Audio Apparatus And Method

• US 20080144864A1
• Filed: 12/22/2004
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Huonlabs Pty Limited
• Original Assignee: Huonlabs Pty Limited
• Inventors: Huon, Graeme John
• Application Number:
  US11/569,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20080144864A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/305
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/20 Arrangements for obtaining desired frequency or directional characteristics for stereophonic purpose H04R5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/34 by using a single transducer with sound reflecting, diffracting, directing or guiding means specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/402
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers

Abstract

The invention enables the capture of sound fields with coding and efficient distribution of electrical signals representing the sound fields for subsequent reproduction in a listening environment utilising pairs of non-equidistant apparatus in various defined configurations such that the acoustic distance as well as direction of sound sources is consistently presented with regard to in front of, behind, beside or below from a listening point anywhere in the listening environment and for any listener orientation, thus making the whole listening area a sweet spot and enabling true shared audio experiences, without the need for worn apparatus. New apparatus and methods for capture, distribution and reproduction or render are also disclosed that enable enhanced perception of captured and reproduced sound for shared experiences with both common and individual capture and reproduction apparatus and new communications and control methods and apparatus for multiple users including heightened perception capability and also improved security aspects are also disclosed.

Claims

1-164. -164. (canceled)

165. An apparatus comprising an arrangement of one or more acousto-electric transducers for receiving and processing of acoustic information at a measuring location at or in the region of the apparatus said apparatus having associated electronic signal processing equipment to produce a set of mutually consistent electrical signals specifically containing a measure of the wave curvature, wave divergence or wave spreading of any direct wave propagating from any acoustic source as observed at the said measuring location in space, said electrical signals being suitable for further processing, combining, separation, storage, transmission or other processing specifically considering preservation or use of said wave curvature, divergence or spreading information either relatively or absolutely, said apparatus being often described as a vector wavefront capture apparatus and said electrical signals often being described as vector wavefront electrical format or vector format by the inventor.

166. An apparatus according to claim 165, generating a set of mutually consistent electrical signals representing the divergence of any direct wave from any acoustic source as radiated from each point of occurrence in space wherein said divergence information is used as the measure of the distance of each source and having been processed, stored transmitted or otherwise dealt with being suitable for later recreation of waves representing the said distance information of the sources whether consistently or otherwise with direction information or independently.

167. An apparatus according to claim 166 generating a set of mutually consistent electrical signals representing the divergence of the direct wave from any acoustic source as observed at the region of occurrence in space wherein said electrical signals specifically incorporate distance information being suitable for later recreating the said sources consistently when listened to from anywhere within a defined listening area.

168. An apparatus according to claim 166 generating a set of mutually consistent electrical signals representing the divergence of any direct wave from any acoustic source as observed at the region of occurrence in space wherein said electrical signals specifically incorporate distance information being suitable for later recreating each source consistently when the reproduction apparatus is not necessarily at the or any point of origin of the original occurrence of the sound source, particularly with respect to distance.

169. An apparatus for signal processing able to receive a set of mutually consistent electrical signals representing the divergence or distance of a direct wave from an acoustic source as observed at a region of occurrence in space according to claim 166 wherein said electrical signals specifically incorporate distance information being suitable for recreating each source consistently, said signal processing apparatus being located either locally or remotely for receipt of transmission of said electrical signals for processing and subsequent reproduction of each source consistently with regard to divergence or distance.

170. An apparatus according to claim 169 wherein multiple formats of source signals including channel associated or equidistant sources such as but not restricted to stereo, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 10.2 being equi-distant or surround systems of the art not specifically taking wave divergence or distance information of captured or reproduced sound sources into account are also catered for.

171. An apparatus according to claim 169 wherein the signal source may be from a direct or on-line source in the art or may be from a remote or local storage and retrieval system of analogue or digital form in the art such as tape recorder, CD, DVD, SACD, hard drive, flash drive or the like of the art.

172. An apparatus according to claim 169 wherein the control of operation for sound source decoding and reproduction preserving aspects of distance can be controlled or modified independently including by a form of separate source-associated authorisation accompanying the distributed audio information and specifically including aspects of sound source distance.

173. An apparatus according to claim 172 wherein aspects of user or listener control over the format of decoding is provided thus enabling control of placement of the acoustic sources to new vantage points in a listening area including aspects of zoom, pan, rotate reflect or translate consistently at or prior to the act of presentation for listening.

174. An apparatus according to claim 172 wherein control over the decoding is provided thus enabling the control of placement of the acoustic sources to form new vantage points in the listening area including aspects of zoom, pan, rotate, reflect or translate consistently either remotely or by the user or both and optionally being subject to control in part or totally by some form of source associated authorisation, having but not limited to the ability to operate without authorisation for channel associated decoding but requiring authorisation for paired electro-acoustic transducer decoding of the invention for example.

175. An apparatus according to claim 166 able to create a set of formatted electrical signals by suitable coding of a set of mutually consistent electrical signals representing divergence being a measure of distance of a direct wave from one or more acoustic sources at a point in space and so represents the distance of said source said formatted electrical signals representing the divergence of a direct wave being suitable for recreating any number of independent sound sources consistently by use of a set of electro-acoustic transducers, said formatted electrical signals being able to be produced at least in pairs with specified amplitude and phase between said pairs specifically designed for feeding to a set of electro-acoustic transducer pairs being of suitable form;

and number of said electro-acoustic transducers, not directly linked to the number of source or distributed channels and not restricted in any manner other than to form said multiple pairs, but said decoding using the actual location of the electro-acoustic transducers in the reproduction environment in order to use the intrinsic divergence from said transducer pairs through air in the listening environment and so recreate the desired fields and reproduced source locations with respect to placement of the said electro-acoustic transducer pair of the invention.

176. An apparatus according to claim 175 wherein multiple formats of source signals including channel associated or equi-distant sources such as but not restricted to stereo, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 10.2 of the art that do not specifically take wave divergence or sound object distance into account are also catered for.

