Methods and Systems for Simulating Microphone Capture Within a Capture Zone of a Real-World Scene

A method comprising:

• accessing, in real time by a microphone capture simulation system from a plurality of directional microphones disposed at a plurality of locations on a perimeter of a capture zone of a real-world scene, a captured set of audio signals captured in real time by the plurality of directional microphones;
• identifying, in real time by the microphone capture simulation system, a first location within the capture zone, the first location corresponding to a first virtual location at which a user is virtually located within a virtual reality space being experienced by the user at a first moment in time, the virtual reality space based on the capture zone of the real-world scene;
• generating, in real time by the microphone capture simulation system based on the captured set of audio signals and the first location, a simulated set of audio signals representative of a simulation of a full-sphere multi-capsule microphone capture at the first location at the first moment in time;
• identifying, in real time by the microphone capture simulation system, a second location within the capture zone, the second location corresponding to a second virtual location at which the user is virtually located within the virtual reality space at a second moment in time subsequent to the first moment in time;
• updating, in real time by the microphone capture simulation system based on the captured set of audio signals and the second location, the simulated set of audio signals to be representative of a simulation of a full-sphere multi-capsule microphone capture at the second location at the second moment in time;
• and
• processing, in real time by the microphone capture simulation system, the simulated set of audio signals to form a renderable set of audio signals configured to be rendered, by a media player device used by the user, to simulate full-sphere sound for the first virtual location at the first moment in time and for the second virtual location at the second moment in time.

A system comprising:

• at least one physical computing device that:
• accesses, from a plurality of directional microphones disposed at a plurality of locations on a perimeter of a capture zone of a real-world scene, a captured set of audio signals captured by the plurality of directional microphones;
• identifies a location within the capture zone, the location corresponding to a virtual location at which a user is virtually located within a virtual reality space being experienced by the user, the virtual reality space based on the capture zone of the real-world scene;
• generates, based on the captured set of audio signals and the identified location, a simulated set of audio signals representative of a simulation of a full-sphere multi-capsule microphone capture at the location;
• and
• processes the simulated set of audio signals to form a renderable set of audio signals configured to be rendered, by a media player device used by the user, to simulate full-sphere sound for the virtual location while the user is virtually located at the virtual location within the virtual reality space.