Acoustic editing

Abstract

A method for acoustic damping of sound segments includes identifying an audio segment for a location of a user in an environment, and segmenting the audio segment into a plurality of sound segments. The method further includes, in response to determining that at least one sound segment from the audio segment requires acoustic damping, performing acoustic damping on the at least one sound segment, where a damping ratio of the at least one sound segment is changed. The method further includes, in response to determining that the plurality of sound segments are to be spliced, splicing the plurality of sound segments to form an audio segment, where the plurality of sound segments includes at least one sound segment having acoustic damping. The method further includes displaying a visual representation of the audio segment having the plurality of sound segments.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to acoustic editing, and in particular to acoustic editing in augmented or virtual reality environments. Background Art

[0002] Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information, such as audio, with the physical environment in which the user is located. Virtual reality (VR) is a simulation of a three-dimensional digital environment in which the user can experience and interact with various digital objects within the three-dimensional digital environment. Both AR and VR require the use of electronic devices to present digital information and the three-dimensional digital environment to the user. Audio in an AR or VR setting typically includes multiple audio clips that are stitched together to create an aggregate and complete soundtrack for the user's position relative to the physical or digital environment. Due to the acoustic properties of three-dimensional space, there can be objects or materials within the three-dimensional space that reflect and absorb audio from various positions relative to the user's position in the AR or VR environment. Summary of the invention

[0003] According to embodiments of the present invention, a method, computer program product, and computer system for acoustic damping of a sound segment are disclosed, the method, computer program product, and computer system can identify an audio segment for a user's location in an environment. The method, computer program product, and computer system can segment the audio segment into a plurality of sound segments. The method, computer program product, and computer system can, in response to determining that at least one sound segment from the audio segment requires acoustic damping, perform acoustic damping on the at least one sound segment, wherein a damping ratio for the at least one sound segment is changed. The method, computer program product, and computer system can, in response to determining that a plurality of sound segments are to be spliced, splice the plurality of sound segments to form an audio segment, wherein the plurality of sound segments include at least one sound segment with acoustic damping. The method, computer program product, and computer system can display a visual representation of the audio segment with the plurality of sound segments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] Figure 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a computing environment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0005] Figure 2 Depicted is a flow chart of an acoustic editing program for concatenating multiple sound clips to create an aggregate sound clip in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0006] Figure 3 A flow chart of an acoustic editing program for modifying aggregated sound segments and developing a historical corpus using multiple aggregated sound segments in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is depicted.

[0007] Figure 4A An illustrative example of multiple sound clips prior to splicing in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is depicted.

[0008] Figure 4B Depicted are illustrative examples of multiple sound clips after being spliced ​​to create an aggregate sound clip in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0009] Figure 4C An illustrative example of modifying aggregated sound segments based on the directional source of each sound segment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is depicted. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] Detailed embodiments of the claimed structures and methods are disclosed herein; however, it will be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely illustrative of the claimed structures and methods that may be implemented in various forms. However, the present invention may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. In the description, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments. It should be understood that the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to a "component surface" includes reference to one or more such surfaces unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

[0011] Embodiments of the present invention provide an acoustic editing program for identifying sound segments with abrupt ends including limited damping or no damping in an audio segment in an augmented or virtual reality environment, and creating appropriate damping effects for each sound segment in the audio segment. The acoustic editing program allows a user to opt-in as an administrative user of the augmented or virtual reality environment to modify the audio segment with appropriate damping of the sound segment. The acoustic editing program can create a sonic profile for each sound segment within the audio segment by analyzing the sound profile of the audio segment, identifying whether any sound segment in the audio segment needs damping, and segmenting the audio segment into separate sound segments to perform damping when necessary. Since multiple sound segments can overlap each other, the acoustic editing program segments each sound segment so that appropriate damping can be performed. The acoustic editing program can identify the source of each sound segment in the audio segment and identify where appropriate splicing is required after damping is performed.

[0012] The acoustic editing program can be incorporated into an augmented or virtual reality electronic device (e.g., a wearable headset with a speaker), where a management user can modify each sound segment of the audio segment. The acoustic editing program can identify undamped or underdamped sound segments from the audio by comparing each sound segment with a historical corpus, and damping can be performed based on the historical corpus to damp each sound segment, thereby mimicking natural sound damping in a physical environment. The acoustic editing program can change the damping coefficient of each sound segment and the damping type of each sound segment (e.g., fully damped, undamped, variable damping) to simulate natural sound damping in a physical environment. The acoustic editing program can display a visual representation of the sound waves of each sound segment of the audio segment in an augmented or virtual reality electronic device associated with the management user, and the position of each sound segment relative to the user, where the user can change the position of each sound segment via input in the augmented or virtual reality electronic device. The acoustic editing program can provide a selection of modifications to each sound wave of the sound segment in a user collaborative environment, where multiple users can edit the audio segment as designated management users.