177. An apparatus according to claim 175 wherein the signal source may be from a direct or on-line source in the art or may be from a remote or local storage and retrieval system of analogue or digital form in the art such as tape recorder, CD, DVD, SACD, hard drive, flash drive or the like.

178. An apparatus according to claim 175 wherein operation with regard to sound object placement can be controlled or modified in part or wholly by a source associated authorisation, for example having the ability to operate without authorisation for channel associated decoding but requiring authorisation for the paired displacement decoding.

179. An apparatus according to claim 175 wherein the configuration of a set of electro-acoustic transducers can be discovered or otherwise determined by the apparatus and the decoding then configured for the number and layout of the electro-acoustic transducers or transducer pairs, subject to being also controlled or modified in part or wholly by some form of source associated authorisation, user control or both, having but not limited to the ability to operate without authorisation for channel associated decoding but requiring authorisation for the paired electro-acoustic transducer decoding.

180. An apparatus according to claim 175 wherein a form of user control over the decoding is provided thus enabling the control or modification of placement of the acoustic sources to form new or different acoustic views and vantage points in the listening area, including aspects of zoom, pan, rotate, reflect or translate consistently, and optionally including allowance for varied electro-acoustic transducer placement.

181. An apparatus according to claim 175 wherein user control over the decoding is provided thus enabling the control of placement of the acoustic sources to form new vantage points in the listening area subject to being controlled in part or totally by some form of source associated authorisation, for example having but not limited to the ability to operate without authorisation for channel associated decoding but requiring authorisation for the paired electro-acoustic transducer decoding, and optionally including allowance for varied electro-acoustic transducer placement.

182. An apparatus able to receive electrical signals according to claim 166 for the purpose of recreating wavefront divergence information representing source distances and utilising pairs of electro-acoustic transducers such that the desired sound field is reproduced consistently as in the original source when listened to or acoustically viewed from anywhere in the listening area thus enabling shared audio experiences for multiple listeners over an extended listening area without a need for any personal apparatus and thus making the whole or a substantial part of the listening area an accurate sweet spot of the art, even when turning or moving.

183. An apparatus according to claim 182, together with two or more pairs of electro-acoustic transducers of the invention placed outside a reproduction environment optionally in association with a picture or image of defined extent;

said apparatus and electro-acoustic transducer pair location preserving the source locations of sound when listened to anywhere in the listening area and with any listener orientation thus enabling consistent shared audio experiences for multiple listeners over an extended listening area without a need for any personal apparatus and thus making the whole listening area an accurate sweet spot of the art even when turning or moving, said configuration of electro-acoustic transducers often being referred to as Voyeur format by the inventor.

184. An apparatus according to claim 182, together with three or more pairs of electro-acoustic transducers of the invention placed in the centre of a reproduction environment in a region of space of defined extent being excluded from the listening area, said region containing an image or object, said apparatus, and electro-acoustic transducer pair placements preserving the wavefront divergence and thus the perceived source locations of sounds when listened to from anywhere outside the said region and with any listener orientation, thus enabling shared audio experiences for multiple listeners over an extended area without the need for any personal apparatus and thus making the whole listening area an accurate sweet spot of the art even when turning or moving, said format optionally being referred to as Voyeur or bubble format by the inventor.

185. An apparatus according to claim 182, together with three or more pairs of electro-acoustic transducers of the invention placed in a region in space being outside the listening area so as to partition off the listening area in the centre of said region said placement of the electro-acoustic apparatus preserving the source locations of sound with regard to wavefront divergence or perceived distance when viewed from anywhere inside the listening region and with any listener orientation thus enabling shared audio experiences for multiple listeners over an extended area and whilst turning and moving without a need for any personal apparatus and thus making the whole listening area an accurate sweet spot of the art.

186. An sound reproduction apparatus for reproduction of signals according to claim 166 wherein the electro-acoustic transducers have directivity so created to present a uniform radiation of phase consistent acoustic energy over the full extent of an intended listening area at all frequencies of interest by use of a controlled source size or aperture formed by active surface area of said electro-acoustic transducer directly or a separate aperture of restricted size and shape or by use of phase controlling acoustic directivity filters, electrical response equalisers or any combination thereof said electro-acoustic apparatus enabling reproduction of sound anywhere throughout the whole of the said listening area without undue spectral phase or amplitude degradation.

187. Two or more sound reproduction apparatus according to claim 186 at least one of said apparatus being so designed as to present a minimised or a well defined acoustic obstruction to any similar unit placed generally behind or in front with regard to the listening area direction whilst maintaining uniformly controlled reproduction over the or any desired listening area, thus enabling the use of two or more such apparatus placed non-equidistantly to consistently reproduce sound with regard to amplitude and phase over the desired range of frequencies throughout the listening area.

191. An sound reproduction apparatus comprised of two or more electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 180 so configured to provide a uniform radiation of phase consistent acoustic energy over an extended listening area at all frequencies of interest and with minimum variations in level over the extent of the said listening area wherein some or all transducers can simultaneously receive the same or different signals enabling the operation of each or groups of said electro-acoustic transducers independently thus varying the coverage of the listener area whilst still controlling wavefront divergence representing sound object distances, said overall apparatus sometimes being described as segmented or sectored by the inventor.

192. An electrical apparatus capable of decoding signals containing divergence and so specifically distance information used in conjunction with the apparatus of claim 187 said electrical apparatus being often described by the inventor as a vector format decoder and with render control and with amplifiers of the art as appropriate.

193. An electrical apparatus capable of decoding signals containing divergence and so specifically distance information used in conjunction with the apparatus of claim 192 said electrical apparatus having a user interface enabling static preset or dynamic adjustment of the rendered sound characteristics particularly with regard to relative distance of any source of the resultant reproduced sound field.

194. An electrical apparatus capable of decoding signals containing divergence and so specifically distance information used in conjunction with the apparatus of claim 192 said electrical apparatus being fed said or any set of signals by loudspeaker channel associated or other means, whether or not being transmitted, recreated or decoded by any electronic means of the art.

