Active room compensation in loudspeaker system

• US 10,349,198 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2015
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bang & Olufsen a/s
• Original Assignee: Bang & Olufsen a/s
• Inventors: Dyreby, Jakob
• Primary Examiner(s): Jamal, Alexander
• Application Number:
  US15/757,939
• Publication Number:
  US 20180343533A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,301 Days
• Field of Search: 381 96, 381101, 381103, 381106
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/04 for correcting frequency response
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/12 for distributing signals to two or more loudspeakers specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/04 Circuit arrangements, e.g. for selective connection of amplifier inputs/outputs to loudspeakers, for loudspeaker detection, or for adaptation of settings to personal preferences or hearing impairments combinations of amplifiers H03F3/68; stereophonic systems H04S
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/301 Automatic calibration of stereophonic sound system, e.g. with test microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 Tracking of listener position or orientation

Abstract

A method for compensating for acoustic influence of a listening room on an acoustic output from an audio system including at least a left and a right loudspeaker, the method comprising determining a left frequency response and a right frequency response, designing left and right compensation filters, and during playback applying the left and right filters to left and right input signals. The method further includes determining mono and side responses and designing mono and side compensation filters, and, during playback, applying the mono compensation filter to a mono signal based on the left and right input signals, and applying the side compensation filter to a side signal based on the left and right input signals. The filters are thus combined to provide left and right output signals which have been left/right filtered and mono/side filtered.

Claims

1. A method for compensating for acoustic influence of a listening room on an acoustic output from an audio system including at least a left and a right loudspeaker, the method comprising:

determining a left frequency response LP_L as a function between a signal applied to the left speaker and a resulting power average in a listening position,

determining a right frequency response LP_R as a function between a signal applied to the right speaker and a resulting power average in the listening position,

designing a left compensation filter F_L based on the left frequency response and a left target function, the left target function comprising a desired function between frequency and gain for a general room,

designing a right compensation filter F_R based on the right frequency response and a right target function,

determining a filtered mono response LP_M according to LP_L*F_L+LP_R*F_R,

determining a filtered side response LP_S according to LP_L*F_L−

LP_R*F_R, wherein LP_L is the left frequency response, LP_R is the right frequency response, F_L is the left compensation filter and F_R is the right compensation filter,

designing a mono compensation filter F_M based on the filtered mono response LP_M and a target function,

designing a side compensation filter F_S based on the filtered side response LP_S and a target function, and

during playback;

receiving left and right input signals, and

applying the left compensation filter to a left filter input, applying the right compensation filter to a right filter input, applying the mono compensation filter to a mono signal based on the left and right input signals, and applying the side compensation filter to a side signal based on the left and right input signals.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the mono signal is formed as the sum of the left input signal and the right input signal,

the side signal is formed as the difference between the left input signal and the right input signal,

the left filter input is formed as the sum of the filtered mono channel input and the filtered side channel input, and

the right filter input is formed as the difference between the filtered mono channel input and the side channel input.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting the left and right target functions equal to a simulated target function H_T representing a simulated target response in the listening position, and

determining the mono and side target functions based on the simulated target function H_T.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the mono target function is determined as the simulated target function multiplied by a shelving filter with a center frequency in the order of 100 Hz and a gain in the order of one dB.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the side target function is determined as the mono target function reduced by a difference between a smoothed filtered mono response and a smoothed filtered side response.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the left compensation filter F_L is designed to have a left filter transfer function based on the simulated target function H_T multiplied by an inverse of the left response,

the right compensation filter F_R is designed to have a right filter transfer function based on the simulated target function H_T multiplied by an inverse of the right response,

the mono compensation filter F_M is designed to have a mono filter transfer function based on the mono target function multiplied by an inverse of the mono response, and

the side compensation filter F_S is designed to have a side filter transfer function based on the side target function multiplied by an inverse of the side response.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

measuring a mono response in the listening position,

applying the mono compensation filter to the measured mono response to form a filtered mono response,

forming a difference between the filtered mono response and the mono target,

forming a peak removing component as portions of said difference smaller than zero, and

subtracting the peak removing component from the mono compensation filter and side compensation filter to form a peak cancelling mono compensation filter and a peak cancelling side compensation filter.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein a simulated target function H_T is obtained by simulating the power emitted by a point source in a corner defined by three orthogonal walls into a one eights sphere limited by the three walls, and defining the simulated target function H_T as the transfer function between the point source and the emitted power.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the simulated emitted power is a power average based on simulations in a plurality of points, preferably more than 12 points, distributed on the one eighth square.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein a radius of the one eights sphere is based on size of listening room, preferably in the range 2-8 m.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

determining the left and right responses involves measuring sound pressure in the listening position and in two complementary positions located in opposite corners of a rectangular cuboid having a center point in the listening position, said rectangular cuboid being aligned with a line of symmetry between the left and right speakers, and

forming an average sound pressure from the measured sound pressures.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining a left roll-off frequency at which the left target function exceeds the left response by a given threshold,

determining a right roll-off frequency at which the left target function exceeds the right response by a given threshold,

calculating an average roll-off frequency based on the left and right roll-off frequencies,

estimating a roll-off function as a high pass filter with a cut-off frequency based on the average roll-off frequency, and

dividing each of the left response and the right response with the roll-off function before designing the left and right filters.

