A driving device for a sound system by loudspeaker signals, wherein the sound system has a wave field synthesis loudspeaker array and one or several supply loudspeakers arranged separate from the wave field synthesis array includes an audio input for receiving at least one audio signal from at least one sound source, a position input for receiving information on a position of the sound source, a wave field synthesis unit for calculating loudspeaker signals for the loudspeakers of the wave field synthesis loudspeaker array, and a provider for providing the loudspeaker signal for the one or the several supply loudspeakers. The driving device enables a sound system by means of which sound localization becomes possible for the audience and at the same time pleasant levels can be achieved also in the first rows of the audience.

An apparatus for driving loudspeakers of a sound system is provided. The sound system has at least two loudspeakers of a basic system and at least three loudspeakers of a focus system, each of the loudspeakers having a position in an environment. The apparatus has a basic channel provider for providing basic system audio channels to drive the loudspeakers of the basic system, and a focused source renderer for providing focus system audio channels to drive the loudspeakers of the focus system. The focused source renderer is configured to calculate a plurality of delay values for the loudspeakers of the focus system based on the positions of the loudspeakers of the focus system and based on a position of a focus point, and to generate at least three focus group audio channels for at least some of the loudspeakers of the focus system based on the plurality of delay values and based on a focus audio base signal to provide the focus system audio channels.

The present technology relates to a sound field collecting apparatus and method, a sound field reproducing apparatus and method and a program which enable a sound field to be reproduced accurately at lower cost. Each linear microphone array outputs a sound collection signal obtained by collecting a sound field. A spatial frequency analysis unit performs spatial frequency transform on each sound collection signal to calculate spatial frequency spectra. A space shift unit performs space shift on the spatial frequency spectra so that central coordinates of the linear microphone arrays become the same, to obtain spatially shifted spectra. A space domain signal mixing unit mixes a plurality of spatially shifted spectra to obtain a single microphone mixed signal. By mixing the sound collection signals of the plurality of linear microphone arrays in this manner, it is possible to reproduce a sound field accurately at low cost. The present technology can be applied to a sound field reproducer.

An information processing device includes circuitry that estimates an attribute of a first person located in at least one of a plurality of areas, and sets a first content corresponding to the attribute of the first person and outputs a sound through wave field synthesis so that a sound field of the set first content is spatially transmitted to at least the one of the plurality of areas via a plurality of speakers.

An approach is provided for creating a digital representation of an analog sound. The approach retrieves a number of digital sound data streams with each of the digital sound data streams corresponding to an orientation angle of the digital sound data streams with respect to one another. The digital representation of the analog sound is generated by processing the digital sound data streams and their corresponding orientation angles.

The following coding scenario is addressed: A number of audio source signals need to be transmitted or stored for the purpose of mixing wave field synthesis, multi-channel surround, or stereo signals after decoding the source signals. The proposed technique offers significant coding gain when jointly coding the source signals, compared to separately coding them, even when no redundancy is present between the source signals. This is possible by considering statistical properties of the source signals, the properties of mixing techniques, and spatial hearing. The sum of the source signals is transmitted plus the statistical properties of the source signals which mostly determine the perceptually important spatial cues of the final mixed audio channels. Source signals are recovered at the receiver such that their statistical properties approximate the corresponding properties of the original source signals. Subjective evaluations indicate that high audio quality is achieved by the proposed scheme.

A signal processing method and system are provided for delivering spatialized sound using highly optimized inverse filters to deliver narrow localized beams of sound from the included speaker array. The inventive method can be used to provide private listening areas in a public space and provide spatialization of source material for individual users to create a virtual 3D audio effect. In a binaural mode, a speaker array provides two targeted beams aimed towards the primary user's earsone discrete beam for the left ear and one discrete beam for the right ear.

An apparatus and a method for driving loudspeakers of a sound system in a vehicle, the system having at least two loudspeakers of a basic system, and a plurality of loudspeakers of a focus system wherein each of the loudspeakers has a position in an environment. The apparatus includes a basic channel provider for providing basic system audio channels for driving the loudspeakers of the basic system and a focused source renderer for providing focus system audio channels to drive the loudspeakers of the focus system. The focused source renderer is configured to calculate a plurality of filter values for the loudspeakers of the focus system based on the positions of the loudspeakers of the focus system and based on a position of a focus point.

A system and method is configured to generate a sound wave field around a listening position in a target loudspeaker-room-microphone system in which a loudspeaker array of K1 groups of loudspeakers is disposed around the listening position, and a microphone array of M1 groups of microphones is disposed at the listening position. The system and method include equalizing filtering with controllable transfer functions in signal paths upstream of the K groups of loudspeakers. The system and method further include controlling with equalization control signals of the controllable transfer functions for equalizing filtering according to an adaptive control algorithm based on error signals and an input signal. The microphone array includes at least two first groups of microphones that are annularly disposed around a listener's head, around or in an artificial head or around or in a rigid sphere.

The present technique relates to a sound field reproduction device, a sound field reproduction method, and a program that make it possible to further accurately reproduce a certain sound field.

A feature amount extraction unit extracts a main sound source feature amount from a sound pickup signal obtained by picking up a sound from a main sound source. A main sound source separation unit separates the sound pickup signal obtained through the sound pickup with a microphone array that mainly picks up a sound from the main sound source into a main sound source component and an auxiliary sound source component using the main sound source feature amount. On the basis of the main sound source component and the auxiliary sound source component that have been separated, a main sound source emphasis unit generates a signal in which the main sound source components are emphasized. A drive signal for a speaker array is generated from the signal generated in this manner and supplied to the speaker array. The present technique can be applied to a sound field reproduction apparatus.