Method for managing an audio stream using an image acquisition device and associated decoder equipment

A method for managing an audio stream read by at least one audio playback equipment unit comprising at least two pieces of audio playback equipment, said at least one audio playback equipment unit being arranged in a given place, comprising:

• detecting on at least one image acquired by at least one image acquisition device of the given place, a user present on the at least one image and deducing from this, for the user, at least one piece of information characteristic of the position of the user in said image;
• determining at least from said characteristic information, an optimal bearing angle (βopt) defined by the angle formed between:
• an axis of the image acquisition device, and
• an axis along which a sound played back by the at least one audio playback equipment unit is propagated to reach the user present on the image, wherein the optimal bearing angle (βopt) is linked to a spatial average of the position of different users appearing on the image, the optimal bearing angle being then given by the formula:
• βopt=tan−1(2x/W tanα/2)
• where:
• x means an x-axis average or an y-axis average linked to each of the faces detected on the image;
• βopt means the optimal bearing angle;
• W means the width of the image acquired in pixels;
• and
• α means the angle of the field of the image acquisition device in a horizontal plane, or
• wherein the optimal bearing angle (βopt) is linked to an angular average of the position of different users appearing on the image, a bearing angle β being then calculated for each face detected from the x-axis or y-axis linked to said face by:
• β=tan−1(2x/W tanα/2)
• wherein x is the optimal bearing angle βopt being thus given by the average of said different bearing angles β, or
• wherein the optimal bearing angle (βopt) is linked to the positions of two users farthest away from one another on the image from among the different users appearing on the image, the optimal bearing angle (βopt) being determined from the minimum x-axis and maximum x-axis, or from the minimum y-axis and maximum y-axis, linked to the detected faces, by calculation of the corresponding bearing angles βmin and βmax with the formula:
• βmin=tan−1(2xmin/W tanα/2)
• βmax=tan−1(2xmax/W tanα/2)
• the optimal bearing angle βopt being thus defined as being the average of βmin and βmax;
• and
• providing mixing means distributing the audio stream between the different audio playback equipment of said at least one audio playback equipment unit, a magnitude characteristic of the optimal bearing angle, such that the mixing means distribute the audio stream at least according to said magnitude characteristic.