U.S. patent application number 10/058045 was filed with the patent office on 2002-10-17 for audio user interface with audio cursor.
Invention is credited to Coles, Alistair Neil, Wilcock, Lawrence.
Application Number | 20020151996 10/058045 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 26245638 |
Filed Date | 2002-10-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020151996 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Wilcock, Lawrence ; et
al. |
October 17, 2002 |
Audio user interface with audio cursor
Abstract
An audio user interface is provided in which items are
represented in an audio field by corresponding synthesized sound
sources from where sounds related to the items appear to emanate.
An audio cursor, in the form of a synthesised sound source from
which a distinctive cursor sound emanates, is movable in the audio
field under user control. Upon the cursor being moved close to an
item-representing sound source, a related audible indication is
generated by modifying the sounds emanating from at least one of
that item-representing sound source and the cursor. In one
embodiment, this audible indication also indicates the current
distance between the cursor and item-representing sound source and
also the direction of the latter from the cursor.
Inventors: |
Wilcock, Lawrence;
(Wiltshire, GB) ; Coles, Alistair Neil; (Bath,
GB) |
Correspondence
Address: |
LOWE HAUPTMAN GOPSTEIN
GILMAN AND BERNER LLP
SUITE 310
1700 DIAGONAL ROAD
ALEXANDRIA
VA
22314
|
Family ID: |
26245638 |
Appl. No.: |
10/058045 |
Filed: |
January 29, 2002 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
700/94 ; 381/61;
G9B/19.003 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G10L 21/10 20130101;
H04S 7/304 20130101; H04R 2420/07 20130101; G11B 19/025 20130101;
H04S 1/005 20130101; G06F 3/167 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
700/94 ;
381/61 |
International
Class: |
H03G 003/00; G06F
017/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jan 29, 2001 |
GB |
0102230.0 |
Nov 20, 2001 |
GB |
0127774.8 |
Claims
1. An audio user-interfacing method in which items are represented
in an audio field by corresponding synthesized sound sources from
where sounds related to the items appear to emanate, the method
including the steps of: (a) providing an audio cursor in the form
of a synthesised sound source that is movable in the audio field
under user control and from which a distinctive cursor sound
emanates; and (b) comparing the current position of the audio
cursor in the audio field with the positions of the
item-representing sound sources and upon the cursor coming close to
an item-representing sound source, generating a related audible
indication by modifying the sounds emanating from at least one of
that item-representing sound source and the cursor.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said audible indication
is varied in correspondence with changes in the distance between
said item-representing sound source and the cursor whereby to
facilitate an appreciation by the user as to whether user-commanded
cursor movement is moving the cursor closer to or further from the
item-representing sound source.
3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said audible indication
is varied by changing a continuously-variable audio characteristic
in correspondence with changes in the distance between said
item-representing sound source and the cursor.
4. A method according to claim 2, wherein said audible indication
is varied by changing a spoken element to indicate the distance
between said item-representing sound source and the cursor.
5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said audible indication
is indicative of the direction of the said item-representing sound
source from the cursor or the reverse of this direction.
6. A method according to claim 5, wherein said audible indication
is varied by changing a continuously-variable audio characteristic
to indicate the direction of the said item-representing sound
source from the cursor or the reverse.
7. A method according to claim 5, wherein said audible indication
is varied by changing a spoken element to indicate the direction of
the said item-representing sound source from the cursor or the
reverse.
8. A method according to claim 1, wherein said audible indication
is varied in correspondence with changes in the distance between
said item-representing sound source and the cursor whereby to
facilitate an appreciation by the user as to whether user-commanded
cursor movement is moving the cursor closer to or further from the
item-representing sound source; said audible indication also being
such as to indicate the direction of the said item-representing
sound source from the cursor or the reverse of this direction.
9. A method according to claim 1, wherein said audible indication
is provided solely through modifying the sounds emanating from the
item-representing sound source.
10. A method according to claim 1, wherein said audible indication
is provided solely through modifying the sounds emanating from the
cursor.
11. A method according to claim 8, wherein the audible indication
comprises a first component provided through modifying the sounds
emanating from the item-representing sound source, and a second
component provided through modifying the sounds emanating from the
cursor; one said component being varied in correspondence with
changes in the distance between the item-representing sound source
and the cursor, and the other said component being indicative of
the direction of the said item-representing sound source from the
cursor or the reverse of this direction.
12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the said audible
indication is used to signal to the user when the said
item-representing sound source and cursor are coincident, at least
in terms of their direction from a user reference location.
13. A method according to claim 1, wherein the audible indication
comprises at least a first, non-varying, element indicative of the
general proximity of the cursor to a said item-representing sound
source, and a second, continuously variable, element indicating the
separation distance between the cursor and the item-representing
sound source.
14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the audio cursor is
moved in the audio field by directly changing, through user input,
the rendering position of the cursor in the audio field.
15. A method according to claim 1, wherein the item-representing
sound sources are arranged in one or groups with the or each group
being associated with a respective audio-field reference relative
to which the sound sources of the group are positioned, the cursor
sound source being associated with a further audio-field reference;
the audio-field references being independently movable relative to
a presentation reference determined by a mounting configuration of
audio output devices used to synthesise said sound sources;
movement of the cursor in the audio field being effected by
user-controlled movement of the cursor-associated audio-field
reference relative to the presentation reference.
16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the cursor-associated
audio field reference is stabilised relative to one of: a user's
body; a user's head; this stabilisation taking account of whether
audio output devices used to synthesise the sound sources are
world, body or head mounted, and, as appropriate, rotation of the
user's head or body.
17. A method according to claim 1, wherein the cursor is movable in
a depth direction of the audio field towards and away from a user
reference position, the said distinctive cursor sound being varied
to provide the user with an indication of the current position of
the cursor in said depth direction.
18. A method according to claim 1, wherein in step (b) the cursor
is determined to be close to an item-representing sound source when
it is within a threshold distance of the latter, this threshold
distance being settable by the user.
19. A method according to claim 1, including the further step of
selecting an item by aligning the audio cursor with the
corresponding item-representing sound source and providing a
selection command input.
20. A method according to claim 19, wherein at least some of the
said items represented by the sound sources are audio labels for
services, the method further involving selecting a service by
selecting the corresponding audio-label item using the audio
cursor.
21. Apparatus for providing an audio user interface in which items
are represented in an audio field by corresponding synthesized
sound sources from where sounds related to the items appear to
emanate, the apparatus comprising: rendering-position determining
means for determining, for each item-representing sound source, an
associated rendering position at which the sound source is to be
synthesized to sound in the audio field; cursor-control means for
determining, under user control, a current rendering position in
the audio field of a cursor sound source and for providing a
distinctive cursor sound for output from the cursor sound source;
rendering means, including audio output devices, for generating an
audio field in which said item-representing and cursor sound
sources are synthesized at their associated rendering positions;
and cursor-proximity means for comparing the current rendering
position of the audio cursor with the rendering positions of the
item-representing sound sources and upon the cursor being
determined as close to an item-representing sound source, for
generating a related audible indication by modifying the sounds
emanating from at least one of that item-representing sound source
and the cursor sound source.
22. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to vary said audible indication in
correspondence with changes in the distance between said
item-representing sound source and the cursor whereby to facilitate
an appreciation by the user as to whether user-commanded cursor
movement is moving the cursor closer to or further from the
item-representing sound source.
23. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to control said audible indication to indicate
the direction of the said item-representing sound source from the
cursor or the reverse of this direction.
24. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to vary said audible indication in
correspondence with changes in the distance between said
item-representing sound source and the cursor, the cursor-proximity
means being further operative to control said audible indication to
indicate the direction of the said item-representing sound source
from the cursor or the reverse of this direction.
25. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to provide said audible indication solely
through modifying the sounds emanating from the item-representing
sound source.
26. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to provide said audible indication solely
through modifying the sounds emanating from the cursor sound
source.
