Redirecting audio output

• US 10,045,144 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2017
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Ballard, Jeffrey Ryan, Ridihalgh, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flanders, Andrew C
• Application Number:
  US15/399,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20170171685A1
• Time in Patent Office: 579 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/54 involving acoustic signals, e.g. for simulating revolutions per minute [RPM] dependent engine sounds in a driving game or reverberation against a virtual wall
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/20 Finite element generation, e.g. wire-frame surface description, tesselation
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2400/11 Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field H04S2420/13 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 Tracking of listener position or orientation

Abstract

A method for providing directional audio in a computer environment includes recognizing a location of a listener in the computer environment, recognizing a location of a sound emitter in the computer environment, and recognizing a plurality of candidate portal points in the computer environment. Each candidate portal point provides a viable audio path from the location of the sound emitter to the location of the listener. The method further includes identifying a selected portal point from among the plurality of candidate portal points based at least on a first distance from the selected portal point to the location of the listener and a second distance from the selected portal point to the location of the sound emitter and setting a perceived direction of the sound emitter to go through a location of the selected portal point.

Claims

1. A method for providing directional audio in a virtual computer environment, comprising:

recognizing a location of a listener in the virtual computer environment;

recognizing a location of a sound emitter in the virtual computer environment;

defining a first exclusion zone extending continuously behind the location of the listener and opposite the location of the emitter, and a second exclusion zone extending continuously behind the location of the emitter and opposite the listener;

recognizing a plurality of candidate portal points in the virtual computer environment, outside of the first and second exclusion zones, each candidate portal point providing a viable audio path from the location of the sound emitter to the location of the listener;

identifying a selected portal point from among the plurality of candidate portal points based at least on a first distance from the selected portal point to the location of the listener and a second distance from the selected portal point to the location of the sound emitter; and

setting a perceived direction of the sound emitter to go through a location of the selected portal point; and

outputting directional audio consistent with the perceived direction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a voxel-based representation of the virtual computer environment, the voxel-based representation comprising a plurality of voxels, the location of the listener comprising one or more voxels of the plurality of voxels, the location of the sound emitter comprising one or more voxels of the plurality of voxels.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising assigning each voxel of the plurality of voxels a variable blocking value based on properties of one or more elements of the virtual computer environment.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein recognizing the plurality of candidate portal points in the virtual computer environment comprises identifying each voxel that has blocking value lower than a threshold value, is not geometrically obstructed from the location of the listener or the location of the sound emitter, and is not located within an exclusion zone.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying each voxel that is not located within an exclusion zone comprises identifying each voxel that is not located within a third exclusion zone positioned in an unobstructed area between the location of the listener and the location of the sound emitter.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the selected portal point comprises identifying a selected portal point that has a shortest combined first distance and second distance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein recognizing the plurality of candidate portal points in the computer environment is performed responsive to identifying that a direct audio path between the location of the listener and the location of the sound emitter is blocked.

8. A method for providing directional audio in a virtual computer environment, comprising:

determining a location of a listener in the computer environment;

determining a location of a sound emitter in the computer environment;

identifying that a direct audio path between the location of the listener and the location of the sound emitter is blocked;

pursuant to identifying that the direct audio path between the location of the listener and the location of the sound emitter is blocked, recognizing a plurality of candidate portal points each providing a viable audio path to the listener;

ranking each candidate portal point based at least on a respective combined distance from a location of that portal point to the location of the listener and from the location of that portal point to the location of the sound emitter;

identifying a selected portal point from among the ranked candidate portal points having the shortest combined distance, and determining if the selected portal point is located in an exclusion zone;

when the selected portal point is not located in the exclusion zone, setting a perceived direction of sound emitted from the sound emitter to go through the location of the selected portal point; and

outputting directional audio consistent with the perceived direction.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating a voxel-based representation of the computer environment, the voxel-based representation comprising a plurality of voxels, the location of the listener comprising one or more voxels of the plurality of voxels, the location of the sound emitter comprising one or more voxels of the plurality of voxels.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising designating each voxel of the plurality of voxels that intersect an element of the computer environment as blocked voxels, and

wherein identifying that the direct audio path between the location of the listener and the location of the sound emitter is blocked comprises identifying that a blocked voxel is present between the one or more voxels comprising the location of the listener and the one or more voxels comprising the location of the sound emitter.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising assigning each voxel of the plurality of voxels a blocking value representing a level of audio obstruction provided by the element of the computer environment intersecting that voxel, and wherein recognizing the plurality of candidate portal points each providing a viable audio path to the listener comprises identifying each voxel of the plurality of voxels that has a blocking value less than a threshold blocking value.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising when the selected portal point is located in an exclusion zone, selecting a subsequent portal point that has a next-shortest combined distance, determining if the subsequent portal point is located in an exclusion zone, and setting the perceived direction of sound emitted from the sound emitter through the location of the subsequent portal point when the subsequent portal point is not located in an exclusion zone.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein determining if the selected portal point is located in an exclusion zone comprises determining if the selected portal point is located within a first exclusion zone positioned behind the location of the listener, a second exclusion zone positioned behind the location of the sound emitter, or a third exclusion zone positioned between the location of the listener and the location of the sound emitter.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising after identifying the selected portal point, filtering remaining candidate portal points based on a direction of a straight-line path between the selected portal point and the location of the listener.

15. A computing system, comprising:

a logic machine; and

storage machine holding instructions executable by the logic machine to;

recognize a location of a listener in a virtual computer environment;

recognize a location of a sound emitter in the virtual computer environment;

define a first exclusion zone extending continuously behind the location of the listener and opposite the location of the emitter, and a second exclusion zone extending continuously behind the location of the emitter and opposite the listener;

recognize a plurality of candidate portal points in the virtual computer environment, outside of the first and second exclusion zones, each candidate portal point providing a viable audio path from the location of the sound emitter to the location of the listener;

identify a selected portal point from among the plurality of candidate portal points based at least on a first distance from the selected portal point to the location of the listener and a second distance from the selected portal point to the location of the sound emitter;

set a perceived direction of the sound emitter to go through a location of the selected portal point; and

output directional audio consistent with the perceived direction.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the instructions are further executable to generate a voxel-based representation of the computer environment, the voxel-based representation comprising a plurality of voxels, the location of the listener comprising one or more voxels of the plurality of voxels, the location of the sound emitter comprising one or more voxels of the plurality of voxels.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the instructions are further executable to assign each voxel of the plurality of voxels a blocking value based on material properties of one or more elements of the computer environment.

18. The computing system of claim 17, wherein the instructions to recognize the plurality of candidate portal points in the computer environment comprises instructions executable to identify each voxel that has a blocking value lower than a threshold value, is not geometrically obstructed from the location of the listener or the location of the sound emitter, and is not located within an exclusion zone.

19. The computing system of claim 18, wherein to identify each voxel that is not located within an exclusion zone the instructions are executable to identify each voxel that is not located within third exclusion zone positioned in an unobstructed area between the location of the listener and the location of the sound emitter.

20. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the instructions to identify the selected portal point comprise instructions to identify a selected portal point that has a shortest combined first distance and second distance.