation values for two or more sounds within an audio clip includes: a feature extraction unit operable to extract characteristic features from the two or more sounds, a feature combination unit operable to generate a combined mix comprising extracted features from the two or more sounds, an audio assessment unit operable to identify the contribution of one or more of the features to the combined mix, a feature classification unit operable to assign a saliency score to each of the features in the combined mix, and an audio prioritisation unit operable to determine relative priority values for the two or more sounds in dependence upon the assigned saliency scores for each of one or more features of the sounds.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Oliver George Hume