Granted Patent B2

US 12,328,568 · App. 17/908,129 · Granted Jun 10, 2025

Inventors: Antti Eronen (Tampere, FI); Tapani Pihlajakuja (Kellokoski, FI); Archontis Politis (Tampere, FI); Otto Puomio (Helsinki, FI); Tapio Lokki (Helsinki, FI)

Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy

H04S7/305H04S7/307H04S2400/11H04S2400/15

Abstract

Claims (64)

1. An apparatus for a six degrees-of-freedom rendering comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

obtain at least one spatial room impulse response;

obtain at least one reflection filter based on the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response, wherein the at least one reflection filter is configured to determine, from the at least one spatial room impulse response, at least one early reflection from an acoustic surface which is not overlapped in time by another reflection, wherein a duration of the at least one early reflection is shorter than a duration of the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response;

associate the at least one reflection filter with a parameter associated with the at least one early reflection, wherein the parameter associated with the at least one early reflection comprises at least one of: a material, a material specification, or a material geometry from which the at least one early reflection occurred; and

provide coefficients of the at least one reflection filter and the associated parameter to a renderer for use in the six degrees-of-freedom rendering.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one spatial room impulse response comprises at least one individual reflection.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 2 , wherein obtaining the at least one reflection filter comprises the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

determine direction of arrival information based on an analysis of the at least one spatial room impulse response;

determine a sound pressure level information based on the at least one spatial room impulse response; and

determine the at least one early reflection based on the direction of arrival information and the sound pressure level information.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3 , wherein determining the at least one early reflection comprises the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

determine a time period associated with the determined at least one early reflection.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4 , wherein obtaining the at least one reflection filter based on the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response comprises the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

extract a portion of the at least one spatial room impulse response defined by the time period associated with the determined at least one early reflection.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the parameter associated with the at least one early reflection is enabled based on at least one of:

at least one user input configured to select or define the parameter;

virtual acoustic scene geometry and acoustic description of the material in the virtual acoustic scene geometry; or

at least one visual recognition of the parameter when the parameter comprises the material, in order to associate at least one individual reflection filter with the material.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6 , wherein obtaining the at least one reflection filter based on the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response comprises the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

obtain octave-band absorption coefficients of a visually recognized material;

compare an octave-band magnitude spectrum of the at least one reflection filter to the octave-band absorption coefficients of the visually recognized material; and

select the at least one reflection filter which has the octave-band magnitude spectrum closest to the octave-band absorption coefficients of the visually recognized material.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least one of:

generate a database of the at least one reflection filter; or

store the database of the at least one reflection filter with the parameter associated with the at least one early reflection.

9. An apparatus for a six degrees-of-freedom rendering comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

obtain at least one audio signal;

obtain at least one metadata associated with the at least one audio signal;

obtain at least one parameter associated with room acoustics and comprises at least one of: a material geometry; a dimension; a material; or a material specification;

obtain at least one reflection filter in accordance with the at least one parameter, wherein the at least one reflection filter is configured to determine at least one early reflection from at least one spatial room impulse response, which is not overlapped in time by another reflection, wherein a duration of the at least one early reflection is shorter than a duration of the at least one spatial room impulse response; and

synthesize, with a renderer for use in the six degrees-of-freedom rendering, an output audio signal based on the at least one audio signal, the at least one metadata, the at least one parameter and the at least one reflection filter.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein obtaining the at least the one reflection filter comprises the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

select the at least one reflection filter from a database of reflection filters based on the at least one parameter associated with room acoustics.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the at least one parameter associated with room acoustics is a material parameter.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to one of:

obtain the at least one reflection filter for at least one material; or

obtain a database of at least one reflection filter for at least one material, and obtain an indicator configured to identify the at least one reflection filter from the database.

13. A method for a six degrees-of-freedom rendering comprising:

obtaining at least one spatial room impulse response;

obtaining at least one reflection filter based on the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response, wherein the at least one reflection filter is configured to determine, from the at least one spatial room impulse response, at least one early reflection from an acoustic surface which is not overlapped in time by another reflection, wherein a duration of the at least one early reflection is shorter than a duration of the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response;

associating the at least one reflection filter with a parameter associated with the at least one early reflection, wherein the parameter associated with the at least one early reflection comprises at least one of: a material, a material specification, or a material geometry from which the at least one early reflection occurred; and

providing coefficients of the at least one reflection filter and the associated parameter to a renderer for use in the six degrees-of-freedom rendering.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one spatial room impulse response comprising the comprises at least one individual reflection.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the obtaining of the at least one reflection filter comprises:

determining direction of arrival information based on an analysis of the at least one spatial room impulse response;

determining a sound pressure level information based on the at least one spatial room impulse response; and

determining the at least one early reflection based on the direction of arrival information and the sound pressure level information.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the determining of the at least one early reflection comprises:

determining a time period associated with the determined at least one early reflection.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the obtaining of the at least one reflection filter based on the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response comprises:

extracting a portion of the at least one spatial room impulse response defined by the time period associated with the determined at least one early reflection.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the parameter associated with the at least one early reflection is enabled based on at least one of:

at least one user input configured to select or define the parameter;

virtual acoustic scene geometry and acoustic description of the material in the virtual acoustic scene geometry; or

at least one visual recognition of the parameter when the parameter comprises the material, in order to associate at least one individual reflection filter with the material.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the obtaining of the at least one reflection filter based on the obtained at least one spatial room impulse response comprises:

obtaining octave-band absorption coefficients of a visually recognized material;

comparing an octave-band magnitude spectrum of the at least one reflection filter to the octave-band absorption coefficients of the visually recognized material; and

selecting the at least one reflection filter which has the octave-band magnitude spectrum closest to the octave-band absorption coefficients of the visually recognized material.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions stored thereon for performing the method of claim 13 .

Assignments (5)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (67)