WO2012164444A1 - Système audio et procédé d'exploitation associé - Google Patents

Système audio et procédé d'exploitation associé Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2012164444A1
WO2012164444A1 PCT/IB2012/052580 IB2012052580W WO2012164444A1 WO 2012164444 A1 WO2012164444 A1 WO 2012164444A1 IB 2012052580 W IB2012052580 W IB 2012052580W WO 2012164444 A1 WO2012164444 A1 WO 2012164444A1
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
sound
channel
spatial
render
channels
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PCT/IB2012/052580
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English (en)
Inventor
Frédéric ROSKAM
Sylvain Jean CHOISEL
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Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
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Publication of WO2012164444A1 publication Critical patent/WO2012164444A1/fr

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S7/00—Indicating arrangements; Control arrangements, e.g. balance control
    • H04S7/40—Visual indication of stereophonic sound image
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S7/00—Indicating arrangements; Control arrangements, e.g. balance control
    • H04S7/30—Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R2205/00—Details of stereophonic arrangements covered by H04R5/00 but not provided for in any of its subgroups
    • H04R2205/024—Positioning of loudspeaker enclosures for spatial sound reproduction
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S3/00—Systems employing more than two channels, e.g. quadraphonic
    • H04S3/002—Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S7/00—Indicating arrangements; Control arrangements, e.g. balance control
    • H04S7/30—Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field
    • H04S7/301—Automatic calibration of stereophonic sound system, e.g. with test microphone
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04S—STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS 
    • H04S7/00—Indicating arrangements; Control arrangements, e.g. balance control
    • H04S7/30—Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field
    • H04S7/302—Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation

Definitions

  • the invention relates to an audio system and a method of operation therefor, and in particular, but not exclusively, to generation for drive signals for loudspeakers of spatial surround sound system.
  • a 5.1 home cinema system provides spatial sound via five loudspeakers being positioned with one speaker directly in front of the listening position (the center channel), one speaker to the front left of the listening position, one speaker to the front right of the listening position, one speaker to the rear left of the listening position, and one speaker to the rear right of the listening position.
  • a non-spatial low frequency speaker is provided.
  • Such conventional systems are based the reproduction of audio signals at specific nominal positions relative to the listening position.
  • One speaker is typically provided for each audio channel and therefore speakers must be positioned at positions corresponding to the predetermined or nominal positions for the system.
  • the requirement for loudspeakers to be in specific positions is often found to be highly undesirable to users and is particularly inconvenient in the consumer market.
  • the loudspeakers are still required to positioned in approximately the nominal configuration. Indeed, typically the compensation algorithm will fail if the actual loudspeaker positions deviate too much from the assumed nominal positions/angles.
  • an improved audio system would be advantageous and in particular a system allowing increased flexibility, facilitated operation, increased freedom in sound transducer placement, improved perceived audio quality, improved audio quality, an improved spatial user experience and/or improved performance would be advantageous.
  • the Invention seeks to preferably mitigate, alleviate or eliminate one or more of the above mentioned disadvantages singly or in any combination.
  • an audio system for generating drive signals for a plurality of sound render channels, each sound render channel providing a drive signal for a sound transducer;
  • the audio system comprising: a user interface for receiving a user input graphical representation of positions of the sound transducers; a processor for determining sound render positions for the sound transducers in response to the user input graphical representation; an input for receiving a spatial multichannel signal comprising a plurality of spatial channels, each spatial channel being associated with a nominal sound source position; a signal linker for determining a set of associations between the spatial channels and the sound render channels in response to the sound render positions and the nominal sound source positions, an association between a spatial channel and a sound render channel indicating that the sound render channel is to be used for rendering the spatial channel; and a driver for generating drive signals for the sound render channels from input signals of the spatial channels in response to the set of associations.
  • the invention may provide an advantageous audio system for providing spatial audio.
  • a more flexible system may often be provided with an increased freedom and flexibility in the positioning of the physical sound transducers.
  • a low complexity, practical and easy-to-use user interface may allow the user to easily and intuitively provide relevant information for the system to configure the sound reproduction to the specific configuration.
  • a user of a home cinema system may more freely and flexibly position speakers.
  • the speaker positions may then be indicated to the system by the user inputting a graphical representation of the speaker position with the system subsequently selecting and adjusting the signals sent to the individual speakers such that the spatial sound presentation is adapted to the specific transducer positions.
  • the signal linker may for each spatial input channel select a subset of the sound render channels with the signal of the spatial input channel then being used to generate the drive signals for the selected sound render channels.
  • the right front input channel may be linked with one or more sound render channels having positions towards the right and front of the (nominal) listening position.
  • a graphical representation allows a particularly advantageous user experience as it provides an intuitive means for indicating sound source positions.
  • the interface to the user may be simple, easy to use, and highly intuitive.
  • the approach may allow an improved configuration and adaptation of the system since the graphical representation may provide information that e.g. is not available from simple measurements by a test-microphone at a listening position.
  • the graphical representation may indicate a listening position which can be adjusted by the user.
  • the signal linker may further determine the set of associations in response to the listening position.
  • the signal linker is arranged to associate a first spatial channel with a first sound render channel if the first sound render channel has a sound render position being a closest sound render position to a nominal position of the first spatial channel.
  • This may provide an improved spatial experience in many scenarios, and may in particular in many scenarios allow a perception of the first spatial channel originating from a position close to the nominal position for the first spatial channel.
  • the approach may further in many scenarios provide a low complexity implementation and/or operation.
  • the set of associations may associate more than one sound render channel with one spatial channel.
  • the driver is arranged to generate drive signals for at least two sound render channels from an input signal of a first spatial channel to provide a virtual sound source position for the first spatial channel closer to a nominal position of the first spatial channel than sound render positions of the at least two sound render channels.
  • This may allow improved flexibility and may in many scenarios provide an improved audio experience.
  • it may allow the sound rendered from the first channel to be perceived to originate from approximately the nominal position without requiring any physical sound transducers to be positioned at or necessarily close to that position.
  • the set of associations may associate more than one spatial channel with one sound render channel.
  • the approach may relax the relation between the number and assumed/nominal positions of spatial channels and the actual number and positions of sound transducers used for the audio rendering.
  • the driver is arranged to adjust at least one of an audio level and a delay of at least one of the drive signals in response to the sound render positions.
  • the audio system may provide an improved adaptation of the reproduced sound to the specific sound transducer setup. Specifically, the variations in the characteristics from the sound propagation from sound transducers to a listener as a function of the relative positions may be at least partially compensated. As a result an improved spatial experience may be provided.
  • the user interface comprises: a display for displaying the user input graphical representation with icons representing positions of the sound transducers; an input interface for moving the icons on the display in response to a user input.
  • This may provide a particularly advantageous user interface for inputting sound transducer setup information.
  • the input interface is operable to receive a user selection of an icon representing a position of a sound transducer; and wherein the audio system further comprises an audio generator for providing a test drive signal to the sound render channel corresponding to the selected icon.
  • the audio system further comprises an audio generator for providing a test drive signal to the sound render channel corresponding to the selected icon.
  • a test drive signal may be generated for the corresponding sound render channel resulting in the corresponding sound transducer radiating sound.
  • all other sound transducers may be kept silent (or the test signal may be a recognizable signal, such as a single tone).
  • the process may provide an efficient feedback to a user and substantially facilitate the user input.
  • the feature may in particular allow a very flexible and user friendly system allowing the user to freely and randomly connect or couple the different sound transducers (specifically loudspeakers) to the different output channels of the multi-channel system.
  • wires from loudspeakers may randomly be connected to the outputs from an amplifier without any consideration of any matching between the loudspeakers and outputs.
  • Any loudspeaker may be connected to any output.
  • the audio generator is arranged to adjust a volume of the test drive signal in response to a distance between a nominal listening position and the sound render position of the sound render channel corresponding to the selected icon.
