Method and system for authoring a soundscape for a media application

• US 7,039,478 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2004
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ledoux, Eric, Goldstein, Robin L, Bhalerao, Vinayak A, Kollmorgen, Paul L
• Primary Examiner(s): TIEU, BINH KIEN
• Application Number:
  US10/870,242
• Publication Number:
  US 20040225389A1
• Time in Patent Office: 685 Days
• Field of Search: 700/94, 700/95, 700/97, 700/99, 700/112, 381/61, 381/73.1, 381/57, 381/58
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/106 using icons, e.g. selecting, moving or linking icons, on-screen symbols, screen regions or segments representing musical elements or parameters

Abstract

A method and system are provided for allowing a sound designer to design and implement interactive soundscapes based on existing waveform audio files, MIDI files, or audio streams. This is accomplished by using a set of tools consisting of an authoring tool for creating specifications of interactive soundscapes visually without having to write complex code, and a graph builder object that recreates the authored soundscape and interacts with it in real-time according to its specification. To give non-programmers the ability to specify and test how a soundscape will interact with programmatic events and user input in an application, the following tools are also provided: an interface to construct a “control panel;” a graphical “trigger-condition-action” specification that defines what actions to take when input from the control panel or application interface is received; a preview mode that enables the sound designer to interact with the soundscape in the same way that the application will; and the ability to save the soundscape as a file that can be edited or used at run-time to recreate the soundscape. Once the interface between the soundscape and the application has been agreed to, the tools allow the sound designer to work independently of the programmer of the media application.

Claims

1. A tool for generating and testing a soundscape for use in a media application comprising a user interface component that allows an audio designer to generate and test a soundscape using the user interface component independently of the media application by building a media graph including a plurality of nodes connected together, the nodes including nodes chosen from a group of nodes including sound source, sound sink, sound filter, and controller nodes.

2. The tool of claim 1, further comprising a run-time component, that plays the audio defined by the soundscape.

3. The tool of claim 2, wherein the run-time component plays the audio according to a plurality of API calls in the media application.

4. The tool of claim 1, wherein the nodes are connected together in accordance with user input.

5. The tool of claim 4, wherein the sound source nodes include MIDI, Phrase Construction, Record, StreamWav, and URLWave nodes.

6. The tool of claim 4, wherein the sound sink nodes include Channel, ChannelPool, CrossFade, StaticChannelPool, and WavWrite nodes.

7. The tool of claim 4, wherein the sound filter nodes include Append, Clip, Envelope, Loop, Mix, Resample, Speed, and Splitter nodes.

8. The tool of claim 4, wherein the controller nodes include a URLCollection node.

9. A tool for generating a soundscape for use in a media application comprising a user interface component that allows an audio designer to build a media graph including nodes connected together, the nodes including nodes chosen from a group including sound source, sound sink, sound filter, and controller nodes.

10. The tool of claim 9, wherein the sound source nodes include MIDI, Phrase Construction, Record, StreamWav, and URLWave nodes.

11. The tool of claim 9, wherein the sound sink nodes include Channel, ChannelPool, CrossFade, StaticChannelPool, and WavWrite nodes.

12. The tool of claim 9, wherein the sound filter nodes include Append, Clip, Envelope, Loop, Mix, Resample, Speed, and Splitter nodes.

13. The tool of claim 9, wherein the controller nodes include a URLCollection node.

14. The tool of claim 9, wherein the nodes are connected together in accordance with user input.

15. The tool of claim 14, wherein the sound source nodes include MIDI, Phrase Construction, Record, StreamWav, and URLWave nodes.

16. The tool of claim 14, wherein the sound sink nodes include Channel, ChannelPool, CrossFade, StaticChannelPool, and WavWrite nodes.

17. The tool of claim 14, wherein the sound filter nodes include Append, Clip, Envelope, Loop, Mix, Resample, Speed, and Splitter nodes.

18. The tool of claim 14, wherein the controller nodes include a URLCollection node.