NAVIGATIONAL SOUNDSCAPING

• US 20130158856A1
• Filed: 12/15/2011
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Xiang, Pei
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,296 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/408
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3629 Guidance using speech or audio output, e.g. text-to-speech text to speech systems per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/023 in a chair, pillow
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2400/11 Positioning of individual sound objects, e.g. moving airplane, within a sound field H04S2420/13 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2420/01 Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/302 Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation H04S7/301 takes precedence

Abstract

A navigational system generates audio cues that are perceived in a three-dimensional space, allowing users to aurally perceive the locations of mapped objects such as landmarks. The audio cues can be produced alone, or in some applications, produced in conjunction with a visual navigational map display to improve the overall efficacy of the system. The audio navigation system includes a positioning system to determine the location of a user, a memory to store hierarchically-organized information about one or more objects, and a processor to render an audio signal based on the hierarchically-organized information. The audio signal is rendered into an audio space corresponding to the user, so as to allow user perception of the location of at least one of the objects relative to the location of the user. The objects may be landmarks in the vicinity of the user.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a positioning system configured to determine the location of a user;

a memory configured to store hierarchically-organized information about one or more landmarks; and

a processor configured to render an audio signal based on the hierarchically-organized information into a predetermined audio space corresponding to the user so as to allow user perception of the location of at least one of the landmarks relative to the location of the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes an audio icon for each landmark.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes a plurality of categories, each category defining a different type of landmark, and associates an audio icon with each category that distinguishes the category from other categories.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the hierarchically-organized information further includes a plurality of sub-categories defined for at least one of the categories, each sub-category defining a different sub-type of landmark, and the hierarchically-organized information associates an audio icon with each sub-category that distinguishes the sub-category from the other sub-categories.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory stores an audio source library of audio icons.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising a lookup table configured to map the landmarks to the audio icons.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more transducers configured to produce an auditory sound in response to the audio signal, the auditory sound being perceivable in the audio space so as to allow user perception of the location of the landmark relative to the user location.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor renders the audio signal so as to allow user perception of the distance and direction of at least one of the landmarks relative to the location of the user.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor renders the audio signal so that the auditory sounds corresponding to more distant landmarks are perceived by the user as sounding more distant than auditory sounds corresponding to landmarks that are closer to the user.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a user interface configured to permit the user to modify the audio signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the user interface is configured to permit the user to configure the processor to modify the audio signal based on environmental conditions.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the user interface allows the user to modify the audio signal by adding sound effects.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the user interface allows the user to configure the hierarchically-organized information for a user-selected landmark.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to synthesize audio content of the audio signal.

15. A method of presenting audio information to a user, comprising:

determining a user location using a positioning system;

retrieving from a memory hierarchically-organized information about a landmark based on the user location; and

producing an auditory sound based on the hierarchically-organized information through one or more transducers, the auditory sound being produced so as to allow user perception of the location of the landmark relative to the user location.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes an audio icon for each landmark.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes a plurality of categories, each category defining a different type of landmark, and associates an audio icon with each category that distinguishes the category from other categories.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the hierarchically-organized information further includes a plurality of sub-categories defined for at least one of the categories, each sub-category defining a different sub-type of landmark, and the hierarchically-organized information associates an audio icon with each sub-category that distinguishes the sub-category from the other sub-categories.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing an audio source library of audio icons.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising mapping a plurality of landmarks to the audio icons with a lookup table.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising rendering the auditory sound so as to allow user perception of the distance and direction of at least one of the landmarks relative to the location of the user.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising rendering the auditory sound so that an audio icon corresponding to a more distant landmark is perceived by the user as sounding more distant than an auditory sound corresponding to a landmark that is closer to the user.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving user input for modifying the auditory sound.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the user input modifies the auditory sound based on environmental conditions.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the user input modifies the auditory sound by adding sound effects.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising receiving user input for configuring the hierarchically-organized information for a user-selected landmark.

27. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

synthesizing the hierarchically-organized information based on the user location, instead of retrieving the information from the memory.

28. An apparatus, comprising:

means for determining a user location using a positioning system;

means for retrieving hierarchically-organized information about a landmark based on the user location; and

means for producing an auditory sound based on the hierarchically-organized information, the auditory sound being produced so as to allow user perception of the location of the landmark relative to the user location.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes an audio icon for each of a plurality of landmarks.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes a plurality of categories, each category defining a different type of landmark, and associates an audio icon with each category that distinguishes the category from other categories.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the hierarchically-organized information further includes a plurality of sub-categories defined for at least one of the categories, each sub-category defining a different sub-type of landmark, and the hierarchically-organized information associates an audio icon with each sub-category that distinguishes the sub-category from the other sub-categories.

32. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the memory stores an audio source library of audio icons.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, further comprising a lookup table configured to map the landmarks to the audio icons.

34. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising means for rendering the audio signal so as to allow user perception of the distance and direction of at least one of the landmarks relative to the location of the user.

35. The apparatus of claim 28, further comprising means for rendering the audio signal so that auditory sounds corresponding to more distant landmarks are perceived by the user as sounding more distant than auditory sounds corresponding to landmarks that are closer to the user.

36. The apparatus of claim 28, further comprising means for permitting the user to modify the auditory sound.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, further comprising means for permitting the user to modify the auditory sound based on environmental conditions.

38. The apparatus of claim 36, further comprising means for permitting the user to modify the auditory sound by adding sound effects.

39. The apparatus of claim 36, further comprising means for permitting the user to configure the hierarchically-organized information for a user-selected landmark.

40. The apparatus of claim 28, further comprising:

means for synthesizing the hierarchically-organized information based on the user location.

41. A computer-readable medium embodying a set of instructions executable by one or more processors, comprising:

programming code for determining a user location using a positioning system;

programming code for retrieving hierarchically-organized information about a landmark based on the user location; and

programming code for producing an auditory sound based on the hierarchically-organized information, the auditory sound being produced so as to allow user perception of the location of the landmark relative to the user location.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes an audio icon for each of a plurality of landmarks.

43. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the hierarchically-organized information includes a plurality of categories, each category defining a different type of landmark, and associates an audio icon with each category that distinguishes the category from other categories.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 43, wherein the hierarchically-organized information further includes a plurality of sub-categories defined for at least one of the categories, each sub-category defining a different sub-type of landmark, and the hierarchically-organized information associates an audio icon with each sub-category that distinguishes the sub-category from the other sub-categories.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, further comprising:

programming code for synthesizing the hierarchically-organized information based on the user location.