27. Apparatus according to claim 24, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to provide said audible indication in the form
of a first component provided through modifying the sounds
emanating from the item-representing sound source, and a second
component provided through modifying the sounds emanating from the
cursor sound source; said cursor-proximity means varying one said
component in correspondence with changes in the distance between
the item-representing sound source and the cursor, and controlling
the other said component to be indicative of the direction of the
said item-representing sound source from the cursor or the reverse
of this direction.
28. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to control the said audible indication to signal
to the user when the said item-representing sound source and cursor
are coincident, at least in terms of their direction from a user
reference location.
29. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said cursor-proximity
means is operative to form the said audible indication with at
least a first, non-varying, element indicative of the general
proximity of the cursor to a said item-representing sound source,
and a second, continuously variable, element indicating the
separation distance between the cursor and the item-representing
sound source.
30. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the cursor-control
means includes user-operable input means arranged to directly
change the rendering position of the cursor sound source in the
audio field.
31. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the cursor-control
means comprises: means for setting the location of the cursor sound
source relative to an audio-field reference; user input means for
controlling an offset between the audio-field reference and a
presentation reference, the presentation reference being determined
by a mounting configuration of the audio output devices; and means
for deriving the rendering position of each sound source based on
the location of the sound source in the audio field and said
offset.
32. Apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the cursor-control
means further comprises stabilisation means for varying the said
offset in dependence rotation of the user's head or body and taking
account .of whether said audio output devices are world, body or
head mounted, such as to stabilise said audio field reference
relative to one of: a user's body; a user's head.
33. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the cursor-control
means is operative to enable the cursor to be moved under user
control in a depth direction of the audio field towards and away
from a user reference position, the cursor-control means being
further operative to vary said distinctive cursor sound to provide
the user with an indication of the current position of the cursor
in said depth direction.
34. Apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the cursor-proximity
means is operative to determine the cursor as being close to an
item-representing sound source when it is within a threshold
distance of the latter, the apparatus including user-operable means
for setting this threshold distance.
35. Apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising selection
means for selecting an item by providing a selection command input
after the audio cursor has been aligned with the corresponding
item-representing sound source using the cursor-control means.
36. Apparatus according to claim 35, wherein at least some of the
said items represented by the sound sources are audio labels for
services.
37. Apparatus for providing an audio user interface in which items
are represented in an audio field by corresponding synthesized
sound sources from where sounds related to the items appear to
emanate, the apparatus comprising: a rendering-position determining
arrangement operative to determine, for each item-representing
sound source, an associated rendering position at which the sound
source is to be synthesized to sound in the audio field; a
cursor-control arrangement operative to determine, under user
control, a current rendering position in the audio field of a
cursor sound source and to provide a distinctive cursor sound for
output from the cursor sound source; a rendering subsystem,
including audio output devices, arranged to generate an audio field
in which said item-representing and cursor sound sources are
synthesized at their associated rendering positions; and a
cursor-proximity arrangement operative to compare the current
rendering position of the audio cursor with the rendering positions
of the item-representing sound sources and, upon the cursor being
determined as close to an item-representing sound source, to
generate a related audible indication by modifying the sounds
emanating from at least one of that item-representing sound source
and the cursor sound source.
38. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to vary said audible indication in
correspondence with changes in the distance between said
item-representing sound source and the cursor whereby to facilitate
an appreciation by the user as to whether user-commanded cursor
movement is moving the cursor closer to or further from the
item-representing sound source.
39. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to control said audible indication to
indicate the direction of the said item-representing sound source
from the cursor or the reverse of this direction.
40. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to vary said audible indication in
correspondence with changes in the distance between said
item-representing sound source and the cursor, the cursor-proximity
arrangement being further operative to control said audible
indication to indicate the direction of the said item-representing
sound source from the cursor or the reverse of this direction.
41. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to provide said audible indication solely
through modifying the sounds emanating from the item-representing
sound source.
42. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to provide said audible indication solely
through modifying the sounds emanating from the cursor sound
source.
43. Apparatus according to claim 40, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to provide said audible indication in the
form of a first component provided through modifying the sounds
emanating from the item-representing sound source, and a second
component provided through modifying the sounds emanating from the
cursor sound source; said cursor-proximity arrangement varying one
said component in correspondence with changes in the distance
between the item-representing sound source and the cursor, and
controlling the other said component to be indicative of the
direction of the said item-representing sound source from the
cursor or the reverse of this direction.
44. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to control the said audible indication to
signal to the user when the said item-representing sound source and
cursor are coincident, at least in terms of their direction from a
user reference location.
45. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said cursor-proximity
arrangement is operative to form the said audible indication with
at least a first, non-varying, element indicative of the general
proximity of the cursor to a said item-representing sound source,
and a second, continuously variable, element indicating the
separation distance between the cursor and the item-representing
sound source.
46. Apparatus according to claim 37, wherein the cursor-control
arrangement includes user-operable input device arranged to
directly change the rendering position of the cursor sound source
in the audio field.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to the selection of items in
an audio user interface using an audio cursor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The human auditory system, including related brain
functions, is capable of localizing sounds in three dimensions
notwithstanding that only two sound inputs are received (left and
right ear). Research over the years has shown that localization in
azimuth, elevation and range is dependent on a number of cues
derived from the received sound. The nature of these cues is
outlined below.
[0003] Azimuth Cues--The main azimuth cues are Interaural Time
Difference (ITD--sound on the right of a hearer arrives in the
right ear first) and Interaural Intensity Difference (IID--sound on
the right appears louder in the right ear). ITD and IIT cues are
complementary inasmuch as the former works better at low
frequencies and the latter better at high frequencies.
[0004] Elevation Cues--The primary cue for elevation depends on the
acoustic properties of the outer ear or pinna. In particular, there
is an elevation-dependent frequency notch in the response of the
ear, the notch frequency usually being in the range 6 -16 kHz
depending on the shape of the hearer's pinna. The human brain can
therefore derive elevation information based on the strength of the
received sound at the pinna notch frequency, having regard to the
expected signal strength relative to the other sound frequencies
being received.
[0005] Range Cues--These include:
[0006] loudness (the nearer the source, the louder it will be;
however, to be useful, something must be known or assumed about the
source characteristics),
[0007] motion parallax (change in source azimuth in response to
head movement is range dependent), and
[0008] ratio of direct to reverberant sound (the fall-off in energy
reaching the ear as range increases is less for reverberant sound
than direct sound so that the ratio will be large for nearby
sources and small for more distant sources).
[0009] It may also be noted that in order avoid source-localization
errors arising from sound reflections, humans localize sound
sources on the basis of sounds that reach the ears first (an
exception is where the direct/reverberant ratio is used for range
determination).
[0010] Getting a sound system (sound producing apparatus) to output
sounds that will be localized by a hearer to desired locations, is
not a straight-forward task and generally requires an understanding
of the foregoing cues. Simple stereo sound systems with left and
right speakers or headphones can readily simulate sound sources at
different azimuth positions; however, adding variations in range
and elevation is much more complex. One known approach to producing
a 3D audio field that is often used in cinemas and theatres, is to
use many loudspeakers situated around the listener (in practice, it
is possible to use one large speaker for the low frequency content
and many small speakers for the high-frequency content, as the
auditory system will tend to localize on the basis of the high
frequency component, this effect being known as the Franssen
effect). Such many-speaker systems are not, however, practical for
most situations.
[0011] For sound sources that have a fixed presentation
(non-interactive), it is possible to produce convincing 3D audio
through headphones simply by recording the sounds that would be
heard at left and right eardrums were the hearer actually present.
Such recordings, known as binaural recordings, have certain
disadvantages including the need for headphones, the lack of
interactive controllability of the source location, and unreliable
elevation effects due to the variation in pinna shapes between
different hearers.
[0012] To enable a sound source to be variably positioned in a 3D
audio field, a number of systems have evolved that are based on a
transfer function relating source sound pressures to ear drum sound
pressures. This transfer function is known as the Head Related
Transfer Function (HRTF) and the associated impulse response, as
the Head Related Impulse Response (HRIR). If the HRTF is known for
the left and right ears, binaural signals can be synthesized from a
monaural source. By storing measured HRTF (or HRIR) values for
various source locations, the location of a source can be
interactively varied simply by choosing and applying the
appropriate stored values to the sound source to produce left and
right channel outputs. A number of commercial 3D audio systems
exist utilizing this principle. Rather than storing values, the
HRTF can be modeled but this requires considerably more processing
power.
