DEVICE FOR AND METHOD OF GENERATING AUDIO DATA FOR TRANSMISSION TO A PLURALITY OF AUDIO REPRODUCTION UNITS

• US 20090192638A1
• Filed: 05/10/2007
• Published: 07/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van Leest, Adriaan Johan, Schobben, Daniel Willem Elisabeth
• Application Number:
  US12/303,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20090192638A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2205/024 Positioning of loudspeaker enclosures for spatial sound reproduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/12 for distributing signals to two or more loudspeakers specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/301 Automatic calibration of stereophonic sound system, e.g. with test microphone

Abstract

A device (100) for generating audio data for transmission to a plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the device (100) comprising an audio content transmission unit (101) adapted to transmit audio content for reproduction to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), and a local audio data transmission unit (102) adapted to transmit local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the local audio data being indicative of a manner of processing transmitted audio content locally at the respective audio reproduction unit (110) to generate locally reproducible audio content.

Claims

1. A device (100) for generating audio data for transmission to a plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the device (100) comprising

a first audio data transmission unit (101) adapted to transmit audio content for reproduction to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110);

a second audio data transmission unit (102) adapted to transmit local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the local audio data being indicative of a manner of processing the transmitted audio content locally at the respective audio reproduction unit (110) yielding locally reproducible audio content.

2. The device (100) according to claim 1,

wherein the first audio data transmission unit (101) is adapted to transmit shared audio content for reproduction to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

3. The device (100) according to claim 1,

wherein the first audio data transmission unit (101) is adapted to transmit audio content for reproduction to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), said audio content being essentially independent of a number of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) connected or connectable to the device (100).

4. The device (100) according to claim 1,

wherein the second audio data transmission unit (102) is adapted to transmit different local audio data to different of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

5. The device (100) according to claim 1,

wherein the second audio data transmission unit (102) is adapted to transmit local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) so as to allow to render reproducible audio content locally at each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) using one or more spatial rendering parameters.

6. The device (100) according to claim 1,

wherein the second audio data transmission unit (102) is adapted to transmit local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) so as to allow to render reproducible audio content locally at each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) using one or more gain parameter indicative of a gain of the reproducible audio content and/or one or more delay parameter indicative of a delay of reproducing the reproducible audio content.

7. The device (100) according to claim 1,

wherein the second audio data transmission unit (102) is adapted to transmit local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), said local audio data being dependent on a number of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

8. The device (100) according to claim 1,

wherein the second audio data transmission unit (102) is adapted to transmit local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), said local audio data being dependent on a spatial arrangement of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

9. The device (100) according to claim 1,

comprising a communication interface for a communication with the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

10. The device (100) according to claim 9,

wherein the communication interface is adapted for a communication with the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) in a wired manner or in a wireless manner.

11. The device (100) according to claim 9, wherein the communication interface is adapted for a communication with the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) so as to form a power line communication network or a Bluetooth network.

12. The device (100) according to claim 9,

wherein the communication interface is adapted for a communication with an arbitrary number of reproduction units (110).

13. The device (100) according to claim 9,

wherein the communication interface is adapted for a communication with the plurality of reproduction units (110) in a dynamic manner.

14. The device (100) according to claim 1,

comprising a position detection unit (103) for detecting a position of at least a part of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

15. The device (100) according to claim 14,

wherein the position detection unit (103) is coupled to the second audio data transmission unit (102) in such a manner that the local audio data is adjustable based on the detected position of at least a part of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

16. The device (200) according to claim 1,

comprising an audio encoder unit (201) for encoding the audio content and/or the local audio data to be transmitted to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110).

17. The device (200) according to claim 16, wherein the audio encoder unit (201) is adapted for encoding using spatial audio coding.

18. The device (200) according to claim 1, comprising the plurality of audio reproduction units (110) connected or connectable to the first audio data transmission unit (101) and/or to the second audio data transmission unit (102).

19. The device (100) according to claim 1,

realized as at least one of the group consisting of an audio surround system, a gaming device, a DVD player, a CD player, a harddisk-based media player, an internet radio device, a public entertainment device, an MP3 player, a hi-fi system, a vehicle entertainment device, a car entertainment device, a medical communication system, and a home cinema system.

20. An audio reproduction unit (110) for reproducing audio data generated by a device (100) according to claim 1 for generating audio data for transmission to a plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the audio reproduction unit (110) comprising

a first audio data receipt unit (111) adapted to receive the audio content for reproduction;

a second audio data receipt unit (112) adapted to receive the local audio data being indicative of a manner of processing the received audio content locally by the audio reproduction unit (110) to generate locally reproducible audio content.

21. The audio reproduction unit (210) according to claim 20,

comprising a position detection unit (301) for detecting a position of the audio reproduction unit (210) with respect to at least one further audio reproduction unit.

22. The audio reproduction unit (210) according to claim 20,

comprising an acoustic wave generation unit (211) for emitting acoustic waves based on audio content received by the audio content receipt unit and based on local audio data received by the local audio data receipt unit (112).

23. The audio reproduction unit (210) according to claim 22,

being adapted for using amplitude panning.

24. A method of generating audio data for transmission to a plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the method comprising

transmitting audio content for reproduction to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110);

transmitting local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the local audio data being indicative of a manner of processing the transmitted audio content locally at the respective audio reproduction unit (110) yielding locally reproducible audio content.

25. A program element, which, when being executed by a processor (100), is adapted to control or carry out a method of generating audio data for transmission to a plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the method comprising:

transmitting audio content for reproduction to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110);

transmitting local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the local audio data being indicative of a manner of processing the transmitted audio content locally at the respective audio reproduction unit (110) yielding locally reproducible audio content.

26. A computer-readable medium, in which a computer program is stored which, when being executed by a processor (100), is adapted to control or carry out a method of generating audio data for transmission to a plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the method comprising:

transmitting audio content for reproduction to the plurality of audio reproduction units (110);

transmitting local audio data individually to each of the plurality of audio reproduction units (110), the local audio data being indicative of a manner of processing the transmitted audio content locally at the respective audio reproduction unit (110) yielding locally reproducible audio content.