  • This may further facilitate the user input and/or may improve the accuracy of the graphical representation. In particular, it may allow improved distance information to be provided.
  • the audio system further comprises: a microphone input for receiving a microphone signal; and a calibrator for setting at least one of a delay, volume and sound render direction for at least one of the drive signals in response to the microphone signal.
  • the calibrator may perform a setup or configuration process based on the graphical representation. This may in particular allow a closer adaptation to specific conditions of the audio environment.
  • a close interworking between adaptation based on user input and on (e.g. automatic) calibration based on a microphone signal may provide improved performance in many scenarios.
  • the microphone based calibration may be used to fine tune parameters having approximate values determined from the graphical representation.
  • the audio system further comprises an initializer for initializing a calibration by the calibrator in response to the sound render positions.
  • the user interface is part of a portable device operable to be remote from the driver.
  • the portable device may for example be a remote control or a mobile phone.
  • the user input graphical representation further comprises an indication of a characteristic of a listening environment, and the driver is arranged to generate the drive signals in response to the indication.
  • the characteristics may for example include positions of walls, furniture, etc.
  • the user input graphical representation comprises an indication of a listening position
  • the driver is arranged to generate the drive signals in response to the listening position.
  • This may provide a particularly advantageous system, and in particular may provide a practical, feasible, user friendly, and high performance system which can quickly and easily adapt and/or optimize the sound reproduction at different positions/areas.
  • the driver may be arranged to adapt a direction of sound radiation for at least one sound render channel in response to the characteristic.
  • a method of generating drive signals for a plurality of sound render channels each sound render channel providing a drive signal for a sound transducer; the method comprising: receiving a user input graphical representation of positions of the sound transducers; determining sound render positions for the sound transducers in response to the user input graphical
  • a spatial multichannel signal comprising a plurality of spatial channels, each spatial channel being associated with a nominal sound source position;
  • Figures 1-3 illustrate examples of loudspeaker setups for spatial audio provision
  • FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an audio system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention
  • Figure 5 illustrates an example of a graphical representation of an audio system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention
  • Figure 6 illustrates an example of a portable device of an audio system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention
  • Figure 7 illustrates an example of elements of a portable device of an audio system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.
  • Figure 8 illustrates an example of elements of a driver circuit of an audio system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.
  • Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a nominal setup for a five channel surround sound system.
  • the loudspeakers are assumed to be positioned around a listening position 101 with a speaker directly in front of the listening position 101 (the center speaker 103), a speaker to the front left of the listening position (the front left speaker 105), a speaker to the front right of the listening position (the front right speaker 107), a speaker to the rear left of the listening position (the left surround speaker 109), and a speaker to the rear right of the listening position (the right surround speaker 111).
  • the spatial audio signal is generated to provide the desired spatial experience when the loudspeakers are positioned in accordance with the nominal setup relative to the listening position. Accordingly, users are required to position their speakers at specific locations relative to the listening position in order to achieve the optimum spatial experience. However, in practice this is inconvenient and in many cases impossible or at least unacceptable to do. Therefore, typical surround sound setups only approximate the nominal setup resulting in a degraded spatial experience.
  • an audio system which is arranged to provide a spatial experience yet to provide additional freedom in the positioning of loudspeakers and/or a facilitated loudspeaker set-up. Indeed, the system adapts to specific loudspeaker setups, and seeks to provide an approach where a user may position speakers relatively freely with the system then adapting its operation to the specific speaker setup.
  • the approach seeks to adapt the audio system to the specific speaker setup.
  • the system may provide a very advantageous spatial experience in many scenarios. For example, a user may freely position speakers to surround the listening position but without being at predetermined or nominal positions. The audio system then adapts to the speaker positions to provide a spatial experience that still relatively closely corresponds to that which would have been provided by a direct rendering of the received multi-channel signal from loudspeakers at the nominal positions. Examples of possible loudspeaker setups are illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.
