Near-Field HRIR Computation for Area Sound Sources
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for determining head-related impulse responses (HRIRs) for area-volumetric sound sources in virtual-reality systems are inefficient, particularly when these sources are located within a near-field distance, requiring significant hardware resources and time, which leads to latency issues and poor performance in generating accurate virtual acoustic environments.
Innovation Solution
A novel approach is introduced that projects incoming sound energy from area-volumetric sound sources onto the spherical harmonic domain to compute near-field HRIRs, which involves dividing the virtual sphere into successive shells and computing HRIRs for each shell, then combining these to form a final HRIR, allowing for efficient generation of accurate audio data for complex virtual environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional methods are used to compute near-field HRIRs for area-volumetric sound sources, then accurate sound reproduction is achieved, but significant hardware resources and time are required, leading to latency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the near-field computation problem into multiple discrete distance slices (e.g., d1=0.1m, d2=0.2m, ..., d10=1.0m). Each slice is processed independently to compute HRIRs at specific distances, and these individual HRIRs are then combined to form the final near-field HRIR. This segmentation reduces computational complexity and enables parallel processing, thereby reducing latency while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent pre-computes and stores HRIRs at discrete distance slices in advance. When a near-field sound source is encountered during runtime, the system retrieves pre-computed HRIRs from memory and combines them according to the sound source's distance, rather than computing HRIRs from scratch in real-time. This preliminary action significantly reduces runtime computational load and latency.
2Measurement precision
If conventional methods are used to compute near-field HRIRs, then accurate virtual acoustic environment is generated, but significant hardware resources are required
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the computation into discrete distance slices, the patent reduces the mathematical complexity of near-field HRIR computation. Each slice uses simplified formulas based on far-field HRTFs and geometric relationships, avoiding the need for complex near-field acoustic modeling. This segmentation enables implementation on devices with limited computational resources while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces discrete distance slices as intermediary structures between the listener and area-volumetric sound sources. These slices act as computational intermediaries that simplify the complex near-field acoustic calculations by breaking them into manageable steps, reducing the overall computational burden on hardware resources.
3Measurement precision
If discrete slices are used to compute HRIRs at multiple distances, then accurate near-field HRIR is obtained, but computation time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-computes HRIRs at discrete distance slices and stores them in memory before runtime. During actual use, the system simply retrieves these pre-computed values and combines them based on the sound source's distance, transforming a computationally intensive real-time operation into a fast memory access and combination operation. This preliminary action resolves the contradiction between accuracy and computation speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a dynamic computation strategy where the level of detail in HRIR computation adapts to the specific应用场景. For sound sources at standard distances, pre-computed HRIRs are used directly. For intermediate distances, intermediate slices are combined. This dynamic approach optimizes computation speed while maintaining accuracy across all distances.
Data Source
AI summary
A virtual-reality device displays a virtual scene. The device generates audio data for an area source in the virtual scene. The area source is within a predefined near-field distance from the listener. The device selects sample points from the area source and determines, for each sample, energy contributions to two respective successive shells of spherical shells that extend from the listener to the predefined near-field distance. The two shells enclose the sample point source, and the determined energy contributions correspond to sound originating from the sample point source. For each shell, the device determines a head-related impulse response (HRIR) by combining the determined energy contributions for that shell. The device determines an overall HRIR for the virtual scene by combining the determined HRIRs for the shells and combines the audio data with the overall HRIR. The device transmits the combined audio data to sound-producing elements of the device.