# US 2018/0027352 A1 · System and Method for Adaptive Audio Signal Generation, Coding and Rendering

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 2018/0027352 A1
- Document ID: US20180027352A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 15/672,656
- Filed: 2017-08-09
- Published: 2018-01-25
- Earliest claimed: 2011-07-01
- Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
- Applicants: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
- Inventors: Charles Q. ROBINSON; Nicolas R. TSINGOS; Christophe CHABANNE
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20180027352A1

## CPC

- H04S 7/308: {Electronic adaptation dependent on speaker or headphone connection}
- G10L 19/008: Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing
- G10L 19/20: using sound class specific coding, hybrid encoders or object based coding
- H04R 5/02: Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers
- H04R 5/04: Circuit arrangements, {e.g. for selective connection of amplifier inputs/outputs to loudspeakers, for loudspeaker detection, or for adaptation of settings to personal preferences or hearing impairments (combinations of amplifiers H03F3/68; stereophonic systems H04S)}
- H04R 27/00: Public address systems (circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; {monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007}; amplifiers H03F)
- 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)}
- H04S 5/005: {of the pseudo five- or more-channel type, e.g. virtual surround}
- H04S 7/30: {Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field}
- H04S 7/305: {Electronic adaptation of stereophonic audio signals to reverberation of the listening space (H04S7/301 takes precedence)}
- H04S 5/00: Pseudo-stereo systems, e.g. in which additional channel signals are derived from monophonic signals by means of phase shifting, time delay or reverberation
- H04S 7/302: {Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation (H04S7/301 takes precedence)}
- 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 2400/03: Aspects of down-mixing multi-channel audio to configurations with lower numbers of playback channels, e.g. 7.1 -> 5.1 (H04S2400/01 takes precedence)
- 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 2420/03: Application of parametric coding in stereophonic audio systems
- H04S 2420/11: Application of ambisonics in stereophonic audio systems
- H04S 2420/13: Application of wave-field synthesis in stereophonic audio systems
- H04S: STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS
- G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING
- H04R: LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; ELECTRIC HEARING AIDS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS (producing sounds with frequency not determined by supply frequency G10K)

## Abstract

Embodiments are described for an adaptive audio system that processes audio data comprising a number of independent monophonic audio streams. One or more of the streams has associated with it metadata that specifies whether the stream is a channel-based or object-based stream. Channel-based streams have rendering information encoded by means of channel name; and the object-based streams have location information encoded through location expressions encoded in the associated metadata. A codec packages the independent audio streams into a single serial bitstream that contains all of the audio data. This configuration allows for the sound to be rendered according to an allocentric frame of reference, in which the rendering location of a sound is based on the characteristics of the playback environment (e.g., room size, shape, etc.) to correspond to the mixer's intent. The object position metadata contains the appropriate allocentric frame of reference information required to play the sound correctly using the available speaker positions in a room that is set up to play the adaptive audio content.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system for processing audio signals, comprising an authoring component configured to:
receive a plurality of audio signals;
generate an adaptive audio mix comprising a plurality of monophonic audio streams and metadata associated with each of the audio streams and indicating a playback location of a respective monophonic audio stream, wherein at least some of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as channel-based audio and the others of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as object-based audio, and wherein the playback location of a channel-based monophonic audio stream comprises a designation of a speaker in a speaker array, and the playback location of an object-based monophonic audio stream comprises a location in three-dimensional space, and wherein each object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered in at least one specific speaker of the speaker array; and
encapsulate the plurality of monophonic audio streams and the metadata in a bitstream for transmission to a rendering system configured to render the plurality of monophonic audio streams to a plurality of speaker feeds corresponding to speakers in a playback environment, wherein the speakers of the speaker array are placed at specific positions within the playback environment, and wherein metadata elements associated with each respective object-based monophonic audio stream indicate independent amounts of spreading to apply to the object-based monophonic audio stream in each of two or more dimensions, such that the object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered into the plurality of speaker feeds with spatial extents in each of the two or more dimensions corresponding to the independent amounts of spreading indicated by the metadata.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the two or more dimensions include one or more of length, width, height, x, y, or z.

### Claim 3

A system for processing audio signals, comprising a rendering system configured to:
receive a bitstream encapsulating an adaptive audio mix comprising a plurality of monophonic audio streams and metadata associated with each of the audio streams and indicating a playback location of a respective monophonic audio stream, wherein at least some of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as channel-based audio and the others of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as object-based audio, and wherein the playback location of a channel-based monophonic audio stream comprises a designation of a speaker in a speaker array, and the playback location of an object-based monophonic audio stream comprises a location in three-dimensional space, and wherein each object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered in at least one specific speaker of the speaker array; and
render the plurality of monophonic audio streams to a plurality of speaker feeds corresponding to speakers in a playback environment, wherein the speakers of the speaker array are placed at specific positions within the playback environment, and wherein metadata elements associated with each respective object-based monophonic audio stream indicate independent amounts of spreading to apply to the object based monophonic audio stream in each of two or more dimensions, such that the object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered into the plurality of speaker feeds with spatial extents in each of the two or more dimensions corresponding to the independent amounts of spreading indicated by the metadata.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the two or more dimensions are include one or more of length, width, height, x, y, or z.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the metadata elements associated with each object-based monophonic audio stream further indicate spatial parameters controlling the playback of a corresponding sound component comprising one or more of: sound position, sound width, and sound velocity.

### Claim 6 (depends on 3)

The system of claim 3, wherein the playback location for each of the plurality of object-based monophonic audio streams is independently specified with respect to either an egocentric frame of reference or an allocentric frame of reference, wherein the egocentric frame of reference is taken in relation to a listener in the playback environment, and wherein the allocentric frame of reference is taken with respect to a characteristic of the playback environment.

### Claim 7

A method for authoring audio content for rendering, comprising:
receiving a plurality of audio signals;
generating an adaptive audio mix comprising a plurality of monophonic audio streams and metadata associated with each of the audio streams and indicating a playback location of a respective monophonic audio stream, wherein at least some of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as channel-based audio and the others of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as object-based audio, and wherein the playback location of the channel-based audio comprises speaker designations of speakers in a speaker array, and the playback location of the object-based audio comprises a location in three-dimensional space, and wherein each object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered in at least one specific speaker of the speaker array; and
encapsulating the plurality of monophonic audio streams and the metadata in a bitstream for transmission to a rendering system configured to render the plurality of monophonic audio streams to a plurality of speaker feeds corresponding to speakers in a playback environment, wherein the speakers of the speaker array are placed at specific positions within the playback environment, and wherein metadata elements associated with each respective object-based monophonic audio stream indicate independent amounts of spreading to apply to the object-based monophonic audio stream in each of two or more dimensions, such that the object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered into the plurality of speaker feeds with spatial extents in each of the two or more dimensions corresponding to the independent amounts of spreading indicated by the metadata.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the two or more dimensions include one or more of length, width, height, x, y, or z.

### Claim 9

A method for rendering audio signals, comprising:
receiving a bitstream encapsulating an adaptive audio mix comprising a plurality of monophonic audio streams and metadata associated with each of the audio streams and indicating a playback location of a respective monophonic audio stream, wherein at least some of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as channel-based audio and the others of the plurality of monophonic audio streams are identified as object-based audio, and wherein the playback location of a channel-based monophonic audio stream comprises a designation of a speaker in a speaker array, and the playback location of an object-based monophonic audio stream comprises a location in three-dimensional space, and wherein each object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered in at least one specific speaker of the speaker array; and
rendering the plurality of monophonic audio streams to a plurality of speaker feeds corresponding to speakers in a playback environment, wherein the speakers of the speaker array are placed at specific positions within the playback environment, and wherein metadata elements associated with each respective object-based monophonic audio stream indicate independent amounts of spreading to apply to the object-based monophonic audio stream in each of two or more dimensions, such that the object-based monophonic audio stream is rendered into the plurality of speaker feeds with spatial extents in each of the two or more dimensions corresponding to the independent amounts of spreading indicated by the metadata.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the two or more dimensions include one or more of length, width, height, x, y, or z.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the metadata elements associated with each object-based monophonic audio stream further indicate spatial parameters controlling the playback of a corresponding sound component comprising one or more of: sound position, sound width, and sound velocity.

### Claim 12 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the playback location for each of the plurality of object-based monophonic audio streams comprises a spatial position relative to a screen within a playback environment, or a surface that encloses the playback environment, and wherein the surface comprises a front plane, a back plane, a left plane, right plane, an upper plane, and a lower plane, and/or is independently specified with respect to either an egocentric frame of reference or an allocentric frame of reference, wherein the egocentric frame of reference is taken in relation to a listener in the playback environment, and wherein the allocentric frame of reference is taken with respect to a characteristic of the playback environment.

### Claim 13 (depends on 7)

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a sequence of instructions, wherein, when executed by a system for processing audio signals, the sequence of instructions causes the system to perform the method of claim 7.

### Claim 14 (depends on 9)

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a sequence of instructions, wherein, when executed by a system for processing audio signals, the sequence of instructions causes the system to perform the method of claim 9.