[0013] Various aspects of the present disclosure are described by narrative text, flow charts, block diagrams of computer systems, and / or block diagrams of machine logic included in computer program product (CPP) embodiments. With respect to any flow chart, depending on the technology involved, the operations may be performed in an order different from the order shown in a given flow chart. For example, again depending on the technology involved, two operations shown in consecutive flow chart blocks may be performed in reverse order, as a single integrated step, simultaneously, or in a manner that at least partially overlaps in time.

[0014] Computer program product embodiments ("CPP embodiments" or "CPP") are terms used in this disclosure to describe any collection of one or more storage media (also referred to as "media") collectively included in a collection of one or more storage devices that collectively include machine-readable code corresponding to instructions and / or data for performing the computer operations specified in a given CPP claim. A "storage device" is any tangible device that can hold and store instructions for use by a computer processor. Without limitation, a computer-readable storage medium may be an electronic storage medium, a magnetic storage medium, an optical storage medium, an electromagnetic storage medium, a semiconductor storage medium, a mechanical storage medium, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Some known types of storage devices that include these media include: magnetic disks, hard disks, random access memories (RAM), read-only memories (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROM or flash memory), static random access memories (SRAM), compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROM), digital versatile disks (DVD), memory sticks, floppy disks, mechanical encoding devices (such as punch cards or pits / lands formed in a major surface of a disk), or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Computer-readable storage media, as the term is used in this disclosure, should not be construed as storing in the form of transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through waveguides, light pulses through fiber optic cables, electrical signals transmitted through wires and / or other transmission media. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, data is typically moved at certain occasional points in time during normal operation of the storage device, such as during access, de-fragmentation, or garbage collection, but this does not make the storage device transitory because the data is not transitory while it is stored.

[0015] Figure 1 is a functional block diagram depicting a computing environment, generally designated 100, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 This merely provides an illustration of one implementation and does not imply any limitation on the environments in which different embodiments may be implemented. Many modifications to the described environment may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as described in the claims.

[0016] The computing environment 100 includes an example of an environment for executing at least some of the computer codes involved in performing the methods of the present invention, such as an acoustic editing program 200. In addition to the block 200, the computing environment 100 includes, for example, a computer 101, a wide area network (WAN) 102, an end-user device (EUD) 103, a remote server 104, a public cloud 105, and a private cloud 106. In this embodiment, the computer 101 includes a processor set 110 (including a processing circuit 120 and a cache 121), a communication architecture 111, a volatile memory 112, a permanent storage device 113 (including an operating system 122 and a block 200, as described above), a peripheral device set 114 (including a user interface (UI) device set 123, a storage device 124, and an Internet of Things (IoT) sensor set 125), and a network module 115. The remote server 104 includes a remote database 130. Public cloud 105 includes a gateway 140 , a cloud orchestration module 141 , a host physical machine set 142 , a virtual machine set 143 , and a container set 144 .

[0017] Computer 101 may take the form of a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, smart phone, smart watch or other wearable computer, mainframe computer, quantum computer, or any other form of computer or mobile device now known or developed in the future that is capable of running programs, accessing a network, or querying a database such as remote database 130. As is well known in the art of computer technology, and depending on the technology, the execution of computer-implemented methods may be distributed among multiple computers and / or among multiple locations. On the other hand, in this presentation of computing environment 100, the detailed discussion focuses on a single computer, particularly computer 101, to keep the presentation as simple as possible. Computer 101 may be located in the cloud, even though it is not necessarily located in the cloud. Figure 1 On the other hand, computer 101 need not be in the cloud except to any extent that can be positively indicated.

[0018] Processor set 110 includes one or more computer processors of any type known now or to be developed in the future. Processing circuit 120 can be distributed over multiple packages, such as multiple coordinated integrated circuit chips. Processing circuit 120 can implement multiple processor threads and / or multiple processor cores. Cache 121 is a memory located in the processor chip package (one or more) and is generally used for data or code that should be quickly accessed by threads or cores running on processor set 110. Cache memory is generally organized into multiple levels according to relative proximity to the processing circuit. Alternatively, some or all of the caches of the processor set may be located "off chip". In some computing environments, processor set 110 may be designed to work with qubits and perform quantum computing.

[0019] Computer readable program instructions are typically loaded onto the computer 101 to cause the processor set 110 of the computer 101 to perform a series of operating steps to implement a computer-implemented method, so that the instructions so executed will instantiate the method specified in the flow chart and / or the narrative description of the computer-implemented method (collectively referred to as the "method of the present invention") included in this document. These computer readable program instructions are stored in various types of computer readable storage media, such as cache 121 and other storage media discussed below. The program instructions and related data are accessed by the processor set 110 to control and direct the execution of the method of the present invention. In the computing environment 100, at least some of the instructions for performing the method of the present invention can be stored in the permanent storage device 113 in the box 200.

[0020] The communication fabric 111 is the signaling paths that allow the various components of the computer 101 to communicate with each other. Typically, the fabric is made up of switches and conductive paths, such as those that make up a bus, a bridge, physical input / output ports, etc. Other types of signal communication paths may be used, such as fiber optic communication paths and / or wireless communication paths.

