Sound System Evaluation Metric Using Spherical Energy Normalization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current sound system evaluation methods are complex and costly, requiring sophisticated simulation engines to assess sound energy distribution in acoustic environments, especially in varying spaces like personal living areas versus amphitheaters, and often fail to efficiently quantify sound system performance due to computational expense and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A method representing an audience space on a sphere centered with the sound system, calculating energy efficiency by determining the energy reaching the audience space relative to the total energy produced, and normalizing this efficiency by the area ratio to generate a score, such as the Audience Q metric, which simplifies sound system evaluation by using a sphere divided into equilateral triangles for energy calculation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If sophisticated simulation engines are used to assess sound energy distribution, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The sphere representing the audience space is divided into multiple discrete sections or zones. Energy calculations are performed for each section individually by dividing the sphere into substantially equal sized sections, comprising a set of n sample points, then summing the energy values across all sections to obtain total energy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces expensive, complex simulation engines with a simplified computational approach using basic geometric calculations on a sphere. This uses inexpensive computational methods (simple area ratios and energy summations) rather than sophisticated simulation software, achieving adequate precision at much lower cost and complexity.
2Measurement precision
If complex simulation engines are used, then measurement precision is improved, but productivity decreases due to computational expense
Solution Approach 1:
The audience space is segmented into discrete spherical sections with sample points, allowing parallel or sequential calculation of energy values without requiring complex iterative simulations. This segmentation enables efficient computation while maintaining measurement capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses simple, computationally inexpensive calculations (sphere area formulas, basic energy summations) instead of expensive simulation engines. This achieves adequate measurement precision with dramatically reduced computational expense, improving productivity and evaluation speed.
3Measurement precision
If energy calculations are performed for the entire sphere, then measurement precision is improved, but use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary information from the full spherical model by calculating energy at discrete sample points and using area ratios. Instead of performing exhaustive energy calculations across the entire continuous sphere, it samples specific points and uses geometric relationships to derive the efficiency metric, reducing computational energy requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided are a system and method for evaluating sound system performance, comprising: representing an audience space is represented on a surface of a sphere. The sphere has a center that is substantially collocated with a center of a sound system. An efficiency of the sound system is calculated by determining an amount of energy produced by the sound system that reaches the audience space projected onto the sphere relative to a total amount of energy produced by the sound system. A metric is generated for a function by normalizing the efficiency by a ratio of an area of the audience space relative to a total area of the sphere to produce a score for the performance of the sound system.