[0013] The generation of binaural signals as described above is
directly applicable to headphone systems. However, the situation is
more complex where stereo loudspeakers are used for sound output
because sound from both speakers can reach both ears. In one
solution, the transfer functions between each speaker and each ear
are additionally derived and used to try to cancel out cross-talk
from the left speaker to the right ear and from the right speaker
to the left ear.
[0014] Other approaches to those outlined above for the generation
of 3D audio fields are also possible as will be appreciated by
persons skilled in the art. Regardless of the method of generation
of the audio field, most 3D audio systems are, in practice,
generally effective in achieving azimuth positioning but less
effective for elevation and range. However, in many applications
this is not a particular problem since azimuth positioning is
normally the most important. As a result, systems for the
generation of audio fields giving the perception of physically
separated sound sources range from full 3D systems, through two
dimensional systems (giving, for example, azimuth and elevation
position variation), to one-dimensional systems typically giving
only azimuth position variation (such as a standard stereo sound
system). Clearly, 2D and particularly ID systems are technically
less complex than 3D systems as illustrated by the fact that stereo
sound systems have been around for very many years.
[0015] In terms of user experience, headphone-based systems are
inherently "head stabilized"--that is, the generated audio field
rotates with the head and thus the position of each sound source
appears stable with respect to the user's head. In contrast,
loudspeaker-based systems are inherently "world stabilized" with
the generated audio field remaining fixed as the user rotates their
head, each sound source appearing to keep its absolute position
when the hearer's head is turned. In fact, it is possible to make
headphone-based systems "world stabilized" or loudspeaker-based
systems "head stabilized" by using head-tracker apparatus to sense
head rotation relative to a fixed frame of reference and feed
corresponding signals to the audio field generation system, these
signals being used to modify the sound source positions to achieve
the desired effect. A third type of stabilization is also sometimes
used in which the audio field rotates with the user's body rather
than with their head so that a user can vary the perceived
positions of the sound sources by rotating their head; such "body
stabilized" systems can be achieved, for example, by using a
loudspeaker-based system with small loudspeakers mounted on the
user's upper body or by a headphone-based system used in
conjunction with head tracker apparatus sensing head rotation
relative to the user's body.
[0016] As regards the purpose of the generated audio field, this is
frequently used to provide a complete user experience either alone
or in conjunction with other artificially-generated sensory inputs.
For example, the audio field may be associated with a computer game
or other artificial environment of varying degree of user immersion
(including total sensory immersion). As another example, the audio
field may be generated by an audio browser operative to represent
page structure by spatial location.
[0017] Alternatively, the audio field may be used to supplement a
user's real world experience by providing sound cues and
information relevant to the user's current real-world situation. In
this context, the audio field is providing a level of "augmented
reality".
[0018] It is an object of the present invention to facilitate the
selection of items in an audio user interface using an audio
cursor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0019] According to one aspect of the present invention, there is
provided an audio user-interfacing method in which items are
represented in an audio field by corresponding synthesized sound
sources from where sounds related to the items appear to emanate,
the method including the steps of:
[0020] (a) providing an audio cursor in the form of a synthesised
sound source that is movable in the audio field under user control
and from which a distinctive cursor sound emanates; and
[0021] (b) comparing the current position of the audio cursor in
the audio field with the positions of the item-representing sound
sources and upon the cursor coming close to an item-representing
sound source, generating a related audible indication by modifying
the sounds emanating from at least one of that item-representing
sound source and the cursor.
[0022] According to another aspect of the present invention, there
is provided apparatus for providing an audio user interface in
which items are represented in an audio field by corresponding
synthesized sound sources from where sounds related to the items
appear to emanate, the apparatus comprising:
[0023] rendering-position determining means for determining, for
each item-representing sound source, an associated rendering
position at which the sound source is to be synthesized to sound in
the audio field;
[0024] cursor-control means for determining, under user control, a
current rendering position in the audio field of a cursor sound
source and for providing a distinctive cursor sound for output from
the cursor sound source;
[0025] rendering means, including audio output devices, for
generating an audio field in which said item-representing and
cursor sound sources are synthesized at their associated rendering
positions; and
[0026] cursor-proximity means for comparing the current rendering
position of the audio cursor with the rendering positions of the
item-representing sound sources and upon the cursor being
determined as close to an item-representing sound source, for
generating a related audible indication by modifying the sounds
emanating from at least one of that item-representing sound source
and the cursor sound source.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0027] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way
of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying
diagrammatic drawings, in which:
[0028] FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a first audio-field
generating apparatus;
[0029] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a coordinate system for
positions in a spherical audio field;
[0030] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating rotation of an audio field
relative to a presentation reference vector;
[0031] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a user exploring a
body-stabilized audio field by head rotation;
[0032] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a user exploring a
body-stabilized audio field by rotating the field in azimuth;
[0033] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a general cylindrical
organization of an audio field;
[0034] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a first specific form of
the FIG. 6 cylindrical organization;
[0035] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a second specific form of
the FIG. 6 cylindrical organization;
[0036] FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram of a variant of the
FIG. 1 apparatus;
[0037] FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of a second
audio-field generating apparatus;
[0038] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a focus
expander of the FIG. 10 apparatus to expand an audio field, the
user facing in the same direction as an audio field reference
vector;
[0039] FIG. 12 is a further diagram illustrating the operation of
the focus expander, the user in this case facing in a different
direction to the audio field reference vector;
[0040] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a segment
muting filter of the FIG. 10 apparatus;
[0041] FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a cyclic
muting filter of the FIG. 10 apparatus;
[0042] FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a
collection collapser of the FIG. 10 apparatus;
[0043] FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating the operation of a range
sound setter of the FIG. 10 apparatus;
[0044] FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating the concept of the range
sound setter applied to a context of a fixed device being
approached by a person; FIG. 18 is a functional block diagram
showing further detail of the FIG. 10 apparatus;
[0045] FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a relationship between loudness
of a speech input and a range gate set by the FIG. 10 apparatus for
limiting the search space of a speech recognizer of the
apparatus;
[0046] FIG. 20 is a diagram of a trackball type of input device
usable by the FIG. 10 apparatus;
[0047] FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a trackball input device
similar to FIG. 20 but including a first form of visual orientation
indicator arrangement;
[0048] FIG. 22 is a block diagram of functionality for determining
the orientation of the audio field relative to an indicator
reference;
[0049] FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a trackball input device
similar to FIG. 20 but including a second form of visual
orientation indicator arrangement; and
[0050] FIG. 24 is a diagram of another form of input device usable
by the FIG. 10 apparatus, this device being suitable where the
apparatus is arranged to produce a cylindrical audio field; and
BEST MODE OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
[0051] The forms of apparatus to be described below are operative
to produce an audio field to serve as an audio interface to
services such as communication services (for example, e-mail, voice
mail, fax, telephone, etc.), entertainment services (such as
internet radio), information resources (including databases, search
engines and individual documents), transactional services (for
example, retail and banking web sites), augmented-reality services,
etc.
[0052] When the apparatus is in a "desktop" mode, each service is
represented in the audio field through a corresponding synthesized
sound source presenting an audio label (or "earcon") for the
service. The audio label associated with a service can be
constituted by any convenient audio element suitable for
identifying that service--for example, an audio label can be the
service name, a short verbal descriptor, a characteristic sound or
jingle, or even a low-level audio feed from the service itself. The
sound sources representing the services are synthesized to sound,
to a user, as though they exist at respective locations in the
audio field using any appropriate spatialisation method; these
sound sources do not individually exist as physical sound output
devices though, of course, such devices are involved in the process
of synthesizing the sound sources. Furthermore, the sound sources
only have a real-world existence to the extent that service-related
sounds are presented at the sound-source locations. Nevertheless,
the concept of sound sources located at specific locations in the
audio field is useful as it enables the sound content that is to be
presented in respect of a service to be disassociated from the
location and other presentation parameters for those sounds, these
parameters being treated as associated with the corresponding sound
source. Thus, the present specification is written in terms of such
sound sources spatialized to specific locations in the audio
field.
