Extended Reality Audio Processing System for Immersive Sound Simulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional extended reality technologies fail to provide a convincing and realistic reproduction of sound propagation, leading to a non-immersive audio experience due to insufficient mixing of complex soundscapes, which distracts users from the intended immersive experience.
Innovation Solution
An extended reality audio processing system that generates a composite binaural audio stream by accessing multiple audio streams and real-time acoustic propagation data, accounting for the pose of virtual audio sources and the user's avatar, to simulate how sounds propagate in the extended reality world, thereby enhancing the immersive experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional mixing methods are used for complex soundscapes, then the audio processing is simple and fast, but the audio realism and immersion are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an audio processing server as an intermediary between the extended reality system and the user device. This server performs complex acoustic propagation calculations and binaural rendering, transferring the computational burden from the user device to the server. The server acts as a mediator that generates processed audio streams with realistic sound propagation characteristics without requiring complex processing capabilities in the user device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical audio mixing approaches with a physics-based acoustic propagation model. Instead of simply mixing audio signals, the system calculates how sound waves actually propagate through the virtual environment, accounting for factors like distance, orientation, and acoustic properties. This substitution of mechanical mixing with physics-based simulation achieves higher audio realism.
2Manufacturing precision
If complex acoustic propagation calculations are performed locally, then audio realism is improved, but processing time and device requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The audio processing server serves as an intermediary that performs computationally intensive acoustic propagation calculations. By relocating these calculations to the server, the system maintains high acoustic accuracy while reducing the processing time burden on user devices. The server handles the time-consuming computations and returns results efficiently.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs acoustic propagation calculations in advance based on the virtual environment configuration and audio source positions. By pre-calculating propagation characteristics before audio playback, the system reduces real-time processing requirements while maintaining accurate acoustic simulation.
3Reliability
If binaural rendering with real-time pose data is implemented, then audio immersion is enhanced, but system complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The audio processing server acts as an intermediary that handles complex binaural rendering calculations. It receives pose data from the extended reality system, processes this information through sophisticated binaural algorithms, and generates the final rendered audio stream. This intermediary approach enhances audio immersion while keeping the user device relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The audio processing server provides multiple functions: acoustic propagation calculation, binaural rendering, and adaptive audio stream generation. By consolidating these diverse functions in a single multi-functional server, the system achieves high audio immersion without distributing complexity across multiple components.
4Manufacturing precision
If advanced audio processing is performed on user devices, then audio quality is improved, but hardware requirements and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The audio processing server serves as an intermediary that performs advanced audio processing centrally. This eliminates the need for expensive audio processing hardware in user devices, as all complex processing is handled by the server. The user device only needs basic audio playback capabilities, significantly reducing hardware requirements and manufacturing costs.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring each user device to have advanced audio processing capabilities, the system creates a virtual copy of the acoustic environment through the server's simulations. The server generates audio streams that replicate realistic sound propagation, allowing standard hardware to deliver high audio quality through software-based acoustic modeling.
Data Source
AI summary
An exemplary audio processing system accesses audio stream data representative of a plurality of virtual sounds that virtually originate within an extended reality world and include real-time captured speech originating from a speaking user experiencing the extended reality world and a prerecorded or synthesized sound originating from a real audio source. The audio processing system also accesses acoustic propagation data representative of characteristics that affect propagation within the extended reality world of the virtual sounds to a listening avatar. As the virtual sounds propagate to the listening avatar, the audio processing system renders, based on the audio stream data and the acoustic propagation data, a composite binaural audio stream that represents simulated reproductions of the virtual sounds. The simulated reproductions of the virtual sounds are customized to account for the characteristics that affect the propagation of the virtual sounds to the listening avatar. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.