Spatial Audio Rendering for Directional Digital Assistant Responses
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing interactions between users and assistant-enabled devices primarily rely on voice input, lacking spatial audio support which limits the ability to discern the responding device and its location, especially when devices are not directly in the user's space.
Innovation Solution
Implementing spatial audio capabilities in stereo headphones to render responses as if they emanate from specific locations within the environment, using digital assistant mappings, user directional mappings, and arbitration processes to identify and position the responding device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If spatial audio rendering is implemented in stereo headphones, then spatial awareness of responding devices is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces spatial audio rendering as an intermediary layer between the digital assistant response and the user's auditory perception. This mediator processes the audio output to create spatial effects, allowing users to perceive device locations without adding physical spatial components to the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates auditory copies of device locations by mapping physical device positions to corresponding spatial positions in the audio field. Instead of requiring users to physically locate devices, the system generates acoustic representations that replicate spatial information.
2Ease of operation
If digital assistant mappings and arbitration processes are implemented, then ability to direct queries to specific devices is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary mapping of digital assistants to spatial locations and device identifiers before query processing. This pre-established mapping allows for rapid arbitration and query routing without requiring complex real-time calculations when a query is issued.
Solution Approach 2:
The arbitration process incorporates feedback mechanisms that learn from user interactions and query patterns. By analyzing which devices users prefer to interact with in different contexts, the system optimizes query routing decisions over time, reducing processing requirements for future queries.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes, while a user is wearing stereo headphones in an environment, obtaining, from a target digital assistant, a response to a query issued by the user, and obtaining spatial audio preferences of the user. Based on the spatial audio preferences of the user, the method also includes determining a spatially disposed location within a playback sound-field for the user to perceive as a sound-source of the response to the query. The method further includes rendering output audio signals characterizing the response to the query through the stereo headphones to produce the playback sound-field. Here, the user perceives the response to the query as emanating from the sound-source at the spatially disposed location within the playback sound-field.