[0053] Upon a service presented through a sound source being
selected (in a manner to be described hereinafter), the apparatus
changes from the desktop mode to a service mode in which only the
selected service is output, a full service audio feed now being
presented in whatever sound spatialisation is appropriate for the
service. When a user has finished using the selected service, the
user can switch back to the desktop mode.
[0054] It will be appreciated that other possibilities exist as to
how the services are presented and accessed--for example, the feed
from a selected service can be output simultaneously with
background presentation of audio labels for the other available
services. Furthermore, a service can provide its data in any form
capable of being converted in audible form; for example, a service
may provide its audio label in text form for conversion by a
text-to-speech converter into audio signals, and its full service
feed as digitised audio waveform signals.
[0055] It is also possible in the desktop mode to use more than one
sound source to represent a particular service and/or to associate
more than one audio label with each sound source as will be seen
hereinafter.
Audio Field Organisation--Spherical Field Example
[0056] Considering now the first apparatus (FIG. 1), in the form of
the apparatus primarily to be described below, the audio field is a
2D audio field configured as the surface of a sphere (or part of a
sphere). Such a spherical-surface audio field is depicted in FIG. 2
where a spatialised sound source 40 (that is, a service audio label
that has been generated so as to appear to come from a particular
location in the audio field) is represented as a hexagon positioned
on the surface of a sphere 41 (illustrated in dashed outline). It
maybe noted that although such a spherical surface exists in
three-dimensional space, the audio field is considered to be a 2
dimensional field because the position of spatialised sound sources
in the audio field, such as source 40, can be specified by two
orthogonal measures; in the present case these measures are an
azimuth angle X.degree. and an elevation angle Y.degree.. The
azimuth angle is measured relative to an audio-field reference
vector 42 that lies in a horizontal plane 43 and extends from the
center of sphere 41. The elevation angle is the angle between the
horizontal and the line joining the center of the sphere and the
sound source 40.
[0057] In fact, the FIG. 1 apparatus is readily adapted to generate
a 3D audio field with the third dimension being a range measure Z,
also depicted in FIG. 2, that is the distance from the center of
sphere 41 to the spatialised sound source 40. Conversely, the FIG.
1 apparatus can be adapted to generate a 1D audio field by doing
away with the elevation dimension of the spatialised sound
sources.
[0058] The FIG. 1 apparatus supports azimuth rotation of the audio
field, this potentially being required for implementing a
particular stabilization (that is, for example, head, body, vehicle
or world stabilization) of the audio field as well as providing a
way for the user to explore the audio field by commanding a
particular rotation of the audio field. As is illustrated in FIG.
3, the azimuth rotation of the field can be expressed in terms of
the angle R between the audio-field reference vector 42 and a
presentation reference vector 44. This presentation reference
vector corresponds to the straight-ahead centerline direction for
the configuration of audio output devices 11 being used. Thus, for
a pair of fixed, spaced loudspeakers, the presentation reference
vector 44 is the line of equidistance from both speakers and is
therefore itself fixed relative to the world; for a set of
headphones, the presentation reference vector 44 is the forward
facing direction of the user and therefore changes its direction as
the user turns their head. When the field rotation angle
R=0.degree., the audio-field reference vector 42 is aligned with
the presentation reference vector 44. The user is at least
notionally located at the origin of the presentation reference
vector.
[0059] The actual position at which a service-representing sound
source is to be rendered in the audio output field (its "rendering
position") by the FIG. 1 apparatus, must be derived relative to the
presentation reference vector since this is the reference used by
the spatialisation processor 10 of the apparatus. The rendering
position of a sound source is a combination of the intended
position of the source in the audio field judged relative to the
audio-field reference vector, and the current rotation of the audio
field reference vector relative to the presentation reference
vector.
[0060] As already intimated, apart from any specific azimuth
rotation of the audio field deliberately set by the user, the audio
field may need to be rotated in azimuth to provide a particular
audio-field stabilisation. Whether this is required depends on the
selected audio-field stabilization and the form of audio output
devices. Thus, by way of example, unless otherwise stated, it will
be assumed below that the audio output devices 11 of FIG. 1
apparatus are headphones and the audio field is to be
body-stabilised so that the orientation of the audio field relative
to the user's body is unaltered when the user turns their
head--this is achieved by rotation of the audio field relative to
the presentation reference vector for which purpose a suitable
head-tracker sensor 33 is provided to measure the azimuth rotation
of the user's head relative to its straight-ahead position (that
is, relative to the user's body). As the user turns their head, the
angle measured by sensor 33 is used to rotate the audio field by
the same amount but in the opposite direction thereby stabilising
the rendering positions of the sound sources relative to the user's
body.
[0061] It will be appreciated that had it been decided to
head-stabilise the field, then for audio output devices in the form
of headphones, it would have been unnecessary to modify the
orientation of the audio field as the user turned their head and,
in this case, there would be no need for the head-tracker sensor
33. This would also be true had the audio output devices 11 taken
the form of fixed loudspeakers and the audio field was to be
world-stabilized. Where headphones are to be used and the audio
field is to be world stabilised, the orientation of the audio field
must be modified by any change in orientation of the user's head
relative to the world, whether caused by the user turning their
head or by body movements; a suitable head-tracker can be provided
by a head-mounted electronic compass. Similarly, if the audio
output devices 11 are to be provided by a vehicle sound system and
the audio field is to be world stabilised, the orientation of the
audio field must be modified by any change in orientation of the
vehicle as determined by any suitable sensor. It may be generally
be noted that where a user is travelling in a vehicle, the latter
serves as a local world so that providing vehicle stabilisation of
the audio field is akin to providing world stabilisation (whether
the audio output devices are headphones, body mounted or vehicle
mounted) but with any required sensing of user head/body rotation
relative to the world now being done with respect to the
vehicle.
[0062] It is also to be noted that the audio-field rotation
discussed above only concerned azimuth rotation--that is, rotation
about a vertical axis. It is, of course, also possible to treat
rotation of the field in elevation in a similar manner both to
track head movements (nodding up and down) to achieve a selected
stabilisation and to enable the user to command audio-field
elevation-angle changes; appropriate modifications to the FIG. 1
apparatus to handle rotation in elevation in this way will be
apparent to persons skilled in the art.
[0063] Considering FIG. 1 in more detail, services are selected by
subsystem 13, these services being either local (for example, an
application running on a local processor) or accessible via a
communications link 20 (such as a radio link or fixed wire
connection providing internet or intranet access). The services can
conveniently be categorised into general services such as e-mail,
and services that have relevance to the immediate vicinity
(augmentation services). The services are selected by selection
control block 17 according to predetermined user-specified criteria
and possibly also by real-time user input provided via any suitable
means such as a keypad, voice input unit or interactive
display.
[0064] A memory 14 is used to store data about the selected
services with each such service being given a respective service
ID. For each selected service, memory 14 holds access data (e.g.
address of service executable or starting URL) and data on the or
each sound source specified by the service or user to be used to
represent the service with each such sound source being
distinguished by a suitable suffix to the service ID. For each
sound source, the memory holds data on the or each associated audio
label, each label being identified by a further suffix to the
suffixed service ID used to identify the sound source. The audio
labels for the selected services are either provided by the
services themselves to the subsystem 13 or are specified by the
user for particular identified services. The labels are preferably
provided and stored in text-form for conversion to audio by a
text-to-speech converter (not shown) as and when required by the
spatialisation processor. Where the audio label associated with a
service is to be a low-level live feed, memory 14 holds an
indicator indicating this. Provision may also be made for
temporarily replacing the normal audio label of a service sound
source with a notification of a significant service-related event
(for example, where the service is an e-mail service, notification
of receipt of a message may temporarily substitute for the normal
audio label of the service).
