Masking zone in metadata for spatial audio rendering
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsDipanjan Sen, Moo Young Kim, Francois Becker, Sang Uk Ryu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The various aspects of the disclosure here enable a content creation side to control how a sound program is spatial audio rendered by a decoding side, so that an audio scene component in a metadata-specified three dimensional acoustic masking zone is not heard while another audio scene component in an un-masked zone of the sound program is heard by a listener of the playback. Other aspects are also described and claimed.
Claims18
A method performed in a decoding side for spatial audio rendering using metadata, the method comprising:
- decoding a sound program from a bitstream;
- and
- receiving metadata of the sound program, wherein the metadata specifies a masking zone and instructs a process on whether to attenuate the sound program while the process is spatial audio rendering the sound program for playback so that one or more audio scene components of the sound program that are located in the masking zone are not heard while one or more other audio scene components of the sound program that are located outside the masking zone in an un-masked zone are heard by a listener of the playback,
- wherein the metadata further specifies a transition zone that abuts the masking zone and is in between the masking zone and the un-masked zone, the process to perform a gain transition when rendering the sound program by applying a low gain to the masking zone, an intermediate gain to the transition zone, wherein the intermediate gain is greater than the low gain, and a high gain to the un-masked zone, wherein the high gain is greater than the intermediate gain.
An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory machine-readable having contained therein instructions that when executed by a processor:
- receive a sound program decoded from a bitstream;
- receive metadata of the sound program;
- and
- determine, in accordance with a masking zone specified in the metadata whether to attenuate the sound program while the sound program is being spatial audio rendered for a playback so that one or more audio scene components of the sound program that are located in the masking zone are not heard while one or more other audio scene components of the sound program that are located outside the masking zone in an un-masked zone are heard by a listener of the playback,
- wherein the metadata further specifies a transition zone that abuts the masking zone and is in between the masking zone and the un-masked zone, and the processor performs a gain transition when rendering the sound program for the playback by applying a low gain to the masking zone, an intermediate gain to the transition zone, wherein the intermediate gain is greater than the low gain, and a high gain to the un-masked zone, wherein the high gain is greater than the intermediate gain.
An article of manufacture comprising:
- a non-transitory machine-readable medium having therein metadata of a sound program, the metadata comprising:
- a masking zone, wherein the metadata instructs a process on whether to attenuate the sound program while the process is spatial audio rendering the sound program for playback so that one or more audio scene components of the sound program that are located in the masking zone are not heard while one or more other audio scene components of the sound program that are located outside the masking zone in an un-masked zone are heard by a listener of the playback,
- wherein the metadata further specifies a transition zone that abuts the masking zone and is in between the masking zone and the un-masked zone, in response to which the process performs a gain transition when spatial audio rendering the sound program by applying a low gain to the masking zone, an intermediate gain to the transition zone, wherein the intermediate gain is greater than the low gain, and a high gain to the un-masked zone, wherein the high gain is greater than the intermediate gain.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.