# US 11,310,619 B2 · Signal processing device and method, and program

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- Number: US 11,310,619 B2
- Document ID: US11310619B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/770,565
- Filed: 2018-11-28
- Published: 2021-06-03
- Granted: 2022-04-19
- Earliest claimed: 2017-12-12
- Assignees: Sony Corporation
- Applicants: Sony Corporation
- Inventors: Hiroyuki Honma; Toru Chinen
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11310619B2

## CPC

- H04S 7/30: {Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field}
- H04S 7/303: {Tracking of listener position or orientation}
- H04S 3/002: {Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution (control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field H04S7/30)}
- H04S 3/008: {in which the audio signals are in digital form, i.e. employing more than two discrete digital channels (data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02)}
- G10L 19/008: Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing
- H04S 2400/01: Multi-channel, i.e. more than two input channels, sound reproduction with two speakers wherein the multi-channel information is substantially preserved
- H04S 2400/11: Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field (H04S2420/13 takes precedence)
- H04S 2420/01: Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD]
- H04S: STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS
- G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING

## Abstract

The present technology relates to a signal processing device and method, and a program for improving reproducibility of a sound image with a small amount of calculation. A signal processing device includes a rendering method selection unit configured to select one or more methods of rendering processing of localizing a sound image of an audio signal in a listening space from among a plurality of methods, and a rendering processing unit configured to perform the rendering processing for the audio signal by the method selected by the rendering method selection unit. The present technology can be applied to a signal processing device.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A signal processing device comprising:
processing circuitry configured to:
select at least one method of rendering processing of localizing a sound image of an audio signal in a listening space from among a plurality of methods; and
perform the rendering processing for the audio signal by the selected at least one method, wherein the audio signal is an audio signal of an audio object, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to select three-dimensional vector-based amplitude panning (VBAP) for performing rendering processing when a distance from a listening position to the audio object is equal to or greater than a predetermined first distance, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to select a head-related transfer function for performing rendering processing when the distance from the listening position to the audio object is less than a second distance, the second distance being less than the predetermined first distance, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to select the three-dimensional VBAP and the head-related transfer function for performing rendering processing when the distance from the listening position to the audio object is less than the predetermined first distance and greater than the second distance.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The signal processing device according to claim 1, wherein
the rendering processing using the head-related transfer function is transaural processing or binaural processing.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The signal processing device according to claim 1, wherein
the processing circuitry is configured to select the head-related transfer function to be used for the rendering processing such that a difference between the head-related transfer function for a left ear and the head-related transfer function for a right ear becomes smaller as the distance becomes closer to the predetermined first distance.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The signal processing device according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to combine a signal obtained by the three-dimensional VBAP processing and a signal obtained by the rendering processing using the head-related transfer function to generate an output audio signal.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The signal processing device according to claim 1, wherein
the processing circuitry is configured to select the at least one method specified in metadata of the audio signal as the method of the rendering processing.

### Claim 6

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, perform a signal processing method comprising:
selecting at least one method of rendering processing of localizing a sound image of an audio signal in a listening space from among a plurality of methods; and
performing the rendering processing for the audio signal by the selected at least one method, wherein the audio signal is an audio signal of an audio object, wherein the three dimensional VBAP is selected three-dimensional vector-based amplitude panning (VBAP) is selected for performing rendering processing when a distance from a listening position to the audio object is equal to or greater than a predetermined first distance, wherein a head-related transfer function is selected for performing rendering processing when the distance from the listening position to the audio object is less than a second distance, the second distance being less than the predetermined first distance, and wherein the three-dimensional VBAP and the head-related transfer function are selected for performing rendering processing when the distance from the listening position to the audio object is less than the predetermined first distance and greater than the second distance.