[0065] As regards the full service feed of any particular service,
this is not output from subsystem 13 until that service is chosen
by the user by input to output selection block 12.
[0066] Rather than the services to be represented in the audio
interface being selected by block 17 from those currently found to
be available, a set of services to be presented can be
pre-specified and the related sound-source data (including audio
labels) for these services stored in memory 14 along with service
identification and access data. In this case, when the apparatus is
in its "desktop" mode, the services in the pre-specified set of
services are represented in the output audio field by the stored
audio labels without any need to first contact the services
concerned; upon a user selecting a service and the apparatus
changing to its service mode, the service access data for the
selected service is used to contact that service for a full service
feed.
[0067] With respect to the positioning of the service-representing
sound sources in the audio field when the apparatus is in its
desktop mode, each service may provide position information either
indicating a suggested spatialised position in the audio field for
the sound source(s) through which the service is to be represented,
or giving a real-world location associated with the service (this
may well be the case in respect of an augmented reality service
associated with a location in the vicinity of the user). Where a
set of services is pre-specified, then this position information
can be stored in memory 14 along with the audio labels for the
services concerned.
[0068] For each service-representing sound source, it is necessary
to determine its final rendering position in the output audio field
taking account of a number of factors. This is done by injecting a
sound-source data item into a processing path involving elements 21
to 30. This sound-source data item comprises a sound source ID
(such as the related suffixed service ID) for the sound source
concerned, any service-supplied position information for the sound
source, and possibly also the service type (general
service/augmentation service). The subsystem 13 passes each
sound-source data item to a source-position set/modify block 23
where the position of the sound source is decided relative to the
audio-field reference vector, either automatically on the basis of
the supplied type and/or position information, or from user input
24 provided through any suitable input device including a keypad,
keyboard, voice recognition unit, or interactive display. These
positions are constrained to conform to the desired form (spherical
or part spherical; 1D, 2D, or 3D) of the audio field. The decided
position for each source is then temporarily stored in memory 25
against the source ID.
[0069] Provision of a user input device for modifying the position
of each sound source relative to the audio field reference, enables
the user to modify the layout of the service-representing sound
sources (that is, the dispositions of these sound sources relative
to each other) as desired.
[0070] With respect to a service having an associated real-world
location (typically, an augmented reality service), whilst it is
possible to position the corresponding sound source in the audio
field independently of the relationship between the associated
real-world location of the service and the location of the user, it
will often be desired to place the sound source in the field at a
position determined by the associated real-world location and, in
particular, in a position such that it lies in the same direction
relative to the user as the associated real-world location. In this
latter case, the audio field will generally be world-stabilised to
maintain the directional validity of the sound source in the audio
field presented to the user; for the same reason, user-commanded
rotation of the audio field should be avoided or inhibited.
Positioning a sound source according to an associated real-world
location is achieved in the present apparatus by a real-world
location processing functional block 21 that forms part of the
source-position set/modify block 23. The real-world location
processing functional block 21 is arranged to receive and store
real-world locations passed to it from subsystem 13, these
locations being stored against the corresponding source IDs. Block
21 is also supplied on input 22 with the current location of the
user determined by any suitable means such as a GPS system carried
by the user, or nearby location beacons (such as may be provided at
point-of-sale locations). The block 21 first determines whether the
real-world location associated with a service is close enough to
the user to qualify the corresponding sound source for inclusion in
the audio field; if this test is passed, the azimuth and elevation
coordinates of the sound source are set to place the sound source
in the audio field in a direction as perceived by the user
corresponding to the direction of the real world location from the
user. This requires knowledge of the real-world direction of
pointing of the un-rotated audio-field reference vector 42 (which,
as noted above, is also the direction of pointing of the
presentation reference vector). This can be derived for example, by
providing a small electronic compass on a structure carrying the
audio output devices 11, since this enables the real-world
direction of pointing of presentation reference vector 44 to be
measured; by noting the rotation angle of the audio-field reference
vector 42 at the moment the real-world direction of pointing of
vector 44 is measured, it is then possible to derive the real-world
direction of pointing of the audio-field reference vector 42
(assuming that the audio field is being world-stabilised). It maybe
noted that not only will there normally be a structure carrying the
audio output devices 11 when these are constituted by headphones,
but this is also the case in any mobile situation (for example, in
a vehicle) where loudspeakers are involved.
[0071] If the audio field is a 3D field, then as well as setting
the azimuth and elevation coordinates of the sound source to
position it in the same direction as the associated real-world
location, block 21 also sets a range coordinate value to represent
the real world distance between the user and the real-world
location associated with the sound source.
[0072] Of course, as the user moves in space, the block 21 must
reprocess its stored real-world location information to update the
position of the corresponding sound sources in the audio field.
Similarly, if updated real-world location information is received
from a service, then the positioning of the sound source in the
audio field must also be updated.
[0073] Returning to a general consideration of the FIG. 1
apparatus, an audio-field orientation modify block 26 is used to
specify any required changes in orientation (angular offset) of the
audio-field reference vector relative to presentation reference
vector. In the present example where the audio field is to be
body-stabilized and the output audio devices are headphones, the
apparatus includes the afore-mentioned head tracker sensor 33 and
this sensor is arranged to provide a measure of the turning of a
user's head relative to their body to a first input 27 of the block
26. This measure is combined with any user-commanded field rotation
supplied to a second input of block 26 in order to derive a field
orientation angle that is stored in memory 29.
[0074] As already noted, where headphones are used and the audio
field is to be world stabilised (for example, where
augmented-reality service sound sources are to be maintained in
positions in the field consistent with their real world positions
relative to the user), then the head-tracker sensor needs to detect
any change in orientation of the user's head relative to the real
world so that the audio field can be given a counter rotation.
Where the user is travelling in a vehicle and the audio field is to
be vehicle-stabilised, the rotation of the user's head is measured
relative to the vehicle (the user's "local" world, as already
noted).
[0075] Each source position stored in memory 25 is combined by
combiner 30 with the field orientation (rotation) angle stored in
memory 29 to derive a rendering position for the sound source, this
rendering position being stored, along with the source ID, in
memory 15. The combiner operates continuously and cyclically to
refresh the rendering positions in memory 15.
[0076] Output selection block 12 sets the current apparatus mode
according to user input, the available modes being a desktop mode
and a service mode as already discussed above.
[0077] When the desktop mode is set, the spatialisation processor
10 accesses the rendering position memory 15 and the memory 14
holding the service audio labels to generate an audio field, via
audio output devices 11, in which the (or the currently-specified)
audio label associated with each sound source is spatialized to a
position set by the corresponding rendering position in memory 15.
In generating the audio-label field, the processor 10 can function
asynchronously with respect to the combiner 30 due to the provision
of memory 15. The spatialisation processor 10 operates according to
any appropriate sound spatialisation method, including those
mentioned in the introduction to the present specification. The
spatialisation processor 10 and audio output devices together form
a rendering subsystem serving to render each sound source at its
derived final rendering position.
[0078] When the service mode is set, the full service audio feed
for the chosen service is rendered by the spatialisation processor
10 according to whatever position information is provided by the
service. It will be appreciated that, although not depicted, this
service position information can be combined with the field
orientation angle information stored in memory 29 to achieve the
same stabilization as for the audio-field containing the service
audio labels; however, this is not essential and, indeed, the
inherent stabilization of the audio output devices (head-stabilised
in the case of headphones) maybe more appropriate for the full
service mode.
[0079] As an alternative to the full service feed being spatialised
by the spatialisation processor 10, the full service feed may be
provided as pre-spatialized audio signals and fed directly to the
audio output devices.