[0021] The volatile memory 112 is any type of volatile memory now known or developed in the future. Examples include dynamic random access memory (RAM) or static RAM. Typically, the volatile memory 112 is characterized by random access, but this is not required unless expressly stated. In the computer 101, the volatile memory 112 is located in a single package and is internal to the computer 101, but, alternatively or additionally, the volatile memory can be distributed in multiple packages and / or located externally relative to the computer 101.

[0022] Permanent storage device 113 is any form of non-volatile storage device for computers known now or developed in the future. The non-volatility of the storage device means that the stored data is maintained regardless of whether power is supplied to computer 101 and / or directly to permanent storage device 113. Permanent storage device 113 can be a read-only memory (ROM), but usually at least a portion of the permanent storage device allows the writing of data, the deletion of data, and the re-writing of data. Some common forms of permanent storage devices include disks and solid-state storage devices. Operating system 122 can take several forms, such as various known proprietary operating systems or operating systems of the open source portable operating system interface type using a kernel. The code included in block 200 is generally included in at least some of the computer codes involved in executing the method of the present invention.

[0023] The peripheral device set 114 includes a collection of peripheral devices of the computer 101. The data communication connection between the peripheral devices and other components of the computer 101 can be implemented in various ways, such as a Bluetooth connection, a near field communication (NFC) connection, a connection made by a cable (such as a universal serial bus (USB) type cable), a plug-in type connection (e.g., a secure digital (SD) card), a connection made through a local area communication network, and even a connection made through a wide area network such as the Internet. In various embodiments, the UI device set 123 may include components such as display screens, speakers, microphones, wearable devices (such as goggles and smart watches), keyboards, mice, printers, touch pads, game controllers, and tactile devices. The storage device 124 is an external storage device, such as an external hard drive, or a pluggable storage device, such as an SD card. The storage device 124 can be permanent and / or volatile. In some embodiments, the storage device 124 can take the form of a quantum computing storage device for storing data in the form of quantum bits. In embodiments where the computer 101 needs to have a large amount of storage (e.g., where the computer 101 locally stores and manages a large database), the storage may be provided by a peripheral storage device designed to store very large amounts of data, such as a storage area network (SAN) shared by multiple geographically distributed computers. The IoT sensor set 125 is made up of sensors that can be used in IoT applications. For example, one sensor may be a thermometer, while another sensor may be a motion detector.

[0024] The network module 115 is a collection of computer software, hardware, and firmware that allows the computer 101 to communicate with other computers via the WAN 102. The network module 115 may include hardware such as a modem or a Wi-Fi signal transceiver, software for packetizing and / or depacketizing data for transmission over a communication network, and / or web browser software for transmitting data over the Internet. In some embodiments, the network control function and the network forwarding function of the network module 115 are executed on the same physical hardware device. In other embodiments (e.g., embodiments utilizing software defined networks (SDN)), the control function and the forwarding function of the network module 115 are executed on physically separated devices so that the control function manages several different network hardware devices. Computer-readable program instructions for executing the method of the present invention can typically be downloaded to the computer 101 from an external computer or an external storage device via a network adapter card or a network interface included in the network module 115.

[0025] WAN 102 is any wide area network (e.g., the Internet) capable of transmitting computer data over non-local distances by any technology now known or developed in the future for transmitting computer data. In some embodiments, WAN 102 may be replaced and / or supplemented by a local area network (LAN) designed to transmit data between devices located in a local area, such as a Wi-Fi network. A WAN and / or LAN typically includes computer hardware, such as copper transmission cables, fiber optic transmission, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers, and edge servers.

[0026] End-user device (EUD) 103 is any computer system used and controlled by an end-user (e.g., a customer of an enterprise operating computer 101), and may take any of the forms discussed above in connection with computer 101. EUD 103 typically receives helpful and useful data from the operation of computer 101. For example, in the hypothetical case where computer 101 is designed to provide recommendations to an end-user, the recommendations would typically be transmitted from network module 115 of computer 101 to EUD 103 via WAN 102. In this manner, EUD 103 may display or otherwise present the recommendations to the end-user. In some embodiments, EUD 103 may be a client device, such as a thin client, a heavy client, a mainframe computer, a desktop computer, etc.

[0027] Remote server 104 is any computer system that provides at least some data and / or functionality to computer 101. Remote server 104 may be controlled and used by the same entity that operates computer 101. Remote server 104 represents a machine(s) that collects and stores helpful and useful data for use by other computers, such as computer 101. For example, in the hypothetical case where computer 101 is designed and programmed to provide recommendations based on historical data, then that historical data may be provided to computer 101 from remote database 130 of remote server 104.

[0028] Public cloud 105 is any computer system available for use by multiple entities that provides on-demand availability of computer system resources and / or other computer capabilities, particularly data storage (cloud storage) and computing capabilities, without direct active management by users. Cloud computing typically leverages the sharing of resources to achieve consistency and economy of scale. Direct and active management of computing resources of public cloud 105 is performed by computer hardware and / or software of cloud orchestration module 141. The computing resources provided by public cloud 105 are typically implemented by virtual computing environments running on various computers that constitute a host physical machine set 142, which is a universe of physical computers in public cloud 105 and / or available for the public cloud. Virtual computing environments (VCEs) typically take the form of virtual machines from virtual machine set 143 and / or containers from container set 144. It should be understood that these VCEs can be stored as images and can be transferred between various physical machine hosts as images or after instantiation of the VCEs. Cloud orchestration module 141 manages the transmission and storage of images, deploys new instantiations of VCEs, and manages active instantiations of VCE deployments. Gateway 140 is a collection of computer software, hardware, and firmware that allows public cloud 105 to communicate over WAN 102 .