195. A sound reproduction apparatus comprising at least two electro-acoustic transducers according to claim 187 with suitable frequency response including maintaining this response over the desired field of listeners, said apparatus configuration also being described as being paired, each transducer covering approximately the same range of frequencies, said two transducers being so configured as to be non equidistant from the listener area and with the means to control the signals fed to an electro-acoustic transducer enabling control of the overall divergence a wave-front for reproduced sound over the intended listening area thus effectively being able to control the perceived or measured distance of An sound source originally comprising the sound field being of any nature including multi-sources multi-tone or complex spectral nature whilst covering the entire desired listening area with all frequencies of interest without significant variation in frequency or phase response and so consistently presenting said wave divergence behaviour said sound sources thus being able to be perceived observed or measured as being at consistent distances in space relative to the listener or listener area for all listeners anywhere in the listening area and whilst turning and moving, and wherein said consistent distances range from being in front of the nearest apparatus to being well behind the apparatus including being at the acoustic horizon or acoustic vanishing point as often described by the inventor when such sources are reproduced utilising parallel wavefronts covering the extent of the listening area, said non-equidistant configuration of said electro-acoustic transducers with regard to the listening area sometimes being described as end-fire arrays by the inventor.

196. Two apparatus according to claim 195 comprising at least pairs of electro-acoustic apparatus configured to reproduce sounds at a location in space perceived as having both direction and distance being in two dimensions, said configuration placing the apparatus at two or more angles in a location addressing the desired listening area and wherein the radiation pattern of the apparatus covers the entire desired listening area over all frequencies of interest without significant variation in frequency response of the art and An sound source is reproduced within the defined area between the two or more apparatus, the sound image in said space being correctly located in two dimensions said region or area for all listeners in the listening area even whilst turning or moving and with each pair of electro-acoustic transducers not being equidistant from the listening area or any location therein.

197. Three or more apparatus according to claim 195 comprising at least pairs of electro-acoustic apparatus so configured as to provide the ability to reproduce sounds at locations in space perceived as having both direction and distance in two dimensions, said configuration placing the apparatus at differing angles to the listening area wherein the radiation pattern of An apparatus covers the entire desired listening area with all frequencies of interest without significant variation in frequency response of the art and a sound source is reproduced within the defined area between the two apparatus, said reproduced sound image in space being correctly located in three dimensions for a listener anywhere in the listening area even whilst turning and moving, and each electro-acoustic transducer of said pair not being equidistant from the listening area or any location therein.

198. Three or more pairs of electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 191 so configured as to provide the ability to reproduce sounds at set locations in space perceived as having both direction and distance in three dimensions, said configuration placing the apparatus at three or more angles to the listening area wherein the angles do not define a plane, the radiation pattern of An apparatus pair covers the entire desired listening area, with all frequencies of interest without significant variation in frequency response and a sound source is reproduced within the defined area between the two apparatus, said reproduced sound image being correctly located in space for a listener in the listening area and each said electro-acoustic transducer pair not being equidistant from the listening area or any location therein.

199. A sound reproduction apparatus comprised of two electro-acoustic apparatus sets according to claim 191 configured to have at least three sectors and to provide a uniform radiation of phase consistent acoustic energy over an extended listening area at all frequencies of interest and with minimum variations in phase and amplitude over the extent of the said listening area when all transducers are operated and also enabling the independent operation of the each any or all of the said sectors of electro-acoustic transducer sets. being so placed to form electro-acoustic transducer set pairs about the apparatus and being placed in correspondence with each sector thereof, each said sound reproduction apparatus reproducing acoustic wave-fields for sound objects that are everywhere consistent for a listener at any location and for any orientation in the said listening area said apparatus capable of reproducing controlled divergence wavefronts when used in conjunction with other suitable apparatus.

200. A sound reproduction apparatus according to claim 191 being so placed to form electro-acoustic transducer set pairs with an apparatus being placed in correspondence with each sector thereof without restriction, each said sound reproduction apparatus reproducing acoustic wave-fields for sound objects that are everywhere consistent for a listener of at any location and for any orientation in the said listening area and being able to render sound fields with distance as well as direction of placed sound objects being preserved when provided with appropriate signals, said placement being consistent throughout the listening area for all listeners even when turning or moving and not requiring worn apparatus.

201. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 191 wherein consistent presentation of a direct sound of An reproduced acoustic object in three dimensional space can be achieved throughout a desired listening area for any listener in all directions at all frequencies of interest being maintained in front of, when passing and behind the axis of any of the electro-acoustic apparatus without the need for any worn apparatus for An listener.

202. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 201 wherein the consistent presentation of the direct sound of a reproduced acoustic object in space throughout a listening environment for a listener in all directions at all frequencies of interest is maintained with a minimum of three sectors, each of one pair of electro-acoustic transducers said apparatus capable of providing uniform sound radiation pattern in all directions of interest or to all locations in the listening area.

203. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 201 used for restricted listener area coverage, whether in bounded or unbounded environments, or used for reproduction of sound fields not constructed from or based on wave divergence or source or reproduced distance information of the invention whether knowingly or unknowingly.

204. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 196 wherein the consistent presentation of the direct sound of a reproduced acoustic object in space throughout a listening environment for a listener in all directions at all frequencies of interest is maintained with a minimum of three sectors each comprising a pair of electro-acoustic apparatus, and wherein each any or all of the said apparatus utilise one or more listening region boundaries including but not restricted to the floor and ceiling as well as walls, partitions or other structures and the meeting lines and points thereof to form An controlled sound field often referred to as a point source image in the art.

205. An electrical apparatus capable of decoding the common set of signals according to claim 166 for render to any particular set of apparatus previously, and also being able to be used to decode signals for any other electro-acoustic apparatus including those of the prior art such as mono, stereo, surround and the like.

206. An electrical apparatus capable of decoding signals according to claim 166, said control unit having a user interface enabling static or dynamic adjustment of the rendered sound characteristics particularly with regard to relative placement at a distance in a direction including aspects of zoom, rotate, pan, tilt, reflect or translate at the point of use or remotely or aspects of both.

207. An electrical apparatus capable of decoding signals according to claim 166 said control unit being fed a set of channel associated signals in the art, whether or not being transmitted, recreated or decoded by any electronic means in the art, and also including backward compatibility of the art or otherwise.

