3D Sound Rendering via Server-Side Audio Clustering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video conference systems face challenges in processing and rendering 3D sound environments with multiple sound sources, particularly in client-side devices with limited resources, making it unfeasible to provide a good virtual experience for large gatherings.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that cluster sound sources into groups and sub-groups, allowing client devices to process a reduced number of sound sources, with a server consolidating and transmitting sound information to each participant, optimizing resource usage and reducing latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sound reconstruction is performed in a 3D environment with many sound sources, then the virtual experience quality is improved, but the processing resources required increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the set of sound sources into multiple clusters or groups based on spatial proximity and acoustic characteristics. Each cluster is processed separately with its own virtual microphone and acoustic model, reducing the computational complexity from O(N) to O(log N) or O(1) effective processing units while maintaining realistic 3D sound reconstruction quality.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple individual sound sources that are spatially close or acoustically similar are merged into a single representative virtual source within each cluster. This consolidation reduces the total number of independent processing streams while preserving the collective acoustic behavior of the grouped sources through weighted averaging or principal component analysis.
2Measurement precision
If all sound sources are processed individually on client-side devices, then sound accuracy is improved, but device resource limitations make it unfeasible for large gatherings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces server-side preprocessing that performs initial clustering and virtual microphone placement before transmitting processed audio data to client devices. This intermediary step reduces the complexity burden on client-side devices while maintaining sound accuracy through preserved spatial relationships and pre-computed acoustic parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
Different processing strategies are applied to different spatial regions: nearby sound sources maintain individual processing for high accuracy, while distant sources are grouped into clusters with shared virtual microphones. This local differentiation optimizes the balance between sound accuracy and device complexity based on spatial importance.
3Quantity of substance
If the virtual environment includes many participants, then the completeness of the virtual gathering is improved, but the bandwidth and resource demands increase
Solution Approach 1:
Audio streams from multiple participants are merged at the server level into cluster-based virtual microphones, reducing the total number of independent audio streams from N to log(N) or sqrt(N). This consolidation significantly reduces network bandwidth requirements while preserving the ability to distinguish between different spatial groups of participants.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from processing individual participant audio streams to processing spatially-grouped acoustic fields. By organizing participants into hierarchical clusters (groups within groups), the system reduces dimensionality from N individual sources to a manageable number of virtual sources, enabling large gatherings to be rendered with feasible bandwidth and computational resources.
Data Source
AI summary
A method that includes (a) receiving sound information, at a computerized system of a given participant out of multiple groups of participants of a virtual three dimensional (3D) conference call, wherein the given participant belongs to a given group of the multiple groups of participants, wherein the sound information comprises (i) given group sound information that comprises sound sources related to participants of the given group that are allocated on a sub-group basis, (ii) other group sound information regarding sound that comprises sound sources related to participants of one or more groups that differ from the given group that are allocated on a group basis; and (b) generating by the computerized system, a sound representation of the virtual 3D conference call, based on the sound information.