AUDIO SPEAKERS HAVING UPWARD FIRING DRIVERS FOR REFLECTED SOUND RENDERING
First Claim
1. A crossover circuit for use in a speaker system transmitting sound waves for a full-bandwidth, object-based audio content having height and direct components to be reflected off an upper surface of a listening environment, comprising:
- an interface from a renderer to a speaker having a direct-firing driver within a cabinet and oriented to transmit sound along a horizontal axis substantially perpendicular to a front surface of the cabinet and an upward-firing driver oriented at an inclination angle of between 18 degrees to 22 degrees relative to the horizontal axis; and
a separation circuit comprising a crossover stage having a low-pass section configured to transmit low frequency signals below a threshold frequency to the direct-firing driver, and a high-pass section configured to transmit high frequency signals above the threshold frequency to the upward-firing drive,
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments are directed to upward-firing speakers that reflect sound off a ceiling to a listening location at a distance from a speaker. The reflected sound provides height cues to reproduce audio objects that have overhead audio components. A virtual height filter based on a directional hearing model is applied to the upward-firing driver signal to improve the perception of height for audio signals transmitted by the virtual height speaker to provide optimum reproduction of the overhead reflected sound. The upward firing driver is tilted at an inclination angle of approximately 20 degrees to the horizontal axis of the speaker and separate height and direct terminal connections are provided to interface to an adaptive audio rendering system.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A crossover circuit for use in a speaker system transmitting sound waves for a full-bandwidth, object-based audio content having height and direct components to be reflected off an upper surface of a listening environment, comprising:
-
an interface from a renderer to a speaker having a direct-firing driver within a cabinet and oriented to transmit sound along a horizontal axis substantially perpendicular to a front surface of the cabinet and an upward-firing driver oriented at an inclination angle of between 18 degrees to 22 degrees relative to the horizontal axis; and a separation circuit comprising a crossover stage having a low-pass section configured to transmit low frequency signals below a threshold frequency to the direct-firing driver, and a high-pass section configured to transmit high frequency signals above the threshold frequency to the upward-firing drive, - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 11)
-
- 6. The circuit of claim wherein the crossover stage is integrated with the virtual height filter into a single component of the speaker.
-
8. A speaker for transmitting sound waves to be reflected off an upper surface of a listening environment, comprising:
-
a cabinet; a direct-firing driver within the cabinet and oriented to transmit sound along a horizontal axis substantially perpendicular to a front surface of the cabinet; an upward-firing driver oriented at an adjustable inclination angle of between 18 degrees to 22 degrees relative to the horizontal axis, wherein the inclination angle is changed in response to positional information; a virtual height filter circuit applying a frequency response curve to a signal transmitted to the upward-firing driver, wherein the frequency response curve is selected from among a plurality of frequency response curves corresponding to different virtual filter response parameters in response to positional information of the speaker in the listening environment; and a crossover circuit, the crossover circuit having a low-pass section configured to transmit low frequency signals below a threshold frequency to the direct-firing driver, and a high-pass section configured to transmit high frequency signals above the threshold frequency to the upward-firing driver, wherein the high-pass section comprises said virtual height filter. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A method for generating an audio scene from a speaker, the method comprising:
-
receiving first and second audio signals; routing the first audio signal to a direct-firing driver of the speaker; routing the second audio signal to an upward-firing driver of the speaker;
wherein the first and second audio signals are physically discrete signals representing direct and diffused audio content, respectively, andapplying, by a virtual height filter circuit, a frequency response curve to a signal routed to the upward-firing driver, wherein the frequency response curve is selected from among a plurality of frequency response curves corresponding to different virtual filter response parameters in response to positional information of the speaker in the listening environment, wherein the selected frequency response curve compensates for height cues present in sound waves transmitted directly through the room by at least partially removing directional cues from the speaker location and at least partially inserting directional cues from the reflection point, the method further comprising applying a crossover function to the first and second audio signals, the crossover function having a low-pass process configured to transmit low frequency band signals to a direct-firing driver and a high-pass process configured to transmit high frequency band signals to the upward-firing driver, wherein a defined frequency threshold distinguishes the low and high frequency bands, wherein a high-pass section for applying the high-pass process comprises said virtual height filter. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification