Spatial audio in video conference calls based on content type or participant role
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsKarsten Seipp, Jae Pum Park, Anton Volkov
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for multi-attendee video conferencing are described. A system can perform spatial audio modulation techniques in video conference calls based on content type or participant role. In particular, by assigning user roles and content types to specific regions in a two- or three-dimensional audio sound space or “soundstage,” users can identify—simply by listening—the source of the audio (e.g., who the current speaker is and/or whether the sound came from a specific type of content). Thus, in example implementations of the present disclosure, each of a number of conference roles and/or content types can be allocated a particular virtual location within the audio soundstage.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for providing spatial audio within a videoconferencing application, the method comprising:
- receiving, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, a plurality of audiovisual streams respectively associated with a plurality of participants in a video conference, wherein each audiovisual stream comprises audio data and visual data;
- for at least a first audiovisual stream of the plurality of audiovisual streams:
- determining, by the computing system, a conferencing attribute for the first audiovisual stream, wherein the conferencing attribute is descriptive of one or both of:
- a content type associated with the first audiovisual stream or a participant role associated with the first audiovisual stream;
- determining, by the computing system, a first virtual audio location for the first audiovisual stream within an audio soundstage based at least in part on the conferencing attribute;
- and
- modifying, by the computing system, the audio data associated with the first audiovisual stream to cause playback of the audio data to have the first virtual audio location within the audio soundstage;
- and
- providing, by the computing system, the plurality of audiovisual streams including the first audiovisual stream having the modified audio data for audiovisual playback in the video conference.
A computing system, comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media that store instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
- receiving, by the computing system, a plurality of audiovisual streams respectively associated with a plurality of participants in a video conference, wherein each audiovisual stream comprises audio data and visual data;
- for at least a first audiovisual stream of the plurality of audiovisual streams:
- determining, by the computing system, a conferencing attribute for the first audiovisual stream, wherein the conferencing attribute is descriptive of one or both of:
- a content type associated with the first audiovisual stream or a participant role associated with the first audiovisual stream;
- determining, by the computing system, a first virtual audio location for the first audiovisual stream within an audio soundstage based at least in part on the conferencing attribute;
- and
- modifying, by the computing system, the audio data associated with the first audiovisual stream to cause playback of the audio data to have the first virtual audio location within the audio soundstage;
- and
- providing, by the computing system, the plurality of audiovisual streams including the first audiovisual stream having the modified audio data for audiovisual playback in the video conference.
One or more non-transitory computer-readable media that store instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations to calibrate audio for a participant of a video conference, the operations comprising:
- causing playback of audio data with an audio playback device while modifying a virtual audio location of the audio data within an audio soundstage;
- receiving input data provided by the participant of a video conference during modification of virtual audio location of the audio data within an audio soundstage;
- determining, based on the input data provided by the participant of the video conference, a physical location of the participant of the video conference relative to an audio playback device;
- and
- using the physical location of the participant of the video conference relative to an audio playback device to modify one or more other audio signals from other participants of the video conference to cause playback of the one or more other audio signals by the audio playback device to have a desired virtual location in an audio soundstage generated for the participant of the video conference during the video conference.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.