Attention based audio adjustment in virtual environments

A non-transitory, processor-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to:

• identify, at a first time, a first estimated gaze direction of a first participant from a plurality of participants within a virtual environment;
• receive, from a compute device of the first participant, first audio data including a first set of at least one audio parameter, the compute device of the first participant being remote from the processor;
• determine, at a second time subsequent to the first time, a second estimated gaze direction of the first participant within the virtual environment, the second estimated gaze direction being different from the first estimated gaze direction;
• generate second audio data including a second set of at least one audio parameter different from the first set of at least one audio parameter, based on the first audio data and the second estimated gaze direction, the second audio data including a modification relative to the first set of at least one audio parameter and associated with one of (1) a virtual representation of a second participant from the plurality of participants or (2) a virtual object within the virtual environment;
• and
• automatically send a signal representing the second audio data to a compute device of the first participant to cause an adjustment to an audio output of the compute device of the first participant, at a third time subsequent to the second time.

A method, comprising:

• receiving, at a processor and from a compute device of the first participant, first audio data including a first set of at least one audio parameter, the compute device of the first participant being remote from the processor;
• receiving, at the processor, eye data associated with an appearance of an eye of a first participant within a virtual environment;
• determining, via the processor and based on the eye data, an estimated gaze direction of the first participant within the virtual environment, the estimated gaze direction being in a direction, within the virtual environment, of (1) a virtual representation of one of a second participant or (2) a virtual object within the virtual environment;
• generating, via the processor, second audio data including a second set of at least one audio parameter different from the first set of at least one audio parameter, based on the first audio data and the estimated gaze direction, the second audio data including a modification relative to the first audio data and associated with one of (1) the virtual representation of the second participant or (2) the virtual object within the virtual environment;
• and
• automatically sending a signal representing the second audio data from the processor to the compute device of the first participant to cause an adjustment to an audio output of the compute device of the first participant.