Dts, Inc.

Oveal Jerome Walker

Themis George Katsianos

Daekyoung Noh

Jean-Marc Jot

James Tracey

Ryan James Cassidy

The directivity of a loudspeaker describes how sound produced by the speaker varies with angle and frequency. Low-frequency sound tends to be relatively omnidirectional, while high-frequency sound tends to be more strongly directional. Because the two ears of a listener are in different spatial positions, the direction-dependent performance of the speakers can produce unwanted differences in volume or spectral content between the two ears. For example, high-frequency sounds may appear to be muffled in one ear, compared to the other. A multi-speaker sound system can employ binaural directivity compensation, which can compensate for directional variations in performance of each speaker, and can reduce or eliminate the difference in volume or spectral content between the left and right ears of a listener. The binaural directivity compensation can optionally be included with spatial audio processing, such as crosstalk cancellation, or can optionally be included with loudspeaker equalization.

Compensating for binaural loudspeaker directivity

Systems and methods can provide an elevated, virtual loudspeaker source in a three-dimensional soundfield using loudspeakers in a horizontal plane. In an example, a processor circuit can receive at least one height audio signal that includes information intended for reproduction using a loudspeaker that is elevated relative to a listener, and optionally offset from the listener's facing direction by a specified azimuth angle. A first virtual height filter can be selected for use based on the specified azimuth angle. A virtualized audio signal can be generated by applying the first virtual height filter to the at least one height audio signal. When the virtualized audio signal is reproduced using one or more loudspeakers in the horizontal plane, the virtualized audio signal can be perceived by the listener as originating from an elevated loudspeaker source that corresponds to the azimuth angle.

Immersive audio reproduction systems

A bass enhancement system can provide an enhanced bass effect for speakers, including relatively small speakers. The bass enhancement system can apply one or more bass enhancements to an input audio signal. For example, the bass enhancement system can exploit how the human ear processes overtones and harmonics of low-frequency sounds to create the perception that non-existent (or attenuated) low-frequency sounds are being emitted from a loudspeaker. The bass enhancement system can generate harmonics of at least some low-frequency fundamental frequencies in one embodiment. Playback of at least some harmonics of a low-frequency fundamental frequency can cause a listener to perceive the playback of the low-frequency fundamental frequency. Advantageously, in certain embodiments, the bass enhancement system can generate these harmonics without performing processing-intensive pitch-detection techniques or the like to identify the fundamental frequencies.

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Canoga Park, CA, United States of America

Oveal Jerome Walker