[0080] With the FIG. 1 apparatus set to provide a body-stabilised
audio field through headphones, the user can explore the audio
field in two ways, namely by turning their head and by rotating the
audio field. FIG. 4 illustrates a user turning their head to
explore a 2D audio field restricted to occupy part only of a
spherical surface. In this case, six spatialised sound sources 40
are depicted. Of these sources, one source 40A is positioned in the
audio field at an azimuth angle of X.sub.1.degree. and elevation
angle Y.sub.1.degree. relative to the audio-field reference vector
42. The user has not commanded any explicit rotation of the audio
field. However, the user has turned their head through an angle
X.sub.2.degree. towards the source 40A. In order to maintain
body-stabilisation of the audio field, the audio-field reference
vector 42 has been automatically rotated an angle
(-X.sub.2.degree.) relative to the presentation reference vector 44
to bring the vector 42 back in line with the user's body straight
ahead direction; the rendering position of the source relative to
the presentation reference vector is therefore:
Azimuth=X.sub.1.degree.-X.sub.2.degree.
Elevation=Y.sub.1.degree.
[0081] this being the position output by combiner 30 and stored in
memory 15. The result is that turning of the user's head does
indeed have the effect of turning towards the sound source 40A.
[0082] FIG. 5 illustrates, for the same audio field as represented
in FIG. 4, how the user can bring the sound source 40A to a
position directly ahead of the user by commanding a rotation of
(-X.sub.1.degree.) of the audio field by user input 28 to block 26
(effected, for example, by a rotary input device). The azimuth
rendering position of the sound source 40A becomes
(X.sub.1.degree.-X.sub.1.degree.), that is, 0.degree.-the source
40A is therefore rendered in line with the presentation reference
vector 44. Of course, if the user turns their head, the source 40A
will cease to be directly in front of the user until the user faces
ahead again.
Audio Field Organisation--Cylindrical Field Example
[0083] The FIG. 1 apparatus can be adapted to spatialize the sound
sources 40 in an audio field conforming to the surface of a
vertically-orientated cylinder (or part thereof). FIG. 6 depicts a
general case where the audio field conforms to a notional
cylindrical surface 50. This cylindrical audio field, like the
spherical audio field previously described with reference to FIG.
2, is two dimensional inasmuch as the position of a sound source 40
in the field it can be specified by two coordinates, namely an
azimuth angle X.degree. and an elevation (height) distance Y, both
measured relative to an horizontal audio-field reference vector 52.
It will be appreciated that a 3D audio field can be specified by
adding a range coordinate Z, this being the distance from the axis
of the cylindrical audio field. As with the spherical audio field
described above, the cylindrical audio field may be rotated
(angularly offset by angle R.degree.) relative to a presentation
reference vector 54, this being done either in response to a direct
user command or to achieve a particular field stabilisation in the
same manner as already described above for the spherical audio
field. In addition, the audio field can be axially displaced to
change the height (axial offset) of the audio-field reference
vector 52 relative to the presentation reference vector 54.
[0084] Since it is possible to accommodate any desired number of
sound sources in the audio field without over crowding simply by
extending the elevation axis, there is a real risk of a "Tower of
Babel" being created if all sound sources are active together.
Accordingly, the general model of FIG. 6 employs a concept of a
focus zone 55 which is a zone of the cylindrical audio field
bounded by upper and lower elevation values determined by a
currently commanded height H so as to keep the focus zone fixed
relative to the assumed user position (the origin of the
presentation reference vector); within the focus zone, the sound
sources 40 are active, whilst outside the zone the sources 40 are
muted (depicted by dashing of the hexagon outline of these sources
in FIG. 6) except for a limited audio leakage 56. In FIG. 6, the
focus zone (which is hatched) extends by an amount C above and
below the commanded height H (and thus has upper and lower
elevation values of (H+C) and (H-C) respectively. In the
illustrated example, H=0 and C is a constant; C need not be
constant and it would be possible, for example, to make its value
dependent on the value of the commanded height H.
[0085] The general form of cylindrical audio field shown in FIG. 6
can be implemented in a variety of ways with respect to how leakage
into the focus zone is effected and how a user moves up and down
the cylindrical field (that is, changes the commanded height and
thus the current focus zone). FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate two possible
implementations in the case where the audio field is of
semi-cylindrical form (azimuth range from +90.degree. to
-90.degree.).
[0086] In FIG. 7, leakage takes the form of the low-volume presence
of sound sources 40W in upper and lower "whisper" zones 56, 57
positioned adjacent the focus zone 55. Also, the commanded height
value is continuously variable (as opposed to being variable in
steps). The result is that the user can effectively slide up and
down the cylinder and hear both the sound sources 40 in the focus
zone and, at a lower volume, sound sources 40W in the whisper
zones.
[0087] In FIG. 8, the service sound sources are organised to lie at
a number of discrete heights, 5 in this case, four possible heights
effectively corresponding to four "floors" here labelled "1"to "4".
Preferably, each "floor" contains sound sources associated with
services all of the same type with different floors being
associated with different service types. The user can only command
step changes in height corresponding to moving from floor to floor
(the extent of the focus zone encompassing one floor). Leakage
takes the form of an upper and 10 lower advisory sound source 60,
61 respectively positioned just above and just below the focus zone
at an azimuth angle of 0.degree.. Each of these advisory sound
sources 60,61 provides a summary of the services (for example, in
terms of service types) available respectively above and below the
current focus zone. This permits a user to determine whether they
need to go up or down to find a desired service.
[0088] It will be appreciated that the forms of leakage used in
FIGS. 7 and 8 can be interchanged or combined and that the FIG. 8
embodiment can provide for sound sources 40 on the same floor to
reside at different heights on that floor. It is also possible to
provide each floor of the FIG. 8 embodiment with a characteristic
audio theme which rather than being associated with a particular
source (which is, of course, possible) is arranged to surround the
user with no directionality; by way of example, a floor containing
museum services could have a classical music theme.
[0089] In arranging for the FIG. 1 apparatus to implement a
cylindrical audio field such as depicted in any of FIGS. 4-6, the
positions set for the sound sources by block 23 are specified in
terms of the described cylindrical coordinate system and are chosen
to conform to a cylindrical or part-cylindrical organisation in 1,
2, or 3D as required. The orientation and vertical positioning of
the audio field reference vector 42 are set by block 26, also in
terms of the cylindrical coordinate system. Similarly, combiner 30
is arranged to generate the sound-source rendering positions in
terms of cylindrical coordinates. The spatialisation processor must
therefore either be arranged to understand this coordinate system
or the rendering positions must be converted to a coordinate system
understood by the spatialisation processor 10 before they are
passed to the processor. This latter approach is preferred and
thus, in the present case, assuming that the spatialisation
processor is arranged to operate in terms of the spherical
coordinate system illustrated in FIG. 2, a converter 66 (see FIG.
9) is provided upstream of memory 15 to convert the rendering
positions from cylindrical coordinates to spherical
coordinates.
[0090] Whilst it would be possible to use a single coordinate
system throughout the apparatus regardless of the form of audio
field to be produced (for example, the positions of the sound
sources in the cylindrical audio field could be specified in
spherical coordinates), this complicates the processing because
with an appropriately chosen coordinate system most operations are
simple additions or subtractions applied independently to the
individual coordinates values of the sound sources; in contrast,
if, for example, a spherical coordinate system is used to specify
the positions in a cylindrical field, then commanded changes in the
field height (discussed further below) can no longer simply be
added/subtracted to the sound source positions to derive their
rendering heights but instead involve more complex processing
affecting both elevation angle and range. Indeed, by appropriate
choice of coordinate system for different forms of audio field,
equivalent operations with respect to the fields translate to the
same operations (generally add/subtract) on the coordinate values
being used so that the operation of the elements 25, 26, 29 and 30
of the apparatus is unchanged. In this case, adapting the apparatus
to a change in audio-field form, simple requires the block 23 to
use an appropriate coordinate system and for converter 66 to be set
to convert from that coordinate system to that used by the
spatialisation processor 10.
[0091] With respect to adaptation of the FIG. 1 apparatus to
provide the required capability of commanding changes in height for
the cylindrical audio field systems illustrated in FIGS. 4-6, such
height changes correspond to the commanding of changes in the
elevation angle already described for the case of a spherical audio
field. Thus, a height change command is supplied to the block 26 to
set a field height value (an axial offset between the field
reference vector and the presentation reference vector) which is
then combined with the elevation distance value Y of each sound
source to derive the elevation value for the rendering position of
the source.
