Mixed Reality Audio Correction for User Position and Orientation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing virtual and mixed reality audio systems fail to effectively correct for location and orientation-dependent acoustic distortions in environments, leading to inconsistent sound quality as users move within the space.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a head-mounted display with microphones and user tracking, coupled with a processor that adjusts audio signals in real-time to compensate for environmental acoustic distortions, ensuring consistent sound quality across different locations and orientations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If room correction systems are designed to improve spectral balance for a single primary listening location, then sound quality is improved at that location, but sound quality degrades at other locations
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts audio correction parameters based on the user's real-time position and orientation within the environment. Instead of a static correction optimized for one location, the system continuously adapts the equalization, delay, and filtering parameters as the user moves, maintaining consistent sound quality across multiple locations. This is achieved through real-time tracking of user position and orientation data, which triggers recalculation and application of location-specific correction profiles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates and applies location-specific correction profiles for different positions and orientations within the environment. Each location has its own optimized set of equalization, delay, and filtering parameters tailored to the acoustic characteristics at that specific spot. This allows the system to maintain high sound quality at multiple discrete locations rather than compromising for a single sweet spot.
2Adaptability or versatility
If tracking data is collected to simulate motion in digital world, then user immersion is improved, but acoustic effects of physical space are not considered
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges motion tracking data with acoustic correction data to create a unified system that handles both virtual motion simulation and physical acoustic compensation. The tracking data that drives virtual camera movement and head-related transfer functions is combined with microphone-based acoustic measurements, allowing the system to simultaneously maintain virtual reality immersion and correct for real-world acoustic distortions at each tracked position.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces acoustic measurement data from microphones as an intermediary between the tracking system and the audio output. This intermediary layer captures the actual acoustic effects present in the physical environment and uses this information to adjust the audio signals, ensuring that the motion simulation remains accurate with respect to both virtual and physical acoustic realities.
3Manufacturing precision
If audio signals are adjusted in real-time based on user position, then sound quality consistency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary acoustic measurements and pre-calculates correction profiles for multiple predetermined positions and orientations within the environment before the user begins interacting with the content. These correction profiles, including equalization, delay, and filtering parameters, are computed in advance and stored for rapid retrieval and application. When the user moves to a tracked position, the system simply applies the pre-computed correction profile for that location, avoiding the need for complex real-time calculations during content consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system updates acoustic correction parameters at periodic intervals or at predetermined trigger points rather than continuously. This periodic updating approach maintains sound quality consistency by refreshing corrections at key moments (such as when the user enters a new tracked zone or after a threshold movement distance is reached), reducing the computational burden while still providing consistent audio experience across different locations.
Data Source
AI summary
A virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and/or mixed reality (MR) system in a physical environment with a plurality of loudspeakers includes a user-worn head mounted display (HMD), a VR/AR/MR processor, and a VR/AR/MR user tracking processor. The HMD includes a microphone and a user tracking device configured to track a user orientation and position. The VR/AR/MR processor delivers a digital video signal to the head-mounted display, and a digital control signal and a digital audio signal to a receiver/preamplifier. The VR/AR/MR user tracking processor receives user tracking data from the HMD user tracking device and provides a digital user tracking data signal to the receiver preamplifier. the receiver/preamplifier receives the digital user tracking data signal, the digital control signal, the digitized microphone signal, and the digital audio signal, and provides a processed audio signal to the amplifier. An amplifier receives the processed audio signal and provides amplified audio signals.