[0029] Some further explanation of a virtualized computing environment (VCE) will now be provided. A VCE can be stored as an "image". A new active instance of the VCE can be instantiated from that image. Two common types of VCEs are virtual machines and containers. A container is a VCE that uses operating system-level virtualization. This refers to an operating system feature where the kernel allows the existence of multiple isolated user space instances, called containers. From the perspective of the programs running in them, these isolated user space instances typically behave like actual computers. A computer program running on a normal operating system can utilize all of the resources of that computer, such as connected devices, files and folders, network shares, CPU power, and quantifiable hardware capabilities. However, a program running within a container can only use the contents of the container and the devices assigned to the container, a feature known as containerization.

[0030] The private cloud 106 is similar to the public cloud 105, except that the computing resources are only available to a single enterprise. Although the private cloud 106 is depicted as communicating with the WAN 102, in other embodiments, the private cloud can be completely disconnected from the Internet and can only be accessed through a local / private network. A hybrid cloud is a combination of multiple clouds of different types (e.g., private, community, or public cloud types), typically implemented by different vendors. Each of the multiple clouds remains a separate and discrete entity, but the larger hybrid cloud architecture is bound together by standardized or proprietary technologies that enable coordination, management, and / or data / application portability between the multiple constituent clouds. In this embodiment, the public cloud 105 and the private cloud 106 are both part of a larger hybrid cloud.

[0031] Figure 2 Depicted is a flow chart of an acoustic editing program for concatenating multiple sound clips to create an aggregated sound clip in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[0032] The acoustic editing program 200 receives a user confirmation to opt-in to acoustic editing (202). In one embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 allows the user to opt-in to acoustically edit sound clips of a virtual reality (VR) environment using a VR electronic device associated with the user, wherein the user utilizes the VR electronic device (e.g., a headset) to access the VR environment. In another embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 allows the user to opt-in to acoustically edit sound clips of an augmented reality environment using an AR electronic device associated with the user, wherein the user utilizes the AR electronic device (e.g., smart glasses) to access the AR environment. As the user opts-in to acoustic editing, the acoustic editing program 200 assigns management roles to the user to edit various sound clips in the VR or AR environment. The acoustic editing program 200 manages a historical corpus of edits of various sound clips in the VR or AR environment, with reference to Figure 3 This is discussed in further detail in (312) of .

[0033] The acoustic editing program 200 identifies an audio clip in an augmented or virtual reality environment (204). When a user enters a physical or virtual environment using an AR or VR device, the acoustic editing program 200 determines the user's location in the physical or virtual reality environment. In one embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 identifies an existing audio clip for a location in the physical or virtual reality environment, wherein the acoustic editing program 200 can utilize integrated audio editing software to extract track information. In another embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 can identify an audio clip in an augmented reality environment that includes a sound clip from the physical environment and an existing digital sound clip for the location in the physical environment. Portions of the audio clip that include the sound clip from the physical environment identified by the acoustic editing program 200 can be stored in a historical corpus and can subsequently be used for other users (i.e., non-admirative users) who enter the location in the augmented reality environment. For example, if the audio clip includes a sound clip of rustling leaves from a physical environment and an existing digital sound clip of wind blowing for the location, the acoustic editing program 200 can update the historical corpus by storing the sound clip of rustling leaves from the physical environment as an audio clip for the location that already includes the existing digital sound clip of wind blowing.

[0034] The acoustic editing program 200 analyzes the sound profile of the audio clip (206). As previously described, the acoustic editing program 200 uses integrated audio editing software to extract track information of the AR or VR environment, and the acoustic editing program 200 analyzes the sound profile of the audio clip based on the extracted track information to identify each sound clip in the audio clip. The audio clip includes one or more sound clips for a location in the AR or VR environment, wherein each sound clip is associated with an audio source from which the sound clip originates. Each sound clip generates a sound wave including damping that specifies the duration and intensity of the sound clip at the location where the user is located within the AR or VR environment. The acoustic editing program 200 can analyze the sound wave of each sound clip of the audio clip by using the Fourier transform of the formula (A) provided below:

[0035]

[0036] Through analysis of the audio segments, the acoustic editing program 200 identifies one or more sound segments, audio sources of each of the one or more sound segments of the audio segment, and locations of the audio sources of each of the one or more sound segments of the audio segment.

[0037] The acoustic editing program 200 determines whether there are multiple sound segments in the audio segment (decision 208). In the event that the acoustic editing program 200 determines that there are multiple sound segments in the audio segment ("yes" branch, decision 208), the acoustic editing program 200 segments the multiple sound segments of the audio segment (210). In the event that the acoustic editing program 200 determines that there are no multiple sound segments in the audio segment ("no" branch, decision 208), the acoustic editing program 200 determines whether damping is required for the single sound segment representing the audio segment (decision 212).

