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EP0276159A2
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Three-dimensional auditory display apparatus and method utilising enhanced bionic emulation of human binaural sound localisation
Assignee: Yamaha Corp
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Filing: 1988-01-21
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2008-01-21
Abstract
Abstract An artificial, three dimensional auditory display which artificially imparts localization cues to a multifrequency component, electronic signal which corresponds to a sound source. The cues imparted are a front to back cue in the form of attenuation and boosting of certain frequency components of the signal, an elevational cue in the form of severe attenuation of a selected frequency component, i.e. variable notch filtering, an azimuth cue by means of splitting the signal into two signals and delaying one of them by a selected amount which is not greater than .67 milliseconds, an out of head localization cue by introducing delayed signals corresponding to early reflections of the original signal, an environment cue by introducing reverberations and a depth cue by selectively amplitude scaling the primary signal and the early reflection and reverberation signals.
Inventors
- 👤 Peter H. Myers
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-04 08:47
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04S; H04S3/00; H04S7/00; H04S7/30; H04S7/305; H04S7/302; H04S1/00; H04S1/002; H04S1/005
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 27
Claim 1
Independent Claim
174 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus for selectively giving the illusion of sound localization to a listener comprising means for receiving at least one multifrequency component, electronic input signal which is representative of one or more sound signals, front to back localization means for boosting the amplitudes of certain frequency components of said input signal while simultaneously attenuating the amplitudes of other frequency components of said input signal to selectively give the illusion that the sound source of said signal is positioned either ahead of or behind the listener and for thereby outputting said input signal with a front to back cue; and elevation localization means, including a variable notch filter, connected to said front to back localization means for selectively attenuating a selected frequency component of said front to back cued signal to give the illusion that the sound source of said signal is at a particular elevation with respect to the listener and to thereby output a signal to which a front to back cue and an elevational cue have been imparted.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
174 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus for selectively giving the illusion of sound localization to a listener comprising means for receiving at least one multifrequency component, electronic input signal which is representative of one or more sound signals, front to back localization means for boosting the amplitudes of certain frequency components of said input signal while simultaneously attenuating the amplitudes of other frequency components of said input signal to selectively give the illusion that the sound source of said signal is positioned either ahead of or behind the listener and for thereby outputting said input signal with a front to back cue; and elevation localization means, including a variable notch filter, connected to said front to back localization means for selectively attenuating a selected frequency component of said front to back cued signal to give the illusion that the sound source of said signal is at a particular elevation with respect to the listener and to thereby output a signal to which a front to back cue and an elevational cue have been imparted.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
127 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 1 further comprising azimuth localization means connected to the elevation localization means for generating two output signals corresponding to said front to back and elevation cued signal output from the elevation localization means, with one of said two output signals being delayed with respect to the other by a selected period of time to shift the apparent sound source to the left or the right of the listener, said azimuth localization means further including elevation adjustment means for decreasing said time delay with increases in the apparent elevation of the sound source with respect to the listener, said azimuth localization means being connected in series with the front to back localization means and the elevation localization means.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
73 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 2 further comprising out of head localization means for outputting multiple delayed signals corresponding to said input signal, reverberation means for outputting reverberant signals corresponding to said input signal, and mixer means for combining and amplitude scaling the outputs of the out of head localization means, the reverberation means and said two output signals from said azimuth localization means to produce binaural signals.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
23 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 3 further comprising transducer means for converting the binaural signals into audible sounds.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
103 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the front to back localization means selectively boosts biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 392 Hz and 3605 Hz of said signal while simultaneously attenuating biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 1188 Hz and 10938 Hz to introduce a front cue to the signal and selectively attenuates biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 392 Hz and 3605 Hz of said signal while simultaneously boosting biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 1188 Hz and 10938 Hz to introduce a rear cue to the signal.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
23 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 5 wherein said front to back localization means comprises a finite impulse filter.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
51 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the elevation localization means attenuates a selected frequency component within a range of between 6 KHz and 12 KHz to impart an elevation cue in the range of between -45° and +45° , respectively, relative to the listener's ear.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
82 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 1 further comprising a pair of front to back localization means and a pair of elevation localization means and further comprising a pair of microphones spaced apart by the approximate width of a human head, each of said microphones producing a separate electronic input signal which is supplied to a different one of said front to back localization means, whereby the outputs of said pair of elevation localization means constitute binaural signals.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
35 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 2 wherein the azimuth localization means selectively delays one of the two output signals relative to the other output signal between 0 and .67 milliseconds.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