208. An electrical apparatus that optionally includes digital processing that measures the acoustic response of any defined environment containing one or more sources and produces signals according to claim 166 representing the parameters of location in particular including wavefront divergence representing distance as well as direction for said sources, and optionally the specular and diffusive component parts and spectrum behaviour with time for an early reflection in a source environment said signals being in a suitable form for subsequent recreation or render at the point of use optionally including early reflection and reverberant field of the art for the sources said apparatus thus enabling characterisation of the said environment for consistent reproduction of the early reflection components from the direct sound of sources in a listening environment enabling correct perception of said early reflections by a listener anywhere and at any orientation in a listener area even when turning or moving without any worn apparatus being required for the listener.

209. An acousto-electronic apparatus that produces electrical signals according to claim 166 specifically including distance information of all the waves from sound sources being directly received from sources or waves from early reflections of sound waves from said sources being described as virtual sources in the art or reverberant sound field components of sound waves from said sources or any combination thereof for transmission and subsequent recreation or render at the point of use, used in conjunction with a signal processing apparatus capable of reproduction of the direct sound of said early reflection placed in space in a listening environment for correct perception by a listener anywhere and at any orientation in a listener area without any worn apparatus being required.

210. An acousto-electronic apparatus according to claim 209 that captures wavefront information for early reflection with regard to location, specular and diffusive directional component parts and spectrum behaviour with time and produces electrical signals representing these early reflections for transmission and subsequent recreation or render at the point of use, with a signal processing apparatus capable of reproduction of sound source placed at a distance and in a direction including creating the placed virtual sources of said early reflections placed in space in a listening environment for correct perception by a listener anywhere and at any orientation in a listener area without any worn apparatus being required for a listener, and including consistent spatial behaviour when interacting with the waves directly form the placed sources themselves.

211. An electronic apparatus for transmission of electrical signals representing parameters according to claim 166 for subsequent recreation or render at the point of use, with a signal processing apparatus capable of reproduction of direct sound, early reflection or reverberant sound fields placed in space particularly with regard to distance in a listening environment for correct perception by a listener anywhere and at any orientation in a listener area without any worn apparatus being required.

212. An acoustic apparatus according to claim 187, rendering and so placing virtual sources for the early reflections of the art as a reproduced acoustic object placed anywhere in space throughout a listening environment representing virtual apparent sources within and beyond the boundaries of the listening environment according to the parameters of an early reflection each said object to be correctly perceived by a listener anywhere in a listening area and at any orientation without any worn apparatus being required for said listener and including correct spatial behaviour when interacting with the direct waves from the reproduced sources.

213. An acoustic measuring apparatus according to claim 166 placed in any partially or fully reflective sound field environment experiencing sound waves comprising microphone elements of the art whereby regions of predominantly divergent or convergent acoustic field particle velocity or pressure waves in a particular direction in a sound field can be indicated at any particular frequency of interest by movement of the said apparatus in the sound field, said apparatus thus indicating said node or anti-node points at the corresponding frequency for the said reflective environment using a suitably varying display and said apparatus being suited to location of optimised low frequency coupling locations for sources and the listener area for the initial or early or early reflected wave focused by a barrier to sound of the said reflective environment.

216. An apparatus according to claim 213 used to determine the location of and so avoid room mode locations with source to listener coupling according to the method of centroids of the inventor to thus provide minimal influence from room modes at the desired listening locations.

238. An electrical apparatus according to claim 187 wherein the amplitude and phase of the signals fed to each electro-acoustic transducer in a pair is such that the resulting divergence of the overall vector acoustic wave so created places the resultant perceived sound at appropriate distances relative to the reproduction apparatus in the listening environment and wherein the decoding and array conditioning parts for the signal processing provide separate processing to cater for an array pair of devices and their relative spacing to allow for local apparatus variations whilst providing a standardised or reference render decoding, said reproduction distance not being constrained to being an apparent source between said electro-acoustic transducers but capable of render from well in front of said apparatus to well behind said apparatus as perceived from the listening area by appropriate control of said amplitude and phase with frequency for an electro-acoustic transducer pair according to the method, including the generation of parallel wavefronts representing sources a long way behind the apparatus also referred to as the acoustic horizon or vanishing point by the inventor and said listening environments including fully, partially or unbounded or open environments.

239. An electrical apparatus according to claim 238 wherein the reference render placement is chosen to be the horizon or vanishing point and is often described as reference distance decoding by the inventor and with any local or array correction for wavefront divergence or distance render often described as the local or array correction or point of use render by the inventor, said approach enabling broadcast of standard material to many listeners.

240. A point of use render control apparatus according to claim 238 that enables correction of wavefront divergence or apparent source location for any array apparatus placement by adjustment of array divergence behaviour to move the apparent locations of rendered objects with regard to translation, rotation, zooming, reflection or other requirement thus enabling the movement or placement of array apparatus at locations convenient to the listener whilst retaining the ability to correctly establish a desired acoustic field over the intended listener area by this method of apparent source movement using to achieve this, whether manually or partially or fully automatically.

241. The apparatus according to claim 238 wherein the source material or part thereof does not have source distance information considered or preserved at capture, during distribution or at reproduction whether intentionally or not and including such formats as stereo, 5.1 and the like being equidistant or surround formats of the art and wherein these said formats are decoded to a set distance with or without user control thus ensuring both forward and backward compatibility of the art for all available material with the present invention.

242. The apparatus according to claim 238 wherein the source material or part thereof may have source distance information considered or preserved at capture, during distribution or at reproduction whether intentionally or not including such formats as wave field synthesis and the like being broad-fire array formats of the art or any other like formats presently and wherein these said formats can decode to a set distance by any means including with or without user or remote control for reproduction using any, some or all of the claims of this invention enabling capture, encoding, transmission or decoding render and reproduction thus ensuring both forward and backward compatibility of the art for this material and format with the present invention.