[0038] The acoustic editing program 200 segments multiple sound segments of the audio clip (210). Since the audio clip may include at least two overlapping sound segments, the acoustic editing program 200 segments the multiple sound segments of the audio clip by pulling each sound segment out of the multiple sound segments of the audio clip that form the AR or VR environment. By segmenting the multiple sound segments, the acoustic editing program 200 can identify a damping profile for each sound segment that forms the audio clip, where the damping profile is then visible in an AR or VR electronic device associated with the user. Segmenting the multiple sound segments allows a user of the acoustic editing program 200 to view the damping profile of each individual sound segment, as the damping profile of one sound segment may overwhelm or mask the damping profile of another sound segment, thereby affecting the user experience of the location in the AR or VR environment.

[0039] The acoustic editing program 200 determines whether it is necessary to damp the sound segment representing the audio segment (decision 212). When the acoustic editing program 200 determines that it is necessary to damp the sound segment representing the audio segment ("yes" branch, decision 212), the acoustic editing program 200 performs acoustic damping on the audio segment (214). In the case where the acoustic editing program 200 determines that it is not necessary to damp the sound segment representing the audio (branch "no", decision 212), the acoustic editing program 200 determines whether it is necessary to splice the audio segment (decision 216). The acoustic editing program 200 can utilize a historical corpus of various sounds in an AR or VR environment that can be continuously updated by the user. The acoustic editing program 200 uses the historical corpus to identify which sound segment from the audio segment requires full damping, varying damping, or no damping. Different sound segments of the audio segment may include different types of sounds, in which full damping is not captured and full damping may not even be required. For example, the acoustic editing program 200 previously identified the location of the audio clip as a cafe, where the audio clip may include a portion of the sound clip that requires full damping and another portion of the sound clip that does not require full damping. The sound clip of the unclear conversation of various customers at the cafe participating in the conversation represents continuous audio at the location, where the acoustic editing program 200 can use the historical corpus to determine that the sound clip does not need to be fully damped. In contrast, the acoustic editing program 200 determines that different degrees of damping are required because the unclear conversations come from multiple sources (i.e., customers) at the location. The sound clip of the coffee cup placed on the saucer represents a sound clip that requires full damping because the collision of the coffee cup with the saucer is not a continuous sound in the AR or VR environment. The acoustic editing program 200 determines that the sound clip of the coffee cup being placed on the sound requires full damping.

[0040] The acoustic editing program 200 performs acoustic damping on the audio clip (214). For each sound clip of the audio clip, the acoustic editing program 200 utilizes the historical corpus to determine whether full damping, varying damping, or no damping of the sound waves is desired. For the instance of a sound clip where the acoustic editing program 200 determines that the historical corpus does not include an entry for the indicated damping level (i.e., damping ratio), the sound clip remains unchanged. The acoustic editing program 200 allows the user to change the sound clip, and then updates the historical corpus for subsequent damping of similar sound clips. Reference Figure 3(312) in discusses the updating of the historical corpus in more detail. From the previously discussed example where the audio clip is for a cafe in an AR or VR environment, the acoustic editing program 200 identifies multiple sound clips for the audio clip, which include unclear conversation, a coffee cup colliding with a saucer, background music, and footsteps. The acoustic editing program 200 utilizes the historical corpus to perform varying damping on the unclear conversation, full damping on the coffee cup colliding with a saucer, and full damping on the footsteps. However, the acoustic editing program 200 determines that the sound clip of the background music does not exist in the historical corpus, and therefore, the acoustic editing program 200 determines not to perform acoustic damping on the sound clip.

[0041] The acoustic editing program 200 determines whether splicing of the audio segment is required (decision 216). In the case where the acoustic editing program 200 determines that splicing of the audio segment is required ("yes" branch, decision 216), the acoustic editing program 200 splices the multiple sound segments of the audio segment (218). In the case where the acoustic editing program 200 determines that splicing of the audio segment is not required ("no" branch, decision 216), the acoustic editing program 200 displays a visual representation of the audio segment (220). If the audio segment was previously segmented due to multiple sound segments, the acoustic editing program 200 determines that splicing of the audio segment is required. In addition, if the acoustic editing program 200 previously performed acoustic damping on at least one sound segment of the multiple sound segments of the audio, the acoustic editing program 200 considers how to splice the multiple sound segments with at least one sound segment having acoustic damping.