  • each output channel is statically and fixedly linked to a an input spatial channel so that the corresponding speaker must be placed at the corresponding nominal position
  • the system described in the following implements a dynamic linking between the spatial input channels and the output channels.
  • each output channel is not associated with a specific position and is not predetermined to correspond to a specific input channel.
  • the audio system merely amplifies each input signal to generate an output signal that directly corresponds to the input spatial channel, and thus is for a speaker that must be positioned at the nominal position to provide the desired spatial effect.
  • sound transducers and specifically loudspeakers may be positioned by the user in the audio environment without consideration of which input channel is to be rendered by the speaker.
  • the sound transducer may specifically be a loudspeaker, and the following description will for clarity and brevity assume that each sound transducer is a loudspeaker (e.g. comprising a plurality of drivers).
  • the user may position loudspeakers without considering the link to the input channels.
  • the audio system may then proceed to adapt the processing such that the implemented speaker setup provides a spatial experience corresponding to that which would be achieved for a conventional setup with speakers at the nominal positions.
  • the audio system allows a large variation in the actual speaker positions with the system adapting itself to reflect the specific speaker setup.
  • Fig. 4 illustrates an example of an audio system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.
  • the audio system comprises a receiver 401 which receives a spatial multichannel signal.
  • the multichannel signal comprises a plurality of spatial channels, each of which is associated with a nominal sound source position.
  • the input signal is thus a signal where each channel is intended to be rendered from a specific nominal position relative to the listening position.
  • the input signal is a five channel surround sound system with a nominal speaker setup as illustrated in Fig. 1.
  • the input signal comprises a center channel, a front left channel, a front right channel, a surround left channel and a surround right channel.
  • the input signal may also comprise non- spatial signals, such as a Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel.
  • LFE Low Frequency Effects
  • the receiver 401 demultiplexes the received multichannel signal to provide the individual spatial channel signals.
  • the input signal may be an encoded signal and the receiver 401 may include a decoder for generating the signals of the individual spatial channels.
  • the multichannel signal may be provided as a downmixed signal wherein the spatial channels are downmixed to a lower number of channels (e.g. to a mono or stereo signal).
  • the receiver 401 may include functionality for upmixing, or equivalent ly the multichannel signal may be considered to be received by the receiver 401 from an internal or external upmixing unit.
  • the audio system generates drive signals for a number of sound render channels.
  • Each sound render channel provides one drive signal for a sound transducer which in the specific example is a loudspeaker.
  • each sound render channel (output channel) corresponds to a specific sound source position in the listening environment, namely to the position of the loudspeaker driven by the drive signal.
  • the audio system generates the loudspeaker drive signals from the spatial input signals.
  • the link/ association between the input channels and loudspeakers (and loudspeaker positions) is not predetermined or fixed but is dynamically updated and determined for the individual loudspeaker setup.
  • the receiver 401 is coupled to a driver 403 which generates a drive signal for each sound render channel from the input signals.
  • the driver 403 receives the signals of all the spatial input signals and in response generates the drive signals for each loudspeaker.
  • Fig. 4 illustrates an amplifier 405 and a loudspeaker 407 for each sound render channel, but it will be considered that these elements may be considered external to or as part of the audio system.
  • the amplifiers 405 amplify the signal of each sound render channel to the appropriate levels for the loudspeakers 407.
  • the loudspeakers 407 are coupled to the audio system via physical wires, and in this example the amplifiers 405 may be included in a suitable device together with the receiver 401 and the driver 403.
  • the device may for example be a home cinema amplifier. However, in the example, the device does not have any
  • the device merely provides a number of outputs that may be connected to speakers at any position.
  • the user needs not consider which speaker output to use for a specific speaker but can rather use any of the outputs for any of the speakers.
  • the user can simple connect the speaker wires freely to the different speaker outputs. This simplifies the setting up of e.g. a home cinema system which for many users in especially the consumer market is considered to otherwise be complex and cumbersome.
  • the signal may e.g. be fed wirelessly to the speakers and the amplifiers 405 may be implemented together with the speakers 407 rather than in the driver unit.
