US 7,116,789 B2Granted

Sonic landscape system

AssigneeDolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation

InventorsLeonard Layton, David Stanley McGrath, Nigel Lloyd William Heyler, Stephen James Bennett, Richard James Cartwright, Geoffrey Alexander Drane

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Abstract

A system for providing a listener with an augmented audio reality in a geographical environment said system comprising a position locating system for determining a current position and orientation of a listener in said geographical environment; an audio track creation system for creating an audio track having a predetermined spatialization component dependent on an apparent location of an apparent source associated with said audio track in said geographical environment; an audio track rendering system adapted to render an audio signal based on said audio track to a series of speakers surrounding said listener such that said listener experiences an apparent preservation of said spatialization component; and an audio track playback system interconnected to said position locating system and said audio track creation system and adapted to forward a predetermined audio track to said audio rendering system for rendering depending on said current position and orientation of said listener in said geographical environment.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A system for providing a listener with an augmented audio reality in a geographical environment, the system comprising:

a position locating system configured to determine a current position and orientation of a listener in the geographical environment, the geographical environment being a real environment at which one or more items of potential interest are located, each item of potential interest having an associated predetermined audio track;
an audio track retrieval system configured to retrieve for any one of the items of potential interest the audio track associated with the item and having a predetermined spatialization component dependent on the location of the item of potential interest associated with the audio track in the geographical environment;
an audio track rendering system adapted to render an input audio signal based on any one of the associated audio tracks to a series of speakers such that the listener experiences a sound that appears to emanate from the location of the item of potential interest to which is associated the audio track that the input audio signal is based on;
and
an audio track playback system interconnected to the position locating system and the audio track retrieval system arranged such that the system automatically ascertains using the current listener position and orientation, the spatial relationship between the listener and the items of potential interest, the playback system configured to automatically ascertain which audio track, if any, to automatically forward to the rendering system according to the ascertained relationship to the items of potential interest, and further configured to forward the ascertained audio tracks to the audio rendering system for rendering depending on the current position and orientation of the listener in the geographical environment and the ascertained relationship,
such that the listener for any particular item of potential interest for which an audio track has been forwarded, has the sensation that the forwarded audio track associated with the particular item is emanating from the location in the geographical environment of the particular item of interest.

3 more elements

A method of providing a listener with an augmented audio reality in a geographical environment, the method comprising the steps of:

determining a current position and orientation of a listener in said geographical environment, the geographical environment being a real environment at which one or more items of potential interest are located, each item of potential interest having an associated predetermined audio track;
ascertaining using the current listener position and orientation, the spatial relationship between the listener and the items of potential interest ;
automatically ascertaining which audio track, if any, to automatically retrieve according to the ascertained relationship to the items of potential interest;
automatically retrieving the ascertained audio track having a predetermined spatialization component dependent on the location of the item of potential interest associated with the audio track in said geographical environment;
and
automatically rendering an audio signal based on the retrieved audio track associated with the item of potential interest, the rendering being to a series of speakers such that said listener experiences a sound corresponding to the retrieved associated audio track that appears to emanate from the location of the item of potential interest,
wherein the rendering depends on said current position and orientation of said listener in said geographical environment,
such that the listener for any item of potential interest for which an audio track has been retrieved, has the sensation that the retrieved audio track associated with the particular item is emanating from the location in the geographical environment of the particular item of interest.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/206,273Filed 26 Jul 2002 · continuation
Priority: 29 Jan 2001
Published: US 2003/0031334 A113 Feb 2003
Granted: 3 Oct 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H04S 3/00
Systems employing more than two channels
H04R 27/00
Public address systems
H04S 7/303
Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation: tracking of listener position or orientation
H04R 2460/07
Details of hearing devices, i.e. of ear- or headphones covered by H04R1/10 or H04R5/033 but not provided for in any of their subgroups, or of…:…