Sonic landscape system

• US 7,756,274 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: McGrath, David Stanley, Layton, Leonard, Bennett, Stephen James, Cartwright, Richard James, Heyler, Nigel Lloyd William, Drane, Geoffrey Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz; Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan; Hai
• Application Number:
  US11/468,216
• Publication Number:
  US 20060287748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,414 Days
• Field of Search: 700/94, 381/17, 381 77- 82, 381/310
• US Class Current: 381/17
• 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, the system comprising:

a position locating system configured to determine a current position and orientation of a listener in the geographical environment, the geographical environment being a real environment at which one or more items of potential interest are located, each item of potential interest having an associated predetermined audio track;

an audio track retrieval system configured to retrieve for any one of the items of potential interest the audio track associated with the item and having a predetermined spatialization component dependent on the location of the item of potential interest associated with the audio track in the geographical environment;

an audio track rendering system adapted to render an input audio signal based on any one of the associated audio tracks to a series of speakers such that the listener experiences a sound that appears to emanate from the location of the item of potential interest to which is associated the audio track that the input audio signal is based on; and

an audio track playback system interconnected to the position locating system and the audio track retrieval system arranged such that the system automatically ascertains using the current listener position and orientation, the spatial relationship between the listener and the items of potential interest, the playback system configured to automatically ascertain which audio track, if any, to automatically forward to the rendering system according to the ascertained relationship to the items of potential interest, and further configured to forward the ascertained audio tracks to the audio rendering system for rendering depending on the current position and orientation of the listener in the geographical environment and the ascertained relationship,

such that the listener for any particular item of potential interest for which an audio track has been forwarded, has the sensation that the forwarded audio track associated with the particular item is emanating from the location in the geographical environment of the particular item of interest,

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.

2. A system for providing a listener with an augmented audio reality in a geographical environment, the system comprising:

a position locating system configured to determine a current position and orientation of a listener in the geographical environment, the geographical environment being a real environment at which one or more items of potential interest are located, each item of potential interest having an associated predetermined audio track;

an audio track retrieval system configured to retrieve for any one of the items of potential interest the audio track associated with the item and having a predetermined spatialization component dependent on the location of the item of potential interest associated with the audio track in the geographical environment;

an audio track rendering system adapted to render an input audio signal based on any one of the associated audio tracks to a series of speakers such that the listener experiences a sound that appears to emanate from the location of the item of potential interest to which is associated the audio track that the input audio signal is based on; and

an audio track playback system interconnected to the position locating system and the audio track retrieval system arranged such that the system automatically ascertains using the current listener position and orientation, the spatial relationship between the listener and the items of potential interest, the playback system configured to automatically ascertain which audio track, if any, to automatically forward to the rendering system according to the ascertained relationship to the items of potential interest, and further configured to forward the ascertained audio tracks to the audio rendering system for rendering depending on the current position and orientation of the listener in the geographical environment and the ascertained relationship,

such that the listener for any particular item of potential interest for which an audio track has been forwarded, has the sensation that the forwarded audio track associated with the particular item is emanating from the location in the geographical environment of the particular item of interest,

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.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the audio track creation system further comprises a computer network attached to said audio customization unit for downloading said audio content.

4. A system as claimed in claim 2 further comprising:

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

5. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein said computer network comprises audio content indexed by geographical location.

6. A system as claimed in claim 3 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.

7. A system as claimed in claim 4 wherein said feedback unit comprises a microphone for monitoring said listening audio environment.

8. A system as claimed in claim 7 wherein said microphone provides spatialization characteristics of audio signals in said listener'"'"'s audio environment.

9. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said audio customization unit comprises:

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

10. A system as claimed in claim 3 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.

11. A system as claimed in claim 2 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.

12. A system as claimed in claim 11 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.

13. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein said computer network comprises a series of portals answering requests for information by said audio customization unit.

14. A system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said audio portals include personality customized information utilized in answering requests for information.

15. 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, the geographical environment being a real environment at which one or more items of potential interest are located, each item of potential interest having an associated predetermined audio track;

ascertaining using the current listener position and orientation, the spatial relationship between the listener and the items of potential interest;

automatically ascertaining which audio track, if any, to automatically retrieve according to the ascertained relationship to the items of potential interest;

automatically retrieving the ascertained audio track having a predetermined spatialization component dependent on the location of the item of potential interest associated with the audio track in said geographical environment;

automatically rendering an audio signal based on the retrieved audio track associated with the item of potential interest, the rendering being to a series of speakers such that said listener experiences a sound corresponding to the retrieved associated audio track that appears to emanate from the location of the item of potential interest; and

customizing an audio content of said audio track dependent on an identity of said listener,

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

such that the listener for any item of potential interest for which an audio track has been retrieved, has the sensation that the retrieved audio track associated with the particular item is emanating from the location in the geographical environment of the particular item of interest.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the method further comprises the step of downloading said audio content from a computer network.

17. A method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising the step of monitoring the listener'"'"'s feedback in response to said audio content.

18. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein said computer network comprises audio content indexed by geographical location.

19. A method as claimed in 16 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.