Synthesis of time-variant virtual room acoustics based on impulse response measurement, analysis, and processing

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The applicant proposes to research highly complex and yet unsolved problem of time-variant virtual acoustics based on measurement, analysis, and processing of spatial room impulse responses with the goal of providing the most accurate perceived reconstruction of room acoustics. The essential attribute of this simulation is time-variant room response that prevents the human ear from adapting to repeating patterns of sound. Time variance can occur due to several factors: movement of the source, change in source signal (due to direction- and frequency-dependent acoustic radiation pattern of the source), air movement and temperature variations within the room enclosure, movements of objects and people, physical changes in room boundary conditions (open doors, vibrating walls and windows, etc).The final outcome of this program will be a synthesis of new virtual rooms that combine the selected acoustic components into time-variant systems responding dynamically to music and speech signals without repeatability. This will overcome the limitations of current engineering solutions, which use fixed impulse response convolutions and produce static room impression unsuitable for critical applications in music performance, rehearsal and recording. This interdisciplinary research will contribute tools, methods and intellectual gains to natural sciences and engineering while providing means for advancing music and acoustics research and the quality of life. One such outcome will be a library of synthesized impulse responses that will be used to electro-acoustically augment the quality of common living spaces. It is likely that in 10 years or so, uploading virtual acoustics to a person's wired living room will be as easy, as it is to upload today a new ring-tone to one's cell phone.