[0042] The acoustic editing program 200 splices multiple sound clips of the audio clip (218). The acoustic editing program 200 splices multiple sound clips of the audio clip by analyzing various attributes of each sound clip and the position of the user in the AR or VR environment. The attributes of each sound clip can indicate whether the sound clip is random or related to another item (e.g., sound clip, action) within the AR or VR environment. According to the example previously discussed that the audio clip is for a cafe in an AR or VR environment, the acoustic editing program 200 splices multiple sound clips of the audio clip, which include unclear conversations, coffee cups hitting saucers, background music, and footsteps. As previously described, the acoustic editing program 200 performs variable damping on the unclear conversations, complete damping on the coffee cups hitting saucers, and complete damping on the footsteps. The acoustic editing program 200 splices multiple sound clips of the audio clip by overlaying the unclear conversations on the background music, while inserting random instances of coffee cups hitting saucers and footsteps into the overlay with unclear conversations and background music. Since the background music should not overpower (ie, be louder than) the conversation of the patrons in the cafe, the acoustic editing program 200 determines that the clear conversation should cover the background music based on the properties of the background music related to the unclear conversation.

[0043] The acoustic editing program 200 displays a visual representation of the audio segment (220). The acoustic editing program 200 can display various visual representations of the audio segment having at least one sound segment in an AR or VR electronic device associated with the user. By utilizing the AR or VR electronic device, the acoustic editing program 200 can receive various modifications to the audio segment, which will be referred to as Figure 3 In one embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 displays a visual representation of the audio segment from (218) where the plurality of sound segments are concatenated to form the audio segment. The acoustic editing program 200 may utilize different colors for each of the plurality of sound segments from the audio segment for the location, as well as different representations to differentiate between the original portion of the sound segment and the modified damped portion of the sound segment, which will be referenced Figure 4A and 4B Discussed in further detail. The acoustic editing program 200 may include an option to view each sound clip individually with or without the damping performed in (214).

[0044] Figure 3 A flow chart of an acoustic editing program for modifying aggregated sound segments and developing a historical corpus using multiple aggregated sound segments in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is depicted.

[0045] The acoustic editing program 200 identifies the position of each sound clip in the audio clip with acoustic damping relative to the user (302). As previously described, when the user enters a physical or virtual environment using an AR or VR device, the acoustic editing program 200 determines the position of the user in the physical or virtual reality environment. In one embodiment, the audio clip with damping includes a sound clip from the physical environment and an existing digital sound clip for a position in the physical environment. The sound clip from the physical environment can be captured by a microphone on an AR electronic device associated with the user, wherein the acoustic editing program 200 can determine the position of the sound clip from the physical environment relative to the known position of the user. For the existing digital sound clip from the position in the physical environment, the acoustic editing program 200 can use a historical corpus to identify the position of the existing digital sound clip from the physical environment relative to the known position of the user. In another embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 identifies the position of each sound clip in the audio clip with acoustic damping in the VR environment relative to the user. Based on the example of the audio clip discussed previously being for a cafe in a VR environment, the acoustic editing program 200 identifies multiple sound clips for the audio clip, which include unclear conversations, coffee cups hitting saucers, background music, and footsteps. The acoustic editing program 200 identifies multiple locations for different conversations, where the multiple locations are at 45°, 105°, and 285° relative to the user's forward orientation of 0°. The acoustic editing program 200 identifies the location of the coffee hitting the saucer as 285° relative to the user's forward orientation of 0°. The acoustic editing program 200 identifies the location of the background music as surrounding the user (i.e., 360°), and identifies the location of the footsteps as transitioning between 220° and 160° relative to the user's forward orientation of 0°.

[0046] The acoustic editing program 200 displays the position of each sound in the audio clip with acoustic damping (304). The acoustic editing program 200 displays the position of each sound in the audio clip with acoustic damping in the AR or VR electronic device associated with the user. The acoustic editing program 200 displays the position of each sound clip of the audio clip relative to the user's position (i.e., the original position), and refers to Figure 4C Let's discuss the example in more detail. Based on the volume and damping level of each sound clip, the acoustic editing program 200 displays the location of each sound clip at an appropriate distance from the user's location. For example, the acoustic editing program 200 displays a higher volume sound clip at a location closer to the user than a lower volume sound clip at a location farther from the user.

[0047] The acoustic editing program 200 receives a modification to an audio segment with acoustic damping (306). In one embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 receives the modification to the audio segment with acoustic damping via a VR electronic device associated with a user, wherein the modification includes a change to the position of the sound segment from the audio segment. For example, the acoustic editing program 200 previously identified and displayed the position of the sound segment of the coffee cup hitting the saucer as 285° relative to the user's forward orientation of 0°. The acoustic editing program 200 receives the modification to the position via the VR electronic device, wherein the user drags the position of the sound segment of the coffee cup hitting the saucer to 20° relative to the user's forward orientation of 0°. In another embodiment, the acoustic editing program 200 receives the modification to the audio segment with acoustic damping via an AR electronic device associated with the user, wherein the modification includes a change to the damping of the sound segment from the audio segment. For example, the acoustic editing program 200 previously utilized a historical corpus of specific noises in the sound segment (e.g., unclear conversations in a cafe) to perform acoustic damping on the sound segment from the audio segment. However, unclear conversations in a cafe typically vary in volume because each person speaks from various locations within the cafe. The acoustic editing program 200 receives a modification via the VR electronic device, the modification comprising varying damping of the sound clip, wherein the volume increases and decreases at random intervals. In other embodiments, the acoustic editing program 200 may receive modifications comprising changing a damping ratio of a sound clip of an audio clip, a damping type of a sound clip of an audio clip (e.g., fully damped, varying damping, or no damping), a position of a sound clip of an audio clip relative to a user's position in an AR or VR environment, removing a sound clip from an audio clip, adding a sound clip to an audio clip, and modifications to the splicing of multiple sound clips of an audio clip.

