SADIE: Spatial Audio for Domestic Interactive Entertainment

诸如游戏机的交互式媒体系统在英国家庭环境中已经变得司空见惯，提供了增强的连接性和媒体集成。虽然许多系统支持3D视觉效果和超高清视频，但大多数系统都没有解决3D声音对沉浸式体验的重要性。5.1环绕声是这种系统支持的最常见的格式，但是其沉浸式能力限于二维平面。结合高度通道的新格式已经针对电影院，但也可以通过将声场扩展到三维来自然地补充游戏的虚拟现实体验。其好处不仅包括增强游戏性的新音频功能，还可以设计沉浸式以声音为中心的游戏，从而获得显著的社会，文化，教育和医疗保健收益。然而，声音沉浸在家中难以实现，因为在起居室周围放置数十个换能器是不切实际的。SADIE开创了在家庭中呈现交互式空间声音的新方法，包括声源高度渲染。对于游戏，还有听众位置的复杂问题。例如，在基于动态运动跟踪的游戏中，收听者响应于玩游戏而移动，并且稳定声场的形成变得困难，因为它们不再位于声学最佳听音点处。通过跟踪收听者的实时声场补偿可用于抵消这种情况，但收听者的运动也使房间声学的数字均衡成为一个相当大的挑战。其结果是一个有缺陷的虚拟环境，其中视觉和听觉线索在空间上不一致。SADIE将致力于改善空间音频质量，以实现家庭中沉浸式交互媒体体验。它将采用新的科学来改善声场沉浸和水平面以外的3D声源的形成，解除扬声器放置和动态源-听众运动的限制，同时保持良好的声音再现质量。该研究将开创新的声场渲染方法，通过表征动态聆听中感知高度源所需的线索来形成。这项工作有望对英国家庭的声音再现产生重大的变革性影响，同时也解决了听觉感知和声信号处理方面的更广泛问题，这些问题服务于交互式媒体之外的其他研究学科。

Interactive media systems such as games consoles have become commonplace in UK domestic environments offering increased connectivity and media integration. Whilst many systems support 3-D visuals and Ultra-High Definition video, most do not address the importance of 3-D sound for immersive experiences. 5.1 surround is the most common format supported by such systems, but its immersive capability is limited to a two-dimensional plane. New formats incorporating height channels have been targeted at cinema but could also naturally complement the virtual reality experience of gaming by extending the soundfield to three dimensions. The benefits not only include new audio features for enhanced gameplay, but also enable the design of immersive sound-centric games with significant social, cultural, educational and healthcare gains. However, sound immersion is difficult to achieve in the home as it is impractical to have dozens of transducers placed around the living room. SADIE pioneers new approaches for rendering interactive spatial sound in the home that includes sound source rendering with height.For gaming, there is also the complex issue of listener position. For example, in games based on kinetic motion tracking the listener moves in reaction to the game play and the formation of a stable soundfields becomes difficult as they are no longer located at the acoustic sweet-spot. Real-time soundfield compensation through tracking of the listener can be used to counteract this, but the listener movement also makes digital equalisation of the room acoustics a considerable challenge. The result is a flawed virtual environment in which visual and auditory cues are not spatially coincident. SADIE will address the improvement of spatial audio quality for immersive interactive media experiences in the home. It will undertake novel science to improve soundfield immersion and the formation of 3-D sound sources beyond the horizontal plane, lifting the constraints of loudspeaker placement and dynamic source-listener movements whilst conserving good sound reproduction quality. The research will pioneer new methods for soundfield rendering formed through characterisation of the cues required for perception of sources with height in dynamic listening. The work is poised to have significant transformative impact on sound reproduction in homes in the UK, whilst also addressing wider questions on auditory perception and acoustic signal processing that serve other research disciplines outside of interactive media.