Spatial visual effect creation and display such as for a screensaver

A method, comprising:

• determining, using signals captured from two or more omnidirectional microphones configured to detect an acoustic signal from one or more sound sources,
• an estimate of a set of one or more dominant sound sources based on directional analysis of subbands the one or more sound sources;
• determining one or more prominent sound sources based on statistical analysis of estimates of the dominant sound sources, wherein the prominent sound sources are prominent members of the set of dominant sound sources;
• determining frequency information for each of the one or more sound sources dependent on one or more of the subbands of the one or more sound sources;
• determining one or more directions relative to a position of at least one of the two or more omnidirectional microphones for at least one of the one or more prominent sound sources;
• and
• outputting output information suitable to be viewed on a display, the information providing for the at least one prominent sound source a visual effect indicating at least in part the one or more directions, relative to the position of at least one of the two or more omnidirectional microphones, of the at least one prominent sound source in the acoustic signal, wherein the visual effect is dependent on the at least one prominent sound source and on the frequency information associated with at least the at least one or more prominent sound sources and comprises one or more visual representations moving across the display indicating at least in part the one or more directions.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer, the computer program code comprising:

• code for determining, using signals captured from two or more omnidirectional microphones configured to detect an acoustic signal from one or more sound sources, an estimate of a set of one or more dominant sound sources based on directional analysis of subbands of the one or more sound sources;
• code for determining one or more prominent sound sources based on statistical analysis of estimates of the dominant sound sources, wherein the prominent sound sources are prominent members of the set of dominant sound sources;
• code for determining frequency information for each of the one or more sound sources dependent on one or more of the subbands of the one or more sound sources;
• code for determining one or more directions relative to a position of at least one of the two or more omnidirectional microphones for at least one of the one or more prominent sound sources;
• and
• code for outputting output information suitable to be viewed on a display, the information providing for the at least one prominent sound source a visual effect indicating at least in part the one or more directions, relative to the position of at least one of the two or more omnidirectional microphones, of the at least one prominent sound source in the acoustic signal, wherein the visual effect is dependent on the at least one prominent sound source and on the frequency information associated with at least the at least one or more prominent sound sources and comprises one or more visual representations moving across the display indicating at least in part the one or more directions.