[0048] The acoustic editing program 200 displays the modified audio clip with acoustic damping (308). Similar to displaying the visual representation and location of each sound clip from the audio clip, the acoustic editing program 200 displays the modified audio clip with acoustic damping in an AR or VR electronic device associated with the user. An administrative user of the acoustic editing program 200 can view the modifications performed on the audio clip with acoustic damping and can replay the modified audio clip with acoustic damping at that location. The replay can include the acoustic editing program 200 continuously looping the modified audio clip with acoustic damping for the location as long as the administrative user of the acoustic editing program 200 is present at the location.

[0049] The acoustic editing program 200 stores the modified audio clip with acoustic damping for the environment (310). The acoustic editing program 200 stores each sound clip of the modified audio clip with acoustic damping for each location in the AR or VR environment. By storing the modified audio clip with acoustic damping for each location in the AR or VR environment, and the subsequent user who enters experiences the modified audio clip with acoustic damping for the location in the AR or VR environment. The user who enters the location in the AR or VR environment can be an administrative user with optimal permissions, who can later change the modified audio clip with acoustic damping, or a non-administrative user who is experiencing the modified audio clip with acoustic damping for the location in the AR or VR environment. The acoustic editing program 200 updates the historical corpus with the modified audio clip with acoustic damping (312). The acoustic editing program 200 updates the historical corpus with each sound clip from the modified audio clip with acoustic damping for the location. The acoustic editing program 200 uses modifications received from the administrative user through the AR or VR electronic device for subsequent analysis and damping of audio clips at other locations, thereby reducing the amount of time it takes the administrative user to modify the audio clip with damping.

[0050] Figure 4A An illustrative example of multiple sound clips before splicing according to an embodiment of the present invention is depicted. In this example, the acoustic editing program 200 identifies an audio clip 400 in a VR environment for a management user having a VR electronic device at a specific location, determines that the audio clip 400 includes multiple sound clips, and segments the audio clip 400 into a first sound clip 402 and a second sound clip 404. Using the historical corpus, the acoustic editing program 200 determines that both the first sound clip 402 and the second sound clip 404 need to be damped based on the two sound clips matching entries in the historical corpus. The first sound clip 402 represents a first person who is not clearly speaking in the background, and the second sound clip 404 represents a second person who is not clearly speaking in the background. The acoustic editing program 200 determines to perform acoustic damping to reduce the silent moments represented by regions 406 and 408 of the audio clip 400, which may sound unnatural to other users due to the sharp volume changes between the first sound clip 402 and the second sound clip 404.

[0051] Figure 4B An illustrative example of a plurality of sound clips after being spliced ​​to create an aggregated sound clip is depicted in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4AIn the example of , the acoustic editing program 200 performs acoustic attenuation on the first sound segment 402 and the second sound segment 404 of the audio segment 400. Based on the historical corpus, the acoustic editing program 200 increases the oscillation of the attenuation of the first sound segment 402 and the second sound segment 404 by reducing the damping ratio until there is no longer a silent moment between the first sound segment 402 and the second sound segment 404. The acoustic editing program 200 adds a first damping portion 410 to the first sound segment 402, and adds a second damping portion 412 to the second sound segment 404. In this example, the sound segment 400 is repeatedly played in a loop, so the second damping portion 412 loops back to the first sound segment 402, completing the loop cycle of the audio segment 400 of the VR environment.

[0052] Figure 4C An illustrative example of modifying aggregated sound clips based on the directional source of each sound clip in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is depicted. Figure 4B and 4C In an example of, the acoustic editing program 200 displays a visual 414 in a VR electronic device associated with an administrative user, wherein the visual 414 provides the positions of a first sound segment 402 having a first damping portion 410 and a second sound segment 404 having a second damping portion 412 relative to the position of the administrative user. In this example, the acoustic editing program 200 identifies the position of the first sound segment 402 having the first damping portion 410 as 310° relative to the user's forward orientation of 0°, and identifies the position of the second sound segment 404 having the second damping portion 412 as 135° relative to the user's forward orientation of 0°. However, the acoustic editing program 200 receives a modification to the first sound segment 404 having the second damping portion 412 by the user dragging the visual representation from the 135° position relative to the user's forward orientation of 0° to the 45° position via the VR device. Additionally, the acoustic editing program 200 can increase or decrease the volume of the first sound segment 402 having the first damping portion 410 and the second sound segment 404 having the second damping portion 412 by dragging each visual representation closer to or further away from the user view 416, respectively.