13. The method according to claim 12, where the high pass filter is a Bessel filter.

14. The method according to claim 12, where the cut-off frequency is equal to the average roll-off frequency multiplied by a factor, and where the factor is in the range 1.2-1.5.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the given threshold is in the range 10-30 dB.

16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

setting the left filter transfer function below the left roll-off frequency to be equal to the left filter transfer function at the left roll-off frequency, and

setting the right filter transfer function below the right roll-off frequency to be equal to the right filter transfer function at the right roll-off frequency.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the left and right filter transfer functions are set equal to unity gain above 500 Hz.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the left and right filter transfer functions are cross-faded to unity gain from 200 Hz to 500 Hz.

19. The method according to claim 1, further comprising smoothing at least one response by:

determining a number of peaks per octave in the response,

for a portion of the response where the number of peaks per octave is below a first threshold, smoothing the response with a first smoothing width,

for a portion of the response where the number of peaks per octave is above a second threshold, smoothing the response with a second smoothing width,

wherein said second threshold is greater than said first threshold and said second smoothing width is wider than said first smoothing width, and

for a portion of the response where the number of peaks per octave is between the first and second thresholds, smoothing with an intermediate smoothing width.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the intermediate smoothing width is frequency dependent as an interpolation of the first and second smoothing width.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the first, narrow smoothing width is less than ¼

octave, preferable 1/12 octave, and the second, wide smoothing width is at least one octave.

22. The method according to claim 19, wherein the first, smaller threshold is less than eight peaks per octave, preferably five peaks per octave, and the second, greater threshold is greater than eight peaks per octave, preferably ten peaks per octave.

30. The method according to claim 1, further comprising removing dips in at least one response using a method comprising:

providing a reference by smoothing the response with a reference smoothing width,

comparing the response and the reference, and

for each frequency, selecting the maximum of the response and the reference as dip removed response.

23. A method for removing dips in a frequency response between a signal applied to a speaker and a resulting power average in a listening position, comprising:

providing a reference by smoothing the response with a reference smoothing width,

comparing the response and the reference, and

for each frequency, selecting the maximum of the response and the reference as dip removed response.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein the reference smoothing width is at least two octaves.

25. The method according to claim 23, wherein the step of comparing the response and the reference includes:

providing a smoothed response by smoothing the response using a smoothing width narrower than the reference smoothing width, and then comparing the reference with the smoothed response.

26. The method according to claim 23, wherein the smoothing is performed by:

determining a number of peaks per octave in the response,

for a portion of the response where the number of peaks per octave is below a first threshold, smoothing the response with a first smoothing width,

for a portion of the response where the number of peaks per octave is above a second threshold, smoothing the response with a second smoothing width,

wherein said second threshold is greater than said first threshold and said second smoothing width is wider than said first smoothing width, and

for a portion of the response where the number of peaks per octave is between the first and second thresholds, smoothing with an intermediate smoothing width.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the intermediate smoothing width is frequency dependent as an interpolation of the first and second smoothing width.

28. The method according to one of claim 26, wherein the first, narrow smoothing width is less than ¼

octave, preferable 1/12 octave, and the second, wide smoothing width is at least one octave.

29. The method according to claim 26, wherein the first, smaller threshold is less than eight peaks per octave, preferably five peaks per octave, and the second, greater threshold is greater than eight peaks per octave, preferably ten peaks per octave.

31. An audio system including:

at least a left and a right loudspeaker arranged in a listening room;

at least one microphone arranged in a listening position;

a signal processing system for compensating for acoustic influence of the listening room on an acoustic output from the loudspeakers, said signal processing system being configured to;

apply a test signal to the left speaker, determine a power average based on a signal measured in the microphone, and determine a left frequency response LP_L between the test signal and the power average,

apply a test signal to the right speaker, determine a power average based on a signal measured in the microphone, and determine a right frequency response LP_L between the test signal and the power average,

design a left compensation filter F_L, and

design a right compensation filter F_R;

wherein the signal processing system is further configured to;

determine a filtered mono response LP_M according to LP_L F_L+LP_R F_R,

determine a filtered side response LP_S according to LP_L F_L−

LP_R F_R, wherein LP_L is the left response, LP_R is the right response, F_L is the left filter and F_R is the right filter,

design a mono compensation filter F_M based on the filtered mono response LP_M and a target function, the target function comprising a desired function between frequency and gain for a general room, and

design a side compensation filter F_S based on the filtered side response LP_S and a target function; and

wherein the system further comprises a filtering system configured to, during playback;

receive a left signal input and a right signal input,

apply the left compensation filter to a left filter input,

apply the right compensation filter to a right filter input, apply the mono compensation filter to a mono signal based on the left and right input signals, and

apply the side compensation filter to a side signal based on the left and right input signals.

32. The system in claim 31, wherein the filtering system is configured to:

form the mono signal as the sum of the left input signal and the right input signal,

form the side signal as the difference between the left input signal and the right input signal,

the left filter input is formed as the sum of the filtered mono channel input and the filtered side channel input, and

the right filter input is formed as the difference between the filtered mono channel input and the side channel input.

33. The system in claim 31, wherein the loudspeakers are directivity controlled loudspeakers.