An audio processing system for enhancing a user's virtual audio height perception, comprising: a rebalancing module for receiving audio signals from a source, the audio signals including a low layer signal representing sounds for transmission directly towards a user, and a height signal representing sounds for transmission towards the user by reflecting off a predetermined location above the user; the rebalancing module for comparing the height signal and the lower layer signal, and adjusting an amplitude of the height signal based on said comparison; the low layer signal being transmitted to one or more speakers of a first speaker arrangement for transmitting sound represented by the lower layer signal directly towards the user; and the adjusted height signal being transmitted to one or more speakers of a second speaker arrangement for transmitting sound represented by the height signal towards the user by reflecting off the predetermined location above the user.

A method for altering an audio signal of interest in a multi-channel soundfield representation of an audio environment, the method including the steps of: (a) extracting the signal of interest from the soundfield representation; (b) determining a residual soundfield signal; (c) inputting a further associated audio signal, which is associated with the signal of interest; (d) transforming the associated audio signal into a corresponding associated soundfield signal compatable with the residual soundfield; and (e) combining the residual soundfield signal with the associated soundfield signal to produce an output soundfield signal.

An apparatus of this invention stably separates a sound source even when the relative positional relationship between the sound source and a sound pickup device has changed. This apparatus includes a sound pickup unit configured to pick up sound signals of a plurality of channels, a detector configured to detect a change in a relative positional relationship between a sound source and the sound pickup unit, a phase regulator configured to regulate a phase of the sound signal in accordance with the relative position change amount detected by the detector, a parameter estimator configured to estimate a variance and spatial correlation matrix of a sound source signal as sound source separation parameters with respect to the phase-regulated sound signal, and a sound source separator configured to generate a separation filter from the estimated parameters, and perform sound source separation.

A method for altering an audio signal of interest in a multi-channel soundfield representation of an audio enviroment, the method including the steps of: (a) extracting the signal of interest from the soundfield representation; (b) determining a residual soundfield signal; (c) inputting a further associated audio signal, which is associated with the signal of interest; (d) transforming the associated audio signal into a corresponding associated soundfield signal compatable with the residual soundfield; and (e) combining the residual soundfield signal with the associated soundfield signal to produce an output soundfield signal.

Disclosed are methods for selecting auditory signal components for reproduction by means of one or more supplementary sound reproducing transducers, such as loudspeakers, placed between a pair of primary sound reproducing transducers, such as left and right loudspeakers in a stereophonic loudspeaker setup or adjacent loudspeakers in a surround sound loudspeaker setup. Also disclosed are devices for carrying out the above methods and systems of such devices.

Provided is a signal processing device including a control unit configured to control each of a plurality of actuators configured to drive a display unit on the basis of an acoustic signal, in which the plurality of the actuators is provided for respective regions of the display unit, and the control unit executes low band component reduction processing of reducing a low band component of an acoustic signal of the region for driving the actuator on the basis of luminance of an image to be displayed in the region of the display unit.

An audio signal playback device includes a conversion unit that performs discrete Fourier transform on each of 2 channel audio signals obtained from a multi-channel input audio signal, a correlation signal extraction unit that, disregarding a direct current component, extracts a correlation signal from the 2 channel audio signals that result from the discrete Fourier transform, and additionally pulls a correlation signal in a lower frequency than a predetermined frequency f.sub.low out of the correlation signal, and an output unit that allocates the pulled-out correlation signal to a virtual sound source in such a manner that a time difference in a sound output between adjacent speakers falls within a range of 2x/c (where, x is a distance between the adjacent speakers, and c is the speed of sound), and outputs a result of the allocation from one portion or all portions of the speaker group.

The application relates to a hearing assistance device (HAD) comprising (a) an input transducer system comprising (a1) an audio input transducer (AIT), and (a2) a first supplementary input transducer (SIT1), (b) an output transducer (OT) for converting a processed output signal to a stimulus perceivable by said user as sound, and (c) a signal processing unit (SPU) operationally connected to said audio input transducer (AIT), to said first supplementary input transducer (SIT1), and to said output transducer (OT), said signal processing unit (SPU) being configured for processing said electric audio input signal, and said first supplementary electric input signal, and for providing said processed output signal. The audio input transducer (AIT) is adapted for being located in an ear of the user. In a NORMAL mode of operation, electric audio input signal is processed in the signal processing unit and the supplementary electric input signal(s) are used to control the processing.

An audio processing system for enhancing a user's virtual audio height perception, comprising: a rebalancing module for receiving audio signals from a source, the audio signals including a low layer signal representing sounds for transmission directly towards a user, and a height signal representing sounds for transmission towards the user by reflecting off a predetermined location above the user; the rebalancing module for comparing the height signal and the lower layer signal, and adjusting an amplitude of the height signal based on said comparison; the low layer signal being transmitted to one or more speakers of a first speaker arrangement for transmitting sound represented by the lower layer signal directly towards the user; and the adjusted height signal being transmitted to one or more speakers of a second speaker arrangement for transmitting sound represented by the height signal towards the user by reflecting off the predetermined location above the user.

An audio processor for reproducing multichannel audio has a normal layer processing and a lower layer processing. The normal layer processing is configured for processing one or more channels of the object-specific audio or the multichannel audio belonging to a normal layer. The lower layer processing is configured for processing at least one channel or more channels of the object-specific audio or the multichannel audio belonging to a lower layer. The lower layer processing is configured to feed at least one signal belonging to the one channel or the more channels of the lower layer to a subwoofer output.