Virtual Speaker Positioning for Ear-Worn Audio Spatial Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional surround sound systems fail to provide an immersive audio experience when audio is played on ear-worn devices, as the spatialization of audio is not well-aligned with the visual elements, leading to a reduced immersive experience, especially when using ear-worn audio devices for previously recorded and mixed AV presentations.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for remixing audio to generate 3D audio by adjusting virtual speaker locations based on video content and user position/orientation, using adjustable filters, delays, and amplifiers to create a virtual surround sound setup that mimics the real surround sound environment, enhancing the immersive experience by simulating the spatial perception of sounds originating from specific virtual locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional surround sound systems are used for AV presentations, then the audio can be played on multiple real speakers arranged in a fixed layout, but the spatialization of audio is not well-aligned with visual elements when using ear-worn devices, leading to reduced immersive experience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual replica of the real surround sound setup by defining virtual speaker locations that mirror the physical speaker arrangement. This virtual copy can then be adapted to different playback devices including ear-worn devices, maintaining the spatial relationships and alignment between audio and visual elements regardless of the actual playback hardware configuration
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms audio from a fixed real surround sound format to a flexible virtual surround sound format by modifying parameters such as virtual speaker locations, audio channel assignments, and spatialization characteristics. This allows the same AV presentation to be accurately reproduced on various devices including ear-worn devices while maintaining proper audio-visual spatial alignment
2Adaptability or versatility
If real surround sound setup is used, then audio channels can be distributed to multiple physical speakers, but the system cannot adapt to ear-worn devices which have limited speaker configuration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual surround sound setup as an intermediary layer between the original real surround sound mix and the final playback on various devices. This virtual setup acts as a mediator that can be mathematically transformed to suit different playback configurations, including ear-worn devices with limited speakers, without requiring complex device-specific processing for each target device
Solution Approach 2:
By creating a universal virtual surround sound representation that encapsulates the spatial and channel information in a device-agnostic format, the system enables a single audio processing pipeline to serve multiple playback scenarios. The virtual setup can be adaptively rendered to any device type, from traditional multi-speaker systems to ear-worn devices, reducing the need for separate complex processing chains for each device category
Data Source
AI summary
Audiovisual presentations, such as film recordings, may have been originally created having an audio soundtrack with multiple audio tracks mixed for a surround sound system that includes a set of speakers physically surrounding a user. The present disclosure presents systems and methods to remix these soundtracks into 3D audio that when presented to the ears of a user can be perceived as a virtual surround sound system that mimics the physical system. What is more, the disclosed systems and methods can enhance the virtual surround sound system by adjusting virtual speakers of the virtual surround sound system according to video content of the audiovisual presentation. Further enhancement may be possible by adjusting the virtual speakers of the virtual surround sound system according to a sensed position of a user.