Virtual spatial sound scape

An apparatus for spatialized audio comprising:

• a set of headphones for placing on the head of the user, the headphones having a left earpiece and a right earpiece for receiving left and right, respectively, analog audio signals, each earpiece having an accelerometer and a tilt sensor for tracking the location and orientation of each earpiece;
• a headphone position processor to receive headphone location and orientation information from the headphones;
• a plurality of left side virtual speaker location processors (VSLPs), each left side VSLP having a first input channel to receive a digital signal containing left side audio information from a digital audio stream, a second input channel to receive a digital signal containing left earpiece location and orientation information from the headphone position processor, and an output channel to output a digital signal containing left side audio information comprising the left side digital audio stream as modified by the left earpiece location and orientation information;
• a plurality of right side virtual speaker location processors (VSLPs), each right side VSLP having a first input channel to receive a digital signal containing right side audio information from a digital audio stream, a second input channel to receive a digital signal containing right earpiece location and orientation information from the headphone position processor, and an output channel to output a digital signal containing right side audio information comprising the right side digital audio stream as modified by the right earpiece location and orientation information;
• a summing processor having a first input channel to receive the left side digital output signals from the VSLPs, a summing function to sum the left side digital output signals received from the VSLPs, and a first output channel to output the summed left side digital output signals received from the VSLPs, and a second input channel to receive the right side digital output signals from the VSLPs, a summing function to sum the right side digital output signals received from the VSLPs, and a second output channel to output the summed right side digital output signals received from the VSLPs;
• a first digital to analog (D/A) converter to receive the summed left side digital output signals received from the VSLPs and convert the summed left side digital output signals received from the VSLPs to a left side analog signal and output the left side analog signal to the left earpiece of the headphones;
• and
• a second digital to analog (D/A) converter to receive the summed right side digital output signals received from the VSLPs and convert the summed right side digital output signals received from the VSLPs to a right side analog signal and output the right side analog signal to the right earpiece of the headphones.

A method for spatialized audio using an apparatus comprising a set of headphones having an accelerometer and a tilt sensor, the method comprising the steps of:

• tracking the location and orientation of the set of headphones with the accelerometer and tilt sensor;
• receiving by a computer processor a digital signal containing audio information from a digital audio stream and a digital signal containing location and orientation information from the set of headphones and outputting by a computer processor digital output signals containing audio information comprising modifying the digital audio stream by the location and orientation information from the set of headphones;
• receiving by a computer processor the digital output signals;
• summing by a computer processor the digital output signals to result in a summed digital signal;
• outputting by a computer processor the summed digital signal;
• and
• receiving by a computer processor the summed digital signal, converting by a computer processor the summed digital signal to an analog signal and outputting the analog signal to the set of headphones.

A computer program product for spatializing audio using an apparatus comprising a set of headphones having an accelerometer and a tilt sensor, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to track the location and orientation of the set of headphones;
• computer readable program code configured to receive a digital signal containing audio information from a digital audio stream and a digital signal containing location and orientation information from the set of headphones and outputting digital output signals containing audio information modified by the digital audio stream by the location and orientation information from the set of headphones;
• computer readable program code configured to sum the digital output signals to result in a summed digital signal;
• computer readable program code configured to output the summed digital signal;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to receive the summed digital signal, convert the summed digital signal to an analog signal and output the analog signal to the set of headphones.