243. An electrical apparatus according to claims 238 wherein the control apparatus for render therein described in part enables reduction of the physical separation between any all or each electro-acoustic transducers in a pair as described and also enables adjustment to the relative location of said pairs by processing the signal for said pair or sets of pairs to allow for such variations whilst providing uniform or intended coverage of the intended listening area with apparent and measurable placement of said sound images from being well behind the rear-most to in front of the forward-most electro-acoustic transducer of An pair and any locations in between, when perceived from the intended listening area for An listening location.

244. An electrical apparatus according to claims 238 wherein the each or any electrical signals presented to said apparatus may be delivered by channel embedded means including being as part of the actual encoded or otherwise delivered audio, by channel associated means including but not limited to formats such as stereo, 5.1 or the like or delivered by non channel associated means or any one or more such means in combination and sometimes referred to as metadata by the inventor.

245. An electrical apparatus according to claim 238 receiving source material with or without wavefront divergence or distance coding.

246. An electrical apparatus according to any of claim 238 able to receive electro-acoustic signals in a common or vector format as described and appropriately decode said signals either locally or remotely or using aspects of both for reproduction on said apparatus wherein the perceived location of a reproduced sound source is able to be placed under user control at the point of use so as to enable manipulation of the rendered sound field including but not limited to aspects of panning, dollying, zooming, translation, reflection or rotation whilst retaining at least some consistency of sound source behaviour particularly with regard to relative location when the listener turns or moves anywhere in the listening area.

247. An electrical apparatus according to any of claims 238 wherein said apparatus is able to receive electro-acoustic signals and appropriately decode said signals either locally or remotely for reproduction on said apparatus and wherein the perceived or measured location of An intended sound source is able to be influenced or altered under remote director or other agent control or under local control or both at the point of use including but not limited to aspects of panning, dollying, zooming, translation, reflection or rotation whilst retaining at least some consistency of sound source behaviour particularly with regard to relative location when An listener turns or moves anywhere in the listening area, and specifically including such manipulation of source material containing some or not containing any relative source distance information.

248. An electrical apparatus according to claim 238 able to receive electro-acoustic signals in a channel associated format and appropriately decode said signals for reproduction on suitable apparatus taking distance into account and maintain backward compatibility with other formats including equi-distant or surround formats of the art, said decoding able to either have or not have placement effects wherein the perceived location of An intended sound source is able to be placed under local user or remote director or other agent control at the point of use, such relative placement being able to be at least partially preserved as required.

253. An electrical apparatus according to claim 166 intended for personal use

254. An electrical apparatus according to claim 238 intended for personal use

255. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 186 intended for single listener personal use wherein at least two electro-acoustic transducers are placed relatively to form a controlled acoustic field with respect to wavefront creation towards the listener,

256. Two or more such apparatus according to claim 255 each intended to provide acoustic signals to a particular listener ear and described as binaural in the art.

257. An apparatus of claim 255 intended to fit over the listeners pinnae, optionally offering some sound isolation by nature of acoustically opaque physical structure or by annihilation or both.

258. An apparatus of claim 255 intended to fit into the listener pinnae, optionally offering some sound isolation by nature of acoustically opaque physical structure or by annihilation in part.

259. An apparatus of claims 255 intended to fit into the listeners ear canal, optionally offering some sound isolation by nature of acoustically opaque physical structure obstructing said canal or by annihilation in part.

260. An electrical apparatus according to claim 238 for personal use with over pinnae, in pinnae or in canal electro-acoustic transducers wherein the apparatus decodes vector format of the invention or other signals and optionally corrects for the acoustic behaviour of the electro-acoustic pair and the influence of the local environment and the or any requirement for filtering whilst optionally enabling reduction of the physical separation between An electro-acoustic transducer of said pair by processing the signal for any pair said apparatus providing apparent placement of said sound images from well behind the rearmost electro-acoustic transducer to in front of the forward most electro-acoustic transducer and all locations in between, when perceived by the listener.

261. The each or any electrical apparatus according to claims 260 wherein the apparatus is controlled or modified locally at point of use, remotely or any combination thereof.

262. An apparatus according to claim 260 used with material not having regard to preservation of source distance information including but not limited to stereo, surround 5.1 and the like thus being described as backward compatible in the art.

263. An apparatus according to claim 260 providing facilities under either local, or remote or both control enabling panning, dollying, zooming, translation, reflection or rotation of the resultant rendered sound field of the invention.

264. An apparatus according to claim 260 used in conjunction with ear related transfer function filters specifically considering distance information of sound sources together with listener rotation or translation detecting devices that can alter the filtering in response to each or a combination of moving or turning and thus alter the rendered field placement in response to said movement or turning, said altering including the ability to place sound objects perceived as fixed in space irrespective of the said listener movement or turning.

266. An acousto-electric apparatus according to claim 166 so configured to capture distance as well as direction information for any sound source and comprising at least two microphone elements arranged in conjunction with an acoustically opaque boundary construction of the apparatus said apparatus used in conjunction with filters to compensate for said opaque structure and determine and extract wave divergence information representing source distance in each any or all directions, and specifically including the case where the apparatus is made small in comparison with the wavelengths of the frequencies of interest so as to minimise any said acoustically opaque body correction requirement said apparatus often being referred to as a vector wavefront microphone apparatus and optionally outputting vector format electrical signals of the invention.

267. Two or more apparatus according to claim 266 wherein the self scaling of the distance information for the any or all sources with regard to variation in apparatus location enables the simple combination of said distance related output signals from any number of said apparatus, thus being able to expand and improve the scope of the location capability of the apparatus with regard to any or an expansive sound field of objects without limit with regard to distance aspects only.

268. An electrical apparatus according to claim 166 capable of receiving electrical or electro-optic or other form of signals and processing said signals to largely or totally preserve the directional or divergence information for the each or every sound source of interest whilst resolving said signals into a minimum set of vector signals described as orthogonal in the art, said signals being treated either separately or in combination for distance and direction aspects, said apparatus having the necessary capability to process said signal in suitable form of the invention for subsequent use in the or any suitable storage, distribution or reproduction apparatus of the art said electrical apparatus optionally having the necessary capability to supply the operational requirements of any some or all said acousto-electric apparatus.