[0092] As regards how the focus zone and leakage features are
implemented, FIG. 9 depicts a suitable variation of the FIG. 1
apparatus for providing these features. In particular, a source
parameter set/modify block 70 is interposed between the output of
combiner 30 and the converter 66. This block 70 comprises one or
more units for setting and/or modifying one or more parameters
associated with each sound source to condition how the sound source
is to be presented in the audio field. As will be seen hereinafter
with respect to the FIG. 10 apparatus, the block 70 can include a
range of different type of units that may modify the rendering
position of a source and/or set various sounding effect parameters
for the source. In the present case, the block 70 comprises a
cylindrical filter 71 that sets a audibility (volume level)
sounding-effect parameter for each sound source. The set parameter
value is passed to memory 15 for storage along with the source ID
and rendering position. When the spatialisation processor comes to
render the sound source audio label according to the position and
audibility parameter value stored in memory 15, it passes the
audibility value to a sounding effector 74 that conditions the
audio label appropriately (in this case, sets its volume
level).
[0093] In the case of the FIG. 7 arrangement, the cylinder filter
71 is responsive to the current field height value (as supplied
from memory 29 to a reference input 72 of block 70) to set the
audibility parameter value of each sound source: to 100% (no volume
level reduction) for sound sources in the focus zone 55; to 50% for
sound sources in the "whisper" zones 56 and 57; and to 0% (zero
volume) for all other sound sources. As a result, the sounding
effector 74 mutes out all sound sources not in the focus or whisper
zones, and reduces the volume level of sound sources in the whisper
zones.
[0094] In the case of the FIG. 8 arrangement, the cylinder filter
71 performs a similar function except that now there are no whisper
zones. As regards the upper and lower advisory sound sources 60 and
61, the subsystem 13 effectively creates these sources by:
[0095] creating a ghost advisory service in memory 14 with two
sound sources, the IDs of these sources being passed to block 23 as
for any other service;
[0096] creating for each sound source a respective set of summary
audio labels, each set being stored in memory 14 and specifying for
each floor an appropriate label summarising the service types
either above or below the current floor, depending on the set
concerned.
[0097] The source IDs passed to the block 23 are there associated
with null position data before being passed on via memory 25 and
combiner 30 to arrive at the cylinder filter 71 of block 70. The
filter 71 recognises the source IDs as upper and lower advisory
sound source IDs and appropriately sets position data for them as
well as setting the audibility parameter to 100% and setting a
parameter specifying which summary audio label is appropriate for
the current floor. This enables the spatialisation processor to
retrieve the appropriate audio label when it comes to render the
upper or lower advisory sound source.
[0098] It will be appreciated that partially or fully muting sound
sources outside of a focus zone can also be done where the
apparatus is set to generate a spherical audio field. In this case,
the apparatus includes blocks 70 and 74 but now the cylinder filter
71 is replaced by a "spherical filter" muting out all sound sources
beyond a specified angular distance from a current facing direction
of the user. The current facing direction relative to the
presentation reference vector is derived by block 26 and supplied
to the filter 71. It may be noted that in the case where the audio
output devices 11 are constituted by headphones, the direction of
facing of the user corresponds to the presentation reference vector
so it is a simple matter to determine which sound sources have
rendering positions that are more than a given angular displacement
from the facing direction. Along with the implementation of a focus
zone for a spherical audio field, it is, of course, also possible
to provide the described implementations of a leakage feature.
Multiple Audio Sub-Fields
[0099] FIG. 10 shows a second apparatus for producing an audio
field to serve as an audio interface to services. This apparatus is
similar to the FIG. 9 variant of the first apparatus but provides
for multiple audio "sub-fields" and has a variety of sound-source
parameter conditioning units for facilitating a clear audio
presentation. Elements of the first and second apparatus that have
similar functionality have been given the same reference numerals
and their description will not be repeated below for the second
apparatus except where there is modification of functionality to
accommodate features of the second apparatus.
[0100] The second apparatus, like the first apparatus, is capable
of producing (part) spherical or part (cylindrical) 1D, 2D or 3D
audio fields (or, indeed, any other form of audio field) according
to the positions set for the sound sources by block 23.
[0101] As mentioned, the FIG. 10 apparatus provides for multiple
"sub-fields". Each sub-field may be considered as an independent
audio field that can be rotated (and, in the case of a cylindrical
field, vertically re-positioned) by changing the offset between the
presentation reference vector and an audio-field reference specific
to the sub-field. Further, each sub-field can have a different
stabilization set for it--thus, for example, sound sources
representing general services can be assigned to a head-stabilised
sub-field whilst sound sources representing augmented-reality
services can be assigned to a world-stabilised sub-field. The
rotation/displacement of each sub-field and the setting of its
stabilization is done by block 26 with the resultant values being
stored in memory 29. Whether or not the block 26 modifies the
azimuth-angle value of a sub-field to reflect a sensed rotation of
the user's head will thus depend on the stabilization set for the
sub-field and, as already described, on whether the audio output
devices are head-mounted, body-mounted, vehicle-mounted or fixed
with respect to the world (or, in other words, whether the
presentation reference vector is head, body, vehicle or world
stabilised). To add flexibility to the FIG. 10 apparatus, the
current stabilisation of the presentation reference vector is fed
to the block (see arrow) to enable the latter to make any
appropriate changes to the sub-field orientations as the user turns
(and/or nods) their head.
[0102] Each service sound source is assigned by block 23 to a
particular sub-field and an identifier of its assigned sub-field is
stored with the source ID in memory 25 along with the position of
the sound source relative to the audio-field reference associated
with the assigned sub-field. The combiner 30 is supplied from
memory 29 with the rotation/displacement values of each sub-field
and for each service sound source combines the values of the
related sub-field with the sound-source coordinate values; as a
result, each sound source is imparted the rotations/displacements
experienced by its sub-field. For each service sound source, the
output of the combiner comprises source ID, position data, and
sub-field identifier.
[0103] As will be seen below, assigning sound sources to different
sub-fields may be done for reasons other than giving them different
stabilizations; for example, it may be done to identify a group of
service sound sources that are to be subject to a particular
source-parameter modification process in block 70.
[0104] It should also be noted that different sub-fields may have
different dimensions and even different forms so that one sub-field
could be a 2D spherical surface whilst another sub-field could be
of 3D cylindrical form.
Facilitating Clear Presentation
[0105] As well as the cylindrical filter 71, the source parameter
set/modify block 70 includes a number of sound-source parameter
conditioning units 80 to 85 for facilitating a clear audio
presentation. The function of each of these units will be described
more fully below. It is to be understood that the units need not
all be present or operational together and various combinations of
one or more units being concurrently active are possible; however,
not all combinations are appropriate but this is a matter easily
judged and will not be exhaustively detailed below. Also, certain
units may need to effect their processing before others (for
example, units that affect the final rendering position of a sound
source need to effect their processing before units that set
sounding effect parameters in dependence on the final rendering
position of a sound source); again, it will generally be apparent
when such ordering issues are present and what ordering of the
units is required to resolve such issues and an exhaustive
treatment of these matters will not be given below.
[0106] Unit 80 is a focus expander that serves to modify the
rendering positions of the sound sources to spread out the sound
sources (that is, expand or dilate the audio field) in azimuth in
the region of the current direction of facing of the user (or other
appropriate direction) in order to facilitate discrimination
between sound sources. Referring to FIG. 11, this shows a field of
180.degree. extent in azimuth with the user currently facing in the
direction of the audio-field reference vector 90. The focus
expander 80 operates to linearly expand the 15.degree. segments 92
on both sides of the facing direction 91 into respective 45.degree.
segments 93 (see the hatched zones). The remaining segments are
correspondingly compressed to maintain an overall 180.degree.
azimuth range--in this case, this results in two 75.degree.
segments 94 being compressed into respective 45.degree. segments
95; as an alternative (not illustrated), the remaining segments
could simply be angularly displaced from their normal positions
without compressing them.
[0107] For sub-fields that are head-stabilised, turning of the
user's head does not change the 15.degree. segments subject to
expansion; however, azimuth rotation of such a sub-field does
result in the expansion being applied to different segments of the
sub-field.