  • the connections between a centralized audio device and the individual speakers may be implemented over a shared wireless network.
  • the loudspeakers may register with the centralized audio device and be assigned a network address. Each loudspeaker may be treated in exactly the same way and without any considerations of positions when the address is assigned. This may allow for a very simple, flexible and efficient set up process.
  • the audio system does not have any predetermined knowledge and assumption about positions of speakers. Rather, it is initially only known that a number of speakers are connected to the system but there is no spatial assumption or information associated with the individual speaker outputs (and thus with the sound render channels).
  • the system is arranged to dynamically adapt and select the links between the input channels and the sound render channels.
  • the driver 403 generates the drive signals for the render channels from input signals of the spatial channels based on a set of associations between the input spatial channels and the sound render channels.
  • an association may indicate that a first render channel is suitable for providing the perception of a sound source originating from in front of the listening position, and the drive signal for that sound render channel will therefore be generated from the input center channel.
  • Another association may indicate that a second sound render channel is suitable for providing the perception of a sound source originating from the right and front of the listening position, and the drive signal for that sound render channel will therefore be generated from the front right channel.
  • associations will be provided for all input channels but in some embodiments or scenarios, one or more input channels may not have any associations and therefore may not be rendered.
  • the determination of suitable associations is based on a graphical representation of the loudspeaker setup provided by a user.
  • the audio system of Fig. 4 comprises a user interface 409 which receives a user input graphical representation of the positions of the sound transducers.
  • the user interface 409 in the example of Fig. 4 comprises a touch screen wherein a graphical representation of the listening environment is displayed.
  • the graphical representation is a simple and stylized representation of the environment with a graphical element (icon) representing the listening position and a graphical element (icon) for each sound render channel.
  • a graphical representation is illustrated in Fig. 5.
  • the user may in this example simply move the icons representing the loudspeakers to positions that reflect the positions of the loudspeakers in the environment.
  • the user can move the graphical elements representing the speakers (in the example of Fig. 5 represented by dark circles) to correspond to the physical location of the speakers relative to the user.
  • the top of the screen corresponds to the position directly in front of the user/listening position.
  • the graphical representation is presented on a display which is a touch screen display. Accordingly, the user can simply touch the icons representing the loudspeaker positions and move them to the desired position in the graphical representation.
  • a very simple and intuitive, user interface is provided.
  • the user interface is coupled to a position processor 411 which receives data describing the graphical representation.
  • the position processor 411 proceeds to determine sound render positions for the sound transducers in response to the graphical representation.
  • the position processor 411 determines position values for the loudspeakers based on the graphical representation.
  • the position values may for example determine a distance and angle from the listening position to the individual speakers.
  • the distances may either be absolute or relative values.
  • the positions may be determined as coordinates in a two dimensional representation of the listening environment. In a simple embodiment, the positions of the loudspeakers in the listening environment may simply be determined by scaling of the relative distances between the icons in the graphical representation.
  • the position processor 411 is coupled to a linker 413 which proceeds to determine the set of associations between the input spatial channels and the output sound render channels based on the positions determined for the loudspeakers and on the nominal sound source positions.
  • the linker 413 generates a number of associations where each association represents a signal path link from the corresponding spatial channel to the corresponding sound render channel.
  • the association between a spatial channel and a sound render channel indicating that the sound render channel is to be used for rendering the spatial channel.
  • An association between a spatial channel and a sound render channel may specifically be indicative of a weight of the spatial channel in the drive signal for the sound render channel. A zero weight corresponds to no association, i.e. to a scenario where the sound render channel contains no contribution from the spatial channel.
  • the set of associations are fed to the driver 403 which proceeds to generate drive signals for the output sound render channels based on the set of the associations.
  • the linker 413 may generate one association for each input spatial channel.
  • one loudspeaker is used to render each input spatial channel.
  • the linker may select the associations between loudspeakers and spatial channels such that the speaker indicated by the graphical representation to be closest to the nominal position for a given spatial channel is associated with the sound render channel for that speaker.