269. An electrical apparatus according to claim 268 capable of receiving electrical or electro-optic signals and suitably processing said signals in order to derive signals suitable for vector format distribution with or without remote agent or user point of use control and suitable for the formats of stereo, 5.1 surround and the like, either automatically or under operator control, the use of said apparatus being referred to as audio post-production of the art.

270. An electrical apparatus according to claim 269 for personal use able to receive information detailing placed sound sources from remote sound fields and render said information as sound objects amongst the placed sources of the local sound field of the listener and the local environment, either under remote control or local listener control or both, said placement being able to minimise disrupting awareness of the local sound field objects perceived by the listener simultaneously.

271. An apparatus according to claim 270 used in conjunction with local or wide area communications services enabling the bi-directional communication between two or more listeners each having appropriately placed source image locations consistent with their actual relative or absolute locations, said locations being under individual listener control and said service including regional or global location and presentation services of the art including but not limited to GPS satellite, GPRS, GSM tower based or the or a multitude of other user location based services said communications services enabling awareness of presence and position even in darkness or when not otherwise visible by virtue of building, foliage or other visual obstruction.

272. An apparatus according to claim 166 used to capture sound fields at all distances in all directions for either immediate or later analysis and post production activities including separation and tracking of individual sources either manually or automatically, said apparatus being useful for acoustic forensics of the art

273. An apparatus of claim 272 wherein non-distance audio or other signals are used or catered for thus providing backward compatibility with existing services of the art, said signals also being able to be placed and moved in space as perceived by the listener by remote or local control of render placement or both, but not necessarily preserving the or any relative placements of objects within the reproduced sound field of the original.

274. An apparatus according to claim 166 used to detect the location of any unwanted sound source particularly with regard to wave divergence or distance within or external to any listening environment and the associated spectral nature of said unwanted source and to create and place a suitable annihilating sound source for such unwanted source but still applicable where the noise source or the cancelling source or both are outside the bounded area, thus minimising or eliminating the unwanted source from all locations within the target listening area.

188. An sound reproduction apparatus for reproduction of electrical signals as acoustic waves comprising the combination of an electro-acoustic transducer with an active surface referred to variously as a piston, diaphragm or cone in the art and a separate acoustic filter said acoustic filter comprising a gas volume in a cavity formed by the bounding of one side of the cone active surface by said acoustic filter with an aperture being the only means of conveying sound, and of restricted dimensions so as to present a controlled source size in a desired acoustic radiation direction independently of the active surface size thus controlling the polar amplitude and phase radiation pattern of the acoustic energy of the combined electro-acoustic transducer in each or all directions at all frequencies and in particular the highest frequency of interest, said apparatus also serving to increase the acoustic efficiency of the electro-acoustic transducer at certain frequencies and said acoustic filter providing a low pass filter function in the art thus also reducing harmonic distortion products outside the range of frequencies of interest the desired overall frequency response optionally being maintained or modified as desired by an electrical equalisation circuit, said apparatus being useful over a wide range of frequencies including infrasonic and ultrasonic taking into account the low pass filter nature of the apparatus in the dimensions of the apparatus.

189. An electro-acoustic transducer sound reproduction apparatus according to claim 188 comprising the combination of an active surface described as a piston or cone in the art, and an integral acoustic filter essentially comprising a cavity and an aperture being the only means of conveying sound, and being of restricted dimensions so as to present a controlled source size in each desired acoustic radiation direction thus controlling the polar amplitude and phase radiation pattern of acoustic energy in all directions at all frequencies of interest and in particular the highest frequency of interest, whilst the acoustic filter additionally acts as a low pass filter thus reducing harmonic distortion products outside the band of reproduction interest and may serve to increase the acoustic efficiency of the apparatus at certain frequencies whilst the desired frequency response is maintained by design of the electro-acoustic transducer and the added acoustic filter design said design optionally using an external electrical equalisation circuit as required for the desired overall frequency response.

190. An sound reproduction apparatus wherein two or more of the apparatus according to claim 188 are used each covering a separate band of desired frequencies, said total output being maintained by a crossover circuit of an electric, electronic acoustic or electro-acoustic nature, and an equalisation circuit in the art, said apparatus being co-axially mounted and each forming part of the acoustic filter cavity and the aperture so described.

214. An wave modelling apparatus that considers the wave focussing effect of any partial or fully reflecting boundaries of a building, room, wall, pillar or any other sound influencing structure and so determines the early sound field wave delivery to any point or through any region in space with time according to the rule of centroid moments or rule of centroids of the inventor, so identifying the corresponding pairs of locations for first or early wave convergence, said model be used to alter improve optimise or otherwise change the geometry of the said structure for wave delivery to any point or region in time and space in the listening region by variation of the nature and geometry of the listening area boundaries, and said rule of the method of centroids stating that the first region of reflected wave convergence from a placed source corresponds to resolving the first moment of the source location about the centroid of the influenced gas within the said partially or fully enclosing acoustically reflecting structure

215. An apparatus for determining low frequency acoustic loss in or from a partially or fully acoustically reflective bounded listening area over a range of frequencies by comparison of the modelled predicted intensity of the focussing of the early sound field wave at the listening location according to claim 214 and comparing the result to the measured coupling utilising the sound field apparatus of claim 214 or other means, said loss being the difference of the two results when considered at any desired frequency.

217. An electro-acoustic reproduction apparatus that reduces or eliminates low frequency mode influence in a partially or fully reflectively bounded reproduction environment by the mechanism of annihilating reflected sound recognising the boundary focussing capability identified in claim 214 for source and listening area location in any partially or fully bounded environment, taking into account the reflective nature of the environment and where the low frequency loudspeaker source is fed a signal that is initially the desired sound to be reproduced and then uses suitable signal processing to create a time delayed signal that partially or fully annihilates the on-reflected wave returning from the listening environment to the low frequency loudspeaker source according to the rule of the method of centroids of the invention after two propagation periods by the means of anti-phase signal of suitably scaled magnitude and phase, said apparatus thus being able to dynamically remove acoustic energy from the reproduction environment prior to excitation of modes.

