Sonic landscape system

• US 20030031334A1
• Filed: 07/26/2002
• Published: 02/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Lake Technology Ltd. (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: McGrath, David Stanley, Layton, Leonard, Bennett, Stephen James, Cartwright, Richard James, Heyler, Nigel Lloyd William, Drane, Geoffrey Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 7,116,789 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/310
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/07 Use of position data from wide-area or local-area positioning systems in hearing devices, e.g. program or information selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2420/11 Application of ambisonics in stereophonic audio systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 3/00 Systems employing more than two channels, e.g. quadraphonic H04S5/00, H04S7/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 Tracking of listener position or orientation
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/304 For headphones

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.

Claims

1. 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.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said system is arranged, in use, to simultaneously provide an augmented audio reality to multiple listeners located in said geographical environment.

3. A system as claimed in any previous claim wherein said speakers comprise a set of headphones.

4. A system as claimed in claims 1 or 2, wherein the position locating system is arranged, in use, to determine the listener'"'"'s head orientation as said current orientation of the listener in said geographical environment.

5. A system as claimed in claims 1 or 2 wherein said geographical environment comprises one of tourism, outdoor sight seeing, museum tours, a mobility aid for the blind and in industrial applications, artistic performances, Indoor Exhibition Spaces, Outdoor Exhibition spaces, Tours, Exhibition, City Tours, both guided and self-guided, Botanical Gardens, Zoos, Aquariums, Entertainment, Theme parks, Interactive theme environments, VR Games, Construction, auditory display of data such as plans or existing structures below ground, Architectural on-site walk throughs.

6. A system as claimed in claims 1 or 2 wherein said position locating system comprises at least one of a compass, a global positioning system, a radio frequency positioning system or an electromagnetic wave positioning.

7. A system as claimed in claims 1 or 2, wherein the audio track creation system further comprises an audio customization unit for customizing an audio content of said audio track dependent on an identity of said listener.

8. A system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the audio track creation system further comprises a computer network attached to said audio customization unit for downloading said audio content.

9. A system as claimed in claim 7 further comprising:

a feedback unit interconnected to said audio customization unit, for monitoring the listener'"'"'s feedback in response to said audio content.

10. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein said computer network comprises audio content indexed by geographical location.

11. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein said computer network comprises textual content indexed by geographical location and said audio customization unit comprises a text to audio rendering unit for rendering said text into audio.

12. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said feedback unit comprises a microphone for monitoring said listening audio environment.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12 wherein said microphone provides spatialization characteristics of audio signals in said listener'"'"'s audio environment.

14. A system as claimed in claim 7 wherein said audio customization unit comprises:

at least one personality control unit, customizing said audio content with a personality feature having predetermined characteristics.

15. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein said audio customization unit is adapted to send a series of information requests containing geographical indicators to said network, and receive therefrom a series of responses containing geographical indicators for rendering to said listener.

16. A system as claimed in claim 7 wherein said audio customization unit of a first listener is adapted to interact with the audio customization units of one or more other listeners so as to exchange information.

17. A system as claimed in claim 16 wherein the system is arranged, in use, such that said exchange of information is dependent on the particular listener with whom an exchange is made.

18. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein said computer network comprises a series of portals answering requests for information by said audio customization unit.

19. A system as claimed in claim 18 wherein said audio portals include personality customized information utilized in answering requests for information.

20. 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;

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;

rendering 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, wherein the rendering depends on said current position and orientation of said listener in said geographical environment.

21. A method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the method comprises simultaneously providing an augmented audio reality to multiple listeners located in said geographical environment.

22. A method as claimed in claims 20 or 21 wherein said speakers comprise a set of headphones.

23. A method as claimed in claims 20 or 21, wherein method comprises determining the listener'"'"'s head orientation as said current orientation of the listener in said geographical environment.

24. A method as claimed in claims 20 or 21 wherein said geographical environment comprises one of tourism, outdoor sight seeing, museum tours, a mobility aid for the blind and in industrial applications, artistic performances, Indoor Exhibition Spaces, Outdoor Exhibition spaces, Tours, Exhibition, City Tours, both guided and self-guided, Botanical Gardens, Zoos, Aquariums, Entertainment, Theme parks, Interactive theme environments, VR Games, Construction, auditory display of data such as plans or existing structures below ground, Architectural on-site walk throughs.

25. A method as claimed in claims 20 or 21, wherein the method further comprises the step of customizing an audio content of said audio track dependent on an identity of said listener.

26. A method as claimed in claim 25, wherein the method further comprises the step of downloading said audio content from a computer network.

27. A method as claimed in claim 25, further comprising the step of monitoring the listener'"'"'s feedback in response to said audio content.

28. A method as claimed in claim 26, wherein said computer network comprises audio content indexed by geographical location.

29. A method as claimed in 26 wherein said computer network comprises textual content indexed by geographical location and the method further comprises text to audio rendering unit for rendering said text into audio.