  • the driver 403 may simply correspond to a switch matrix that can switch the input signals of the spatial signals to the best suited output sound render channel.
  • the central audio device may be provided with simple speaker outputs that are not labeled but rather are merely provided as identical and nonspecific speaker outputs.
  • the user can then place the speakers and connect them to the device using any speaker output for any speaker.
  • the user then moves the graphical elements representing the speakers on the touch screen display to represent their physical location relative to the user.
  • the audio system in response proceeds to switch the input channels to the appropriate speaker outputs to provide a suitable spatial experience.
  • the user interface may in many scenarios be provided as a portable device which can be operated remotely from the central speaker drive unit.
  • the user interface may be provided as an application on a mobile phone or by a remote control.
  • Fig. 6 shows an example where the user interface is provided in a mobile phone and Fig. 7 illustrates elements of a remote portable device for providing the user interface.
  • the portable device comprises a display 701 which is driven by a display controller 703 which presents the graphical representation on the display.
  • the display 701 is in the example a touch screen which is coupled to an input 705 that can detect and interpret the touches on the screen.
  • the portable device comprises a user interface controller 707 which receives the signal from the input 705 and provides data describing the graphical
  • the user interface 707 When a user operates the screen, this is detected by the user interface controller 707 which accordingly adjusts the graphical representation.
  • the user interface 707 is further coupled to a transceiver 709 which communicates with the central audio device.
  • the communication may for example be via a wireless communication, such as for example using a BluetoothTM connection.
  • the transceiver 709 transmits data describing the graphical representation to the central audio device which proceeds to determine the transducer positions and the associations.
  • the exact functionality distribution between the central audio unit and the portable device may depend on the preferences and requirements of the individual embodiment.
  • the position processor 411 and possibly the linker 413 may be implemented in the portable device or in the central audio device.
  • the routing between input channels (the spatial channels) and the output channels (the sound render channels) is determined based on the user input graphical representation. This may substantially facilitate the setting up by non- expert users and may provide a much improved user experience.
  • the user input graphical representation may also be used to adapt signal processing characteristics of the system.
  • an audio level and/or delay for the drive signals may be set in response to the sound render positions determined from the graphical interface.
  • the delay and sound level may be increased for an increasing distance from the loudspeakers to the listening position.
  • the system may on the basis of the graphical representation compensate for different propagation delays and attenuations thereby providing an improved audio experience.
  • each spatial channel may be rendered in a single sound render channel and each sound render channel may render only one spatial channel.
  • a spatial channel may be rendered in a plurality of channels and/or a sound render channel may comprise contributions from a plurality of channels. Further, the number of sound render channels may be different from the number of spatial channels.
  • Each association between a spatial channel and a sound render channel indicates that a signal path exists from the spatial channel to the sound render channel.
  • the set of associations generated by the linker may comprise a plurality of associations for a spatial channel and/or a plurality of associations for a sound render channel.
  • the set of associations may associate more than one sound render channel with one spatial channel and/or may associate more than one spatial channel with one sound render channel.
  • the system may be arranged to render a spatial channel through a plurality of sound transducers such that the combined effect results in a perceived sound source of the spatial channel to be closer to the nominal position of the spatial channel than of the positions of the loudspeakers rendering the sound.
  • the system uses the information of the loudspeaker positions to generate virtual sound positions in between the loudspeakers.
  • the linker 413 may for each spatial channel determine the two sound transducers that are closest to the nominal position on each side.
  • the signal of the spatial channel may then be rendered by these two loudspeakers using amplitude panning to provide a perception of the sound source being in between the two loudspeakers. For example, if the nominal position is in the middle of the two loudspeaker positions, the gain for the two drive signals are equal and if the nominal position is closer to one of the loudspeakers, the gain for this loudspeaker will be set higher than for the other loudspeaker.
  • the overall gain may be set dependent on the distance from the listening position to the two loudspeaker relative to the distance to the nominal position and/or relative to the distance to loudspeakers used for other channels.