[0053] The description of various embodiments of the present invention has been given for the purpose of illustration, but it is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein is selected to best explain the principles of the embodiments, practical applications, or technical improvements over existing technologies on the market, or to enable other persons of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: Identifying audio clips specific to the user's location in the environment; Segmenting the audio segment into a plurality of sound segments; in response to determining that at least one sound segment from the audio segments requires acoustic damping, performing the acoustic damping on the at least one sound segment, wherein a damping ratio for the at least one sound segment is changed; In response to determining that the plurality of sound segments are to be spliced, splicing the plurality of sound segments to form the audio segment, wherein the plurality of sound segments include the at least one sound segment having the acoustic damping; and A visual representation of the audio segment having the plurality of sound segments is displayed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the environment is an augmented reality environment or a virtual reality environment.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the visual representation of the audio segment having the plurality of sound segments is displayed in an augmented reality electronic device associated with the user or in a virtual reality electronic device associated with the user.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: It is determined based on a historical corpus that the at least one sound segment from the audio segments requires the acoustic damping, wherein the acoustic damping comprises complete damping of sound waves for the at least one sound segment.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: The at least one sound segment from the audio segments is determined to require the acoustic damping based on a historical corpus, wherein the acoustic damping comprises varying damping of sound waves for the at least one sound segment.

6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: in response to identifying a location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips relative to the location of the user, displaying the location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips in the augmented reality electronic device; receiving, via the augmented reality electronic device, a modification to the audio segment; storing a modified audio clip for the user's location in the augmented reality environment; as well as A historical corpus is updated with the modified audio segment for the location of the user in the augmented reality environment.

7. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: in response to identifying a location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips relative to the location of the user, displaying the location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips in the virtual reality electronic device; receiving, via the virtual reality electronic device, a modification to the audio segment; storing a modified audio clip for the user's position in the virtual reality environment; as well as A historical corpus is updated with the modified audio segment for the location of the user in the virtual reality environment.

8. A computer program product comprising: One or more computer-readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media capable of executing a method, the method comprising: Identifying audio clips specific to the user's location in the environment; Segmenting the audio segment into a plurality of sound segments; in response to determining that at least one sound segment from the audio segments requires acoustic damping, performing the acoustic damping on the at least one sound segment, wherein a damping ratio for the at least one sound segment is changed; In response to determining that the plurality of sound segments are to be spliced, splicing the plurality of sound segments to form the audio segment, wherein the plurality of sound segments include the at least one sound segment having the acoustic damping; and A visual representation of the audio segment having the plurality of sound segments is displayed.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the environment is an augmented reality environment or a virtual reality environment.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the visual representation of the audio segment having the plurality of sound segments is displayed in an augmented reality electronic device associated with the user or in a virtual reality electronic device associated with the user.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising: It is determined based on a historical corpus that the at least one sound segment from the audio segments requires the acoustic damping, wherein the acoustic damping comprises complete damping of sound waves for the at least one sound segment.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising: The at least one sound segment from the audio segments is determined to require the acoustic damping based on a historical corpus, wherein the acoustic damping comprises varying damping of sound waves for the at least one sound segment.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising: in response to identifying a location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips relative to the location of the user, displaying the location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips in the augmented reality electronic device; receiving, via the augmented reality electronic device, a modification to the audio segment; storing a modified audio clip for the user's location in the augmented reality environment; as well as A historical corpus is updated with the modified audio segment for the location of the user in the augmented reality environment.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising: in response to identifying a location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips relative to the location of the user, displaying the location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips in the virtual reality electronic device; receiving, via the virtual reality electronic device, a modification to the audio segment; storing a modified audio clip for the user's position in the virtual reality environment; as well as A historical corpus is updated with the modified audio segment for the location of the user in the virtual reality environment.

15. A computer system comprising: One or more computer processors, one or more computer-readable storage media, and program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions being capable of performing a method comprising: Identifying audio clips specific to the user's location in the environment; Segmenting the audio segment into a plurality of sound segments; in response to determining that at least one sound segment from the audio segments requires acoustic damping, performing the acoustic damping on the at least one sound segment, wherein a damping ratio for the at least one sound segment is changed; In response to determining that the plurality of sound segments are to be spliced, splicing the plurality of sound segments to form the audio segment, wherein the plurality of sound segments include the at least one sound segment having the acoustic damping; and A visual representation of the audio segment having the plurality of sound segments is displayed.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the environment is an augmented reality environment or a virtual reality environment.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the visual representation of the audio segment having the plurality of sound segments is displayed in an augmented reality electronic device associated with the user or in a virtual reality electronic device associated with the user.

18. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising: It is determined based on a historical corpus that the at least one sound segment from the audio segments requires the acoustic damping, wherein the acoustic damping comprises complete damping of sound waves for the at least one sound segment.

19. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising: The at least one sound segment from the audio segments is determined to require the acoustic damping based on a historical corpus, wherein the acoustic damping comprises varying damping of sound waves for the at least one sound segment.

20. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising: in response to identifying a location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips relative to the location of the user, displaying the location of each of the plurality of sound clips from the audio clips in the augmented reality electronic device; receiving, via the augmented reality electronic device, a modification to the audio segment; storing a modified audio clip for the user's location in the augmented reality environment; as well as A historical corpus is updated with the modified audio segment for the location of the user in the augmented reality environment.

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