50 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the elevation adjustment means varies the time delay according to the function: T delay = (4.566·10⁻⁶·(arcasin(sin(Az)· cos(El))))+(2.616·10⁻⁴·(sin(Az)·cos(El))) where Az and El are the angles of azimuth and elevation, respectively, of the sound source with respect to the listener.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
34 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the reverberation means selectively outputs signals corresponding to said input signal but delayed in the range of between 0.1 and 15 seconds.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
87 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 3 further comprising at least one focus means supplied with one of the outputs of the out of head localization means or the reverberation means for selectively bandpass filtering said outputs to limit the frequency components, to 250 Hz, plus or minus 200 Hz to impart a cue of envelopment, to 1.5 KHz, plus or minus 500 Hz to impart a cue of source broadening, and to 4 KHz and above to impart a displaced image cue.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
36 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 3 wherein said out of head localization means further comprises means for introducing separate, selected interaural time delays for each of said multiple delayed output signals.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
22 words
A three dimensional auditory display apparatus as recited in claim 3 wherein said input signal is representative of a direct sound signal.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
130 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display for selectively giving the illusion of sound localization to a listener comprising the following steps: front to back localizing by receiving at least one multifrequency component, electronic input signal which is representative of at least one sound signal and boosting the amplitudes of certain frequency components of said input signal while simultaneously attenuating the amplitudes of other frequency components of said input signal to selectively impart a cue that the sound source of said signal is either ahead of or behind the listener and elevational localizing by selectively attenuating a selected frequency component of said front to back cued signal to give the illusion that the sound source of said signal is at a particular elevation with respect to the listener.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
130 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display for selectively giving the illusion of sound localization to a listener comprising the following steps: front to back localizing by receiving at least one multifrequency component, electronic input signal which is representative of at least one sound signal and boosting the amplitudes of certain frequency components of said input signal while simultaneously attenuating the amplitudes of other frequency components of said input signal to selectively impart a cue that the sound source of said signal is either ahead of or behind the listener and elevational localizing by selectively attenuating a selected frequency component of said front to back cued signal to give the illusion that the sound source of said signal is at a particular elevation with respect to the listener.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
104 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 15 comprising the further steps of: azimuth localizing by generating two output signals corresponding to said front to back and elevation cued signal, with one of said output signals being delayed with respect to the other by a selected period of time to shift the apparent sound source to the left or the right of the listener and decreasing said time delay with increases in the apparent elevation of the sound source with respect to the listener to impart an azimuth cue to said front to back and elevation cued signal.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
71 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 16 comprising the further steps of: out of head localizing by generating multiple delayed signals corresponding to said input signal; reverberation and depth control by generating reverberant signals corresponding to said input signal; and binaural signal generation by combining and amplitude scaling the multiple delayed signals, the reverberant signals and the two output signals to produce binaural signals.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
26 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 17 further comprising the step of converting the binaural signals into audible sounds.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
107 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 15 wherein the front to back localizing step comprises selectively boosting biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 392 Hz and 3605 Hz of said signal while simultaneously attenuating biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 1188 Hz and 10938 Hz to introduce a front cue to the signal and selectively attenuating biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 392 Hz and 3605 Hz of said signal while simultaneously boosting biasing bands whose center frequencies are approximated at 1188 Hz and 10938 Hz to introduce a rear cue to the signal.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
58 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 15 wherein the elevation localizing step comprises the step of attenuating a selected frequency component within a range of between 6 KHz and 12 KHz to impart an elevation cue in the range of between -45° and +45° , respectively, relative to the listener's ear.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
42 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 16 wherein the azimuth localizing step comprises the step of selectively delaying one of the two output signals relative to the other output signal between 0 and .67 milliseconds.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
46 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 16 wherein in the azimuth localizing step the time delay is determined according to the function: T delay = (4.566·10⁻⁶·(arcsin(sin(Az)· cos(El))))+(2.616·10⁻⁴·(sin(Az)·cos(El))) where Az and El are the angles of azimuth and elevation, respectively.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
40 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 17 wherein the reverberating step comprises the step of generating signals corresponding to said input signal but delayed in the range of between 0.1 and 15 seconds.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
56 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 15 comprising the further steps of transducing sound waves received at positions spaced apart by a distance approximately the width of a human head into separate electrical input signals and separately front to back localizing and elevation localizing each of said input signals.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
24 words
A method of creating a three dimensional auditory display as recited in claim 15 wherein the input signal is representative of a direct sound.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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