  • each spatial channel is thus rendered by two sound transducers and each sound transducer may render more than one spatial channel.
  • each drive signal may be generated as a weighted combination of the input spatial channels, i.e. each sound render channel may possibly comprise contributions from all spatial channels.
  • each sound render channel may possibly comprise contributions from all spatial channels.
  • the output drive signals may be determined as:
  • x n represents input spatial channel n
  • y m represents output sound render channel m
  • Ck,i represents the association between input spatial channel k and output sound render channel. If no association exists the value of the corresponding matrix coefficient is zero.
  • the output drive signals may be determined as:
  • the output drive signals may thus be generated from a gain matrix which provides associations between input spatial channels and output sound render channels.
  • a large number of the coefficients of the gain matrix will be zero corresponding to there being no association between the corresponding input spatial channel and output sound render channel.
  • the signal paths may also include other compensations or signal processing such as e.g. frequency compensations (e.g. filtering).
  • the signal paths may include a delay which specifically may compensate for differences in the distance between the sound transducers and the listening position.
  • the driver 403 may for each spatial channel provided the functionality illustrated in Fig. 8.
  • a signal path with a variable gain and delay may be provided to each of the sound render channels.
  • the values of the gain and delay may be determined fully or partially based on the graphical representation. If no association is provided between a spatial channel and a sound render channel, the corresponding gain will be zero. It will be appreciated that the delays will typically be the same for all spatial channels for a given sound render channel, and that a single delay may accordingly be applied to the drive signal generated by combining the individual contributions from the different spatial channels.
  • the system may accordingly provide a very flexible setup.
  • a user may simply connect (e.g. directly, or using a wireless or network based connections) as many speakers as he would like to use.
  • the speakers may be positioned freely but may preferably be situated to surround the listening position.
  • the user then uses his portable device to quickly and easily generate a graphical representation of the speaker setup, e.g. simply by sliding some icons to appropriate positions on a touch screen.
  • the system automatically adapts to provide an appropriate spatial experience, and may specifically proceed to generate virtual sound sources from positions corresponding to (or approximating) the nominal positions of the received spatial multi-channel signal.
  • the user may freely select how many speakers to use and may position these freely.
  • Increasing the number of speakers used, and providing a more even distribution of the loudspeakers around the listening position, may typically increase the accuracy of the virtual sound source positioning and the resulting spatial experience. However, in some embodiments it may be more attractive to reduce cost and complexity, and therefore the number of loudspeakers may be kept low. Thus, the user has a high degree of flexibility in both how many and where to position loudspeakers, and the same audio system may be used as it can easily adapt to the individual configuration.
  • the system may be arranged to generate a sound from a sound transducer in response to a selection of the corresponding icon on the display. For example, when the use touches an icon corresponding to a sound source position on the display, this icon may e.g. change color to indicate that it has been selected.
  • an audio generator may provide a test drive signal on the corresponding sound render channel resulting in the loudspeaker connected to the output of that sound render channel rendering the corresponding sound.
  • the test drive signal may typically represent a distinct and detectable sound such as a pure tone or a white noise signal.
  • a distinct and detectable sound such as a pure tone or a white noise signal.
  • the user will immediately hear a characteristic and distinct sound coming from the corresponding loudspeaker. He may then easily slide or move the icon to a position corresponding to the position of the loudspeaker radiating the sound.
  • No predetermined information or correlation between loudspeaker positions and the sound render channels is required, and specifically any output can be used with any loudspeaker.
  • the generated test signal and thus the rendered test audio, may have a volume that is adjusted in response to the distance from the nominal listening position to the position of the icon for the sound transducer position on the display. Specifically, the volume may be increased as the icon is moved further away and decreased when it is moved closer. This may assist the user in positioning the icons to reflect the actual sound positions, and may compensate for differences in the distances and thus in attenuation of the sound from the different loudspeakers.
  • the processing of the audio system may be setup based only on the graphical representation.