218. An electro-acoustic reproduction apparatus that reduces or eliminates low frequency room modes in a partially or fully reflectively bounded reproduction environment by use of the method of centroids according to claim 214 for any fully or partially reflecting boundary by the mechanism of partially or completely annihilating reflected sound independently of listening area location wherein a bounded listening environment having a largely reflecting acoustic boundary for the boundary opposite the loudspeaker sources has electro-acoustic transducer or loudspeaker sources so designed, arrayed and fed signals to produce a largely plane wave low frequency sound field over all of the reproduction environment including the target listening area, said sound field propagating past all listeners, being plane reflected and returning to the source loudspeaker array as a largely planar wave which is then annihilated by the original source loudspeakers with suitable signal processing including inverted delayed versions of the original signal.

219. An apparatus according to claim 218 wherein the source is located at or near the ceiling or roof and the reflecting boundary is the floor, a listener seated or standing in the listening area thus receiving two passes of the low frequency wave in quick succession below the level of perception of the waves as separate events and all listeners receiving simultaneous arrival of the wave field, the arrival time of which can also be adjusted by the apparatus controlling the degree of annihilation and wherein the listening environment may be zoned, with each zone having its own suitably placed source array and local floor as reflector, the arrival time of which can also be adjusted independently for each zone by the apparatus controlling the annihilation for each zone separately, thus enabling simultaneous arrival for all listeners in all zones.

220. An electro-acoustic apparatus comprising multiple electro-acoustic transducers with at least one active radiating diaphragm or cone surface, each said apparatus covering the same band of frequencies, said transducers mounted so as to couple the wave from one side of the electro-acoustic transducer active surface to a common chamber by whatever means, wherein a restriction in the form of an orifice is introduced in acoustic proximity to each said active surface thus forming a chamber acoustically towards said active surface with respect to the said common chamber the combination forming a generally low-pass filter in the art so designed as to allow generally unrestricted alternating gas flow in the pass-band of the art towards the common chamber, said orifice then presenting a restriction to alternating gas flow in the art for said alternating gas flow from said active surface towards the, each or all other electro-acoustic transducer active surface accessing the common chamber being suitable for increasing the effectiveness or efficiency of the overall apparatus for the reproduction of sound in the desired pass-band by reduction of cross transducer cone loading for the desired band of frequencies.

221. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 220 comprising wholly or in part multiple electro-acoustic transducers, said transducers mounted so as to couple the wave from one side of An electro-acoustic transducer active surface to a common chamber, wherein a restriction in the form of an orifice of generally restricted size relative to the said active surface and being the only access path for alternating gas flow is constructed in acoustic proximity to said active surface of an electro-acoustic transducer as part or added to each said transducer to from a composite electro-acoustic transducer apparatus with a chamber acoustically towards said active surface with respect to the said common chamber said combination forming a generally low-pass filter in the art so designed as to allow generally unrestricted alternating gas flow in the pass-band towards the common chamber, said chamber being optionally so constructed to use the method of gas centroids of the inventor treating the enclosure as a bounded space in order to couple acoustic energy to an exit orifice from said chamber acoustically towards the listening area, wherein said gas centroid location so calculated is that for the said chamber being suitable for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of said apparatus over the desired frequency range by minimising the effects of chamber resonant modes.

222. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claims 221 wherein there is direct coupling of the apparatus to the listening environment thus considering the listening room to be that described as the chamber and wherein a low frequency electro-acoustic transducer and associated resonant structure between one active surface and the listener area with restricted cross-sectional area is so designed to increase sound velocity and so increase the effective sound energy delivery to the acoustic load of the listening environment over a desired band of frequencies, said apparatus comprising a complementary electrical filter or equaliser of the art wherein the transfer function for the electro-acoustic apparatus response is designed to be equalised overall, said apparatus having any number of said electro-acoustic transducers, said apparatus being used in conjunction with the method of centroids of the inventor for the room or otherwise.

223. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to any one of claims 221 wherein the electro-acoustic transducers are so placed relative to each other whether in pairs or otherwise such that the net force on the overall apparatus from the movement of the active surfaces acting in concert is intentionally minimised, conveying minimum net acceleration force to the enclosure or the overall apparatus or surroundings of the apparatus, thus minimising undesirable vibrations.

224. An electro-acoustic apparatus of claim 221 wherein the other side of the active surfaces present to a region outside the listening region including the listening area and is acoustically treated differently by means of intentionally increasing the size of an aperture or orifice including but not restricted to the use of a tube, vent or port and intentionally increasing the separation between any two such orifices such that the subsequent concentration of acoustic energy in the region outside the boundary of the bounded region including the listening area is thus minimised in any bounded region thereon according the rule of gas centroids of the inventor or any region outside the boundary of the bounded region that includes the listening area, whilst still accurately preserving the total gas volume velocity in the art to be the same to both regions over the desired band of frequencies and where acoustic radiation due to leakage from the bounded region is intentionally minimised and may ultimately become zero away from all bounded regions by the method of cancellation of the overall volume velocity from the front and the rear of An electro-acoustic transducer in the art.

225. An electro-acoustic apparatus for reproduction of sound without having apparent perceived source direction according to a listener throughout a listening environment including fully, partially or unbounded or open environments and including when said listener is immediately adjacent to said apparatus, said apparatus comprising a set of transmissive half wave resonant structures of differing tuning and supporting large number of resonant harmonic overtones, said resonant structures being so combined as to present some degree of acoustic mismatch for each incident acoustic wave and so behaving as partially reflective whilst also behaving as partially transmissive in allowing part of the said acoustic wave to enter the structure and propagate there-through, and again behaving as partially reflective and partially transmissive in a frequency selective manner at the point of the incident acoustic wave subsequently leaving the apparatus, the overall effect including frequency dependent transmission and reflection components with the said impedance mismatch at the points of entry and exit being augmented by the interacting influence of the adjacent acoustic resonant structure and the rigid boundary parts there associated at the point of entry and exit for the said half wave resonant structure, said structures being in close proximity, and the resonances being related to the apparatus dimensions rather than any incident acoustic wave giving an amplitude and phase behaviour influence unrelated to the source, radiation from An half wave section acting as a source in itself placed at the location of any said half wave resonant section entry and being designed to provide the desired spectral and spatial acoustic energy distribution, and exit points and said half wave resonant structures being so designed as to avoid unwanted resonance behaviours in the desired band of frequencies of operation by suitably small choice of cross section dimension of the said resonant structures, said apparatus also being referred to as the whiteroom loudspeaker by the inventor.

226. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 225 wherein the lengths and configuration of the half wave resonant structures is so chosen such that the overall spectral energy of the acoustic waves passing there-through and there-from is in accordance with the source wave but where the phase relationships of the original sound source are not preserved, the acoustic sound field emanating there-from being variously described as diffusive, dispersive, de-correlated, enveloping or immersing in the art said configurations including but not restricted to various sections of half wave resonant structures that are straight, bent, folded or curved.

227. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 225 used in connection with other dispersive apparatus including but not restricted to quarter reflective diffusers, electronic multi-resonant panel loudspeaker apparatus and electronic signal processors providing dispersive effects in the art.

228. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 225 wherein the various lengths of the half wave acoustic resonators are so designed to have axial cross-sectional profiles that vary and so provide the desired response.

229. Two or more of the apparatus according to claim 225 used in combination, such configuration being in series or in parallel or in combinations thereof with regard to the incident and propagated acoustic waves, said structure being designed to provide the desired spectral and spatial acoustic energy distribution and said dispersive combination being variously described as a leaky transmission line or structure or diffuser in the art.

230. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claims 225 wherein the apparatus is so configured to take advantage of an acoustic specular, diffusive or other reflective surface such as an environment boundary, said apparatus making use of the acoustic image thus created to provide the desired spectral and spatial response without the need for additional half-wave resonant structures.

232. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 226 wherein the sound source is an electro-acoustic transducer of suitable response capabilities forms a source of sound from the fed electrical signals described as a dipole source in the art and said apparatus is variously described as a diffusive source loudspeaker, diffusive loudspeaker, diffusive source un-locatable loudspeaker or whiteroom loudspeaker.

233. An electro-acoustic apparatus according to claim 226 wherein the sound source is an electro-acoustic transducer of suitable response capabilities and said acoustic filtering apparatus is used to correct frequency response amplitude and directivity anomalies as well as to support the claims made of dispersive or diffusive source nature.

234. An apparatus to model the behaviour of the apparatus of claim 226 in software or by other means and so provide any structure dimensions in response to entering of the desired spatial and spectral design requirements, said apparatus in part utilising any or all of the method of distributed parameter modelling and the method of residues for higher order multi-resonances.

235. An audio apparatus using one or more of digital, analogue or active or passive signal processing capabilities for audio signals from channels of a multi-channel audio signal source so as to provide a summed signal representing all of the sound sources in the original sound field contributing to the reverberant sound field being suitable for feeding said signal to the apparatus described in claim 226 for reproduction, said apparatus being with or without other electronic reverberation techniques of the art including but not restricted echo and said apparatus being also described as a reverberant sound field manager by the inventor.

236. An electrical apparatus according to claim 235 processing the signals from the desired sound sources having parameters representing the desired reverberant field decay time and associated time variant spectrum and used to provide the correct source decay characteristic for any corresponding or any derived channel of multi-channel electrical signals representing sound sources so as to provide a summed signal representing all of the sound sources present in the original sound field and so contributing to the reverberant sound field, said apparatus being suitable for feeding said signal to a reverberant sound field reproduction apparatus for reproduction, wherein reverberation parameters can be changed to provide audio reverberation scenes and scene change transition points, said apparatus also sometimes being described as a parametric reverberation manager by the inventor.

237. The apparatus of any of claims 226 used to actively mask the acoustic characteristics of any listening environment including open, partial or fully bounded spaces whilst optionally conveying useful acoustic information such as speech or music.

231. A method of construction of the apparatus of 226 wherein a half wave resonant structure is made of suitable cross-section multi-tubular structure of circular, square, triangular, hexangular or other regular cross-section structure and is fabricated or extruded in the art then shaped and cut to a profile that creates the desired spatial and spectral response, said ends of each resonant structure being either square or non-square cut profile and suitable end correction calculations being made for the resonant frequencies.

249. An electrical apparatus comprising amplitude and phase filters controlling spatial transfer function for any location on or with regard to an acoustically opaque object or defined collection of objects each with fixed relative location defined with respect to any impinging acoustic representing a wave qualified with respect to source distance including but not limited to a point source at a distance in a direction or a plane wave representing a source at the acoustic vanishing point in a direction, said filters often being referred to as acoustic object related transfer functions and sometimes abbreviated to ORTF by the inventor, said filters specifically considering distance as described and as qualified by the wave divergence, swelling or curvature as previously described, and said filters able to process signals to provide for or to compensate for said transfer function or elements of both, said collection of objects including the effect of one or more said objects obscuring, blocking or otherwise modifying sound in a particular direction by virtue of its shape or size or placement.

250. An electrical apparatus comprising filters according to claim 249 wherein advantage is taken of any acoustic symmetry of the said acoustically opaque object in order to simplify the filter structures or requirements.

251. An electrical apparatus according to claims 249 wherein the said acoustically opaque object is a human head and the point of interest is An ear with location being variously specified as the pinnae, canal or eardrum, said filters often being referred to by the inventor as ear related transfer functions or ERTF to distinguish said filter structures from head related transfer functions or HRTF of the art which are measured with regard to the centre of the head so do not consider the directional properties of the ear and head independently and do not intentionally or otherwise consider distance aspects of the transfer functions.

252. An electrical apparatus according to claim 249 used in conjunction with any apparatus to capture, process, encode, decode render or reproduce electrical signals representing sound sources taking distance into account through wave divergence. spreading or curvature.

265. An apparatus according to claim 249 for personal use wherein the filters are used in part to correct for the acoustic behaviours of external apparatus such as helmets, vests, suits, vehicles or the like and still present a sound field to the listener with consistent treatment of distance and direction.