Virtualized Reverberation Rendering With Segmented BRIR Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing techniques for rendering audio signals with reverberation are computationally expensive and time-consuming, especially when using high-order processing methods, and often fail to accurately capture the reverberation effects of an acoustic space due to the difficulty in obtaining and generating room impulse responses.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the separation of binaural room impulse responses into low-frequency and high-frequency components, where high-frequency components are processed using less precise but more efficient techniques, and low-frequency components are processed using both direct and reflected sound portions of the impulse response, reducing computational cost while maintaining accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If high-order processing techniques are used to convolve the audio signal with a room impulse response, then the accuracy of reverberation rendering is improved, but the computational cost and processing time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the room impulse response into two distinct windows: a first window containing direct sound (early arriving sound) and a second window containing reflected sound (later arriving sound/reverberation tail). This segmentation allows different processing techniques to be applied to each window - high-order processing for the direct sound portion to maintain accuracy, and lower-order processing for the reverberation tail to reduce computational cost. The patent implements this by dividing the impulse response data structure into two separate processing paths, each optimized for its specific acoustic characteristics.
2Productivity
If the room impulse response is divided into direct sound and reflected sound windows, then the computational efficiency is improved, but the accuracy of capturing reverberation effects deteriorates when using modeled RIR instead of measured RIR
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a measured room impulse response as an intermediary that captures the actual acoustic characteristics of a specific acoustic space. Instead of relying on theoretical models, the measured RIR serves as a direct representation of the real acoustic environment, preserving authentic reverberation effects. The patent obtains these measured RIRs through acoustic measurements in the target space, which then serve as the basis for the segmented processing approach, ensuring both computational efficiency and acoustic accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for processing audio. The method includes obtaining a binaural room impulse response (BRIR) of an acoustic space, receiving an input audio signal, separating the input audio signal into low-frequency components and high-frequency components, and dividing the BRIR of the acoustic space into a first portion that occurs before a first time and a second portion that occurs after the first time. The method further includes generating a first component of an output audio signal based on the high-frequency components of the input audio signal and the first portion of the BRIR, generating a second component of the output audio signal based on the high-frequency components of the input audio signal and the second portion of the BRIR, generating a third component of the output audio signal based on the low-frequency components of the input audio signal and the BRIR, and outputting the output audio signal.