  • the system may further be arranged to perform an automatic or semi-automatic calibration based on a microphone signal.
  • the system may comprise a microphone input which is coupled to a microphone that can be positioned at the listening position.
  • a calibrator may then receive the microphone signal and adjust a characteristic of the signal processing dependent on the microphone signal. Specifically, a delay, volume and/or sound render direction of the drive signals may be adjusted dependent on the microphone signal.
  • a test generator may generate a test signal which is fed to one of the sound transducers.
  • the time difference between the generated test signal and the received signal by the microphone may be used to determine the propagation delay from the sound transducer to the listening position. This may be performed for all sound render channels and the appropriate relative delays may be applied to ensure that sound is received substantially simultaneously.
  • the approach may combine the approach of calibrating/adapting the system based on the graphical representation with a microphone based calibration/adaptation.
  • An improved performance may be achieved by combining the two approaches.
  • the calibration based on the graphical representation may provide a coarse
  • the sound render positions determined from the graphical representation may be used to initialize the calibration process based on the microphone signal.
  • the graphical representation may be used to determine initial estimates for delay and volume as well as to setup the virtual sound source positioning.
  • the calibration based on the microphone signal may then proceed based on these initial values.
  • Calibration processes may often determine local optimizations and by initializing the calibration with approximate initial values, the chance of the determined local optimum is also the global optimum is also substantially increased.
  • the graphical representation can be used to determine or adapt to characteristics that are typically not addressed by a microphone calibration. For example, the angle of the sound reaching the listening position may be estimated based on the graphical representation. Further, the virtual sound source positioning may be determined based on the graphical representation with the subsequent microphone calibration being used to calibrate characteristics of the virtual sound source.
  • the user input graphical representation may comprise an indication of a characteristic of a listening environment. This additional information may then be used to adapt the signal processing of the driver 403.
  • the graphical representation may be enhanced to allow different listening positions to be indicated, such that the drive signal generation may compensate for differences in the listening position.
  • the user may be able to indicate the presence of walls or other obstacles in the listening environment. This may specifically indicate sound reflections.
  • the graphical representation can be used to estimate e.g. a direction in which sound should be radiated from a sound transducer in order to reach the listening position from a reflected direction corresponding to a desired virtual sound source direction. For example, a wall to the rear of the listening position may be indicated on the graphical representation. In response, sound may be radiated towards this wall to provide reflected sound reaching the listening position from behind.
  • an embodiment of the invention may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the invention may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuits and processors.

Abstract

Le système audio de l'invention génère des signaux de pilotage pour des canaux de restitution acoustique pilotant un transducteur acoustique. Une interface d'utilisateur (409) reçoit une représentation graphique entrée par l'utilisateur de positions des transducteurs acoustiques et un processeur (411) détermine des positions de restitution acoustique pour les transducteurs acoustiques en réponse à la représentation graphique entrée par l'utilisateur. Une entrée (401) reçoit un signal multicanal spatial comprenant une pluralité de canaux spatiaux associés à une position de source acoustique nominale. Un coupleur de signaux (413) détermine un ensemble d'associations entre les canaux spatiaux et les canaux de restitution acoustique en réponse aux positions de restitution acoustique et aux positions de source acoustique nominales, dans lesquelles une association entre un canal spatial et un canal de restitution acoustique indique que le canal de restitution acoustique doit être utilisé pour la restitution du canal spatial. Un circuit de pilotage (403) génère alors des signaux de pilotage pour les canaux de restitution acoustique à partir des signaux d'entrée des canaux spatiaux en réponse à l'ensemble d'associations.
PCT/IB2012/052580 2011-06-01 2012-05-23 Système audio et procédé d'exploitation associé WO2012164444A1 (fr)

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US9924286B1 (en) 2016-10-20 2018-03-20 Sony Corporation Networked speaker system with LED-based wireless communication and personal identifier
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US9854362B1 (en) 2016-10-20 2017-12-26 Sony Corporation Networked speaker system with LED-based wireless communication and object detection
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