Audio Content Transformation Using Personal Hearing Profiles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio processing methods fail to accurately replicate the subjective listening experience intended by a creative producer across different listeners due to individual differences in hearing acuity and perceptual biases, leading to variations in sound intensity, pitch, and positional cues.
Innovation Solution
The method involves identifying and capturing Personal Waveform Profiles (PWP) for both the creative producer and listeners, using these profiles to transform audio content through algorithms that adjust frequency, phase, and other audio characteristics to align the listening experience of one listener with that of another, such as the producer, by employing digital signal processors and audiometric testing tools.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If audio content is delivered using conventional high-fidelity reproduction methods, then objective audio quality is maintained, but subjective listening experience varies among listeners due to individual hearing differences
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by customizing the audio signal processing for each individual listener based on their unique hearing characteristics. Instead of applying a uniform high-fidelity reproduction to all listeners, the system adjusts frequency response, timing, and spatial characteristics locally for each listener's specific auditory profile, thereby achieving consistent subjective experience across different individuals while maintaining objective audio quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes parameter changes by modifying audio signal parameters (frequency response, phase, timing, spatial positioning) based on measured hearing thresholds and perceptual characteristics of individual listeners. The system dynamically adjusts these parameters to compensate for each listener's specific hearing deficiencies and perceptual biases, transforming the audio content to achieve subjective fidelity to the producer's intent for that particular listener.
2Manufacturing precision
If audio content is transformed to compensate for individual hearing differences, then subjective listening experience consistency improves, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by obtaining and storing hearing threshold and perceptual characteristic measurements for each listener in advance. These pre-acquired auditory profiles are then used to pre-compute or quickly apply appropriate signal transformations when audio content is delivered, avoiding the need for complex real-time measurements and reducing processing complexity during actual audio playback while maintaining subjective experience consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying by creating digital representations (profiles) of each listener's hearing characteristics and perceptual biases. These copied profiles are then applied as transformation parameters to audio signals, allowing the system to replicate the producer's intended listening experience for each listener without requiring complex real-time analysis of individual hearing differences during audio playback.
Data Source
AI summary
A method or apparatus for delivering audio programming such as music to listeners may include identifying, capturing and applying a listener's audiometric profile to transform audio content so that the listener hears the content similarly to how the content was originally heard by a creative producer of the content. An audio testing tool may be implemented as software application to identify and capture the listener's audiometric profile. A signal processor may operate an algorithm used for processing source audio content, obtaining an identity and an audiometric reference profile of the creative producer from metadata associated with the content. The signal processor may then provide audio output based on a difference between the listener's and creative producer's audiometric profiles.