[0108] For sub-fields that are not head-stabilised, as the user
turns their head, the segments subject to expansion change. This is
illustrated in FIG. 12 where a user has turned to the right
75.degree. relative to the audio-field reference vector of a
body-stabilised audio sub-field with an initial .+-.90.degree.
range either side of the reference vector. This results in the most
clockwise 30.degree. of the original field (segments 92) being
expanded (symmetrically with respect to the facing direction) so
that now the audio sub-field extends round further in the clockwise
direction than before. The remaining 150.degree. segment 97 of the
original audio sub-field is expanded into a 90.degree. segment
98.
[0109] In order for the focus expander 80 to effect the required
processing of the azimuth rendering positions of the sound sources,
it is supplied (input 78 to block 70) with the angle of the facing
direction relative to the current presentation reference vector,
this angle being determined by the block 26 in dependence on the
current stabilization of the presentation reference vector and the
sensed head rotation. Of course, where the presentation reference
vector is head-stabilized (i.e. headphones are being used), the
angle between the facing direction and the presentation reference
vector will be zero; in other cases it will generally correspond to
the angle measured by the head-tracker sensor 33. Given the facing
direction angle relative to the presentation reference vector, and
bearing in mind that the sound-source positions supplied to block
70 are relative to that vector, it is a straightforward matter for
the focus expander 80 to determine which sound sources lie within
the segments 92 and then make the required changes to the azimuth
values of the sound-source rendering positions of these sources in
order to achieve the desired audio-field dilation; similarly, the
rendering positions of the other sound sources are adjusted as
required.
[0110] It will be appreciated that the user can be enabled to turn
the focus expander 80 on and off as desired. It is also possible to
arrange for the focus expander to be applied only to one or more
selected sub-fields rather than to all fields indiscriminately.
Furthermore, whilst the focus expander has been described above as
operating on azimuth angles, it could additionally or alternatively
be caused to act on the elevation coordinate values (whether angles
or distances). Again, whilst the expansion has been described above
as being uniform (linear), it could be applied in a non-linear
manner such that a larger expansion is applied adjacent the facing
direction than further away. The angle of application of the
expansion effect can also be made adjustable.
[0111] Rather than the focus expander 80 expanding a region of the
audio field set relative to the current facing direction, the focus
expander can be arranged to expand a region set relative to some
other direction (the `focus reference direction`), such as a
specific world-stabilised direction or the presentation reference
vector. In this case, the focus expander is provided with
appropriate information from block 26 to enable it to determine the
relative offset between the focus reference direction and the
presentation reference vector (this offset being, of course, zero
if the focus reference direction is set to be the presentation
reference vector).
[0112] Arrow 79 in FIG. 10 generally represents user input to block
70 whether for controlling the focus expander 80 or any other of
the units of the block. How the user input is derived is an
implementation detail and may, for example, be done by selection
buttons, a graphical user interface, or voice command input
subsystem.
[0113] Unit 81 of the source-parameter set/modify block 70 is a
segment muting filter 81 that is operative to change the audibility
state of sound sources in user-specified segments of one, some or
all the audio sub-fields (a default of all sub-fields is preferably
set in the filter 81 with the possibility of the user changing this
default). In particular, the segment muting filter changes the
audibility state of segment sound sources (in either direction)
between un-muted and at least partially muted by appropriately
setting the value of an audibility (sound volume) parameter of the
sound sources. FIG. 13 illustrates the effect of the segment muting
filter in respect of an audio sub-field, of 180.degree. azimuth
extent, shown developed into a rectangular form 100 and with
spatialised sound sources 40. In this example, the audio field is
divided into five segments relative to the audio-field reference
vector, namely:
[0114] an "ahead" segment 101 extending in azimuth from +30.degree.
to -30.degree.;
[0115] a "left" segment 102 extending in azimuth from -30.degree.
to -60.degree.;
[0116] a "far left" segment 103 extending in azimuth from
-60.degree. to -90.degree.;
[0117] a "right" segment 104 extending in azimuth from +30.degree.
to +60.degree.;
[0118] a "far right" segment 105 extending in azimuth from
+60.degree. to +90.degree..
[0119] The filter 81 acts to change the audibility parameter of
each sound source in a segment back and forth between 100% and 0%
(or a preset low level) in response to user input. Preferably,
speech form input is possible so that to mute sound sources in
segment 102, the user need only say "Mute Left" (FIG. 13 depicts
these sounds sources as muted by showing them in dashed outline).
To bring back these sound sources to full volume, the user says
"Un-Mute Left". As already described with respect to the
cylindrical filter 71, the sound volume specified by the audibility
parameter is implemented by sounding effector 74, the effector
being passed the parameter when the spatialisation processor 10
requests to be supplied with the sound label for the sound source
concerned.
[0120] Preferably, the segments can be muted and un-muted
independently of each other. An alternative is to arrange for only
one segment to be muted at a time with the selection for muting of
a segment automatically un-muting any previously muted segment; the
opposite is also possible with only one segment being un-muted at a
time, the un-muting of a segment causing any previously un-muted
segment to be muted. It is also possible to arrange for several
segments to be muted simultaneously in response to a single
command--for example, both the "left" and "far left" segments 102,
103 in FIG. 13 could be arranged to be muted in response to a user
command of "Mute All Left".
[0121] The segments are pre-specified in terms of their azimuth
angular extent relative to the audio-field reference vectors by
segmentation data stored in the segment muting filter or elsewhere.
In order for the segment muting filter to mute the sound sources
corresponding to a segment to be muted, the filter needs to know
the current azimuth angle between the audio field reference vectors
and the presentation reference vector since the sound-source
azimuth angles provided to the filter are relative to the latter
vector. The required angles between the audio-field and
presentation reference vectors is supplied on input 76 from block
26 to block 70.
[0122] As an alternative to the segments being specified relative
to the audio-field reference vectors, the segments can be specified
relative to the facing direction of the user (which may, in fact,
be more natural). In this case, the segment muting filter needs to
know the angle between the current facing direction and the
presentation reference vector; as already described, this angle is
provided on input 78 to block 70. A further alternative is to
pre-specify the segments relative to the presentation reference
vector (which, of course, for headphones is the same as specifying
the segments relative to the user's facing direction).
[0123] Whilst segment muting has been described using segmentation
in azimuth, it will be appreciated that the segmentation can be
effected in any appropriate manner (for example, in azimuth and
elevation in combination) and the term `segment` is herein used
without any connotation regarding the form or shape
encompassed.
[0124] Rather than a segment remaining muted until commanded to
return to its un-muted state, a muted segment can be arranged only
to stay muted for a limited period and then to automatically revert
to being un-muted.
[0125] Unit 82 is a cyclic muting filter. As depicted in FIG. 14
(which uses the same field development as FIG. 13), this filter 82
works on the basis that the sound sources 40 are divided into
groups 110 to 114 and the filter 82 operates cyclically to change
the audibility state of the sound sources so as to at least
partially mute out all but one group of sources in turn--in FIG.
14, all groups except group 111 are currently muted. The un-muted
group remains un-muted, for example, for 10 seconds before being
muted (partially or fully) again. As with the segment muting
filter, the filter 82 operates by setting the value of an
audibility parameter of each sound source. Rather than requiring a
group ID to be assigned to each sound source and transferred along
with the sound-source ID, position data, and sub-field identifier
to the block 70, grouping can be achieved by assigning a separate
sub-field for each group.
[0126] The grouping of sound sources can be effected automatically
by service type (or more generally, one or more characteristics
associated with the item represented by the sound source
concerned). Alternatively, the grouping of the sound sources can be
effected automatically according to their positions in the audio
field (possibly taking account their relation to the presentation
reference vector, the audio field reference vectors, or user
direction of facing). A further possibility is for the grouping to
be user specified (via block 23). In one possible grouping
arrangement, each sound source is assigned to a respective group
resulting in each sound source being un-muted in turn. Preferably,
the user can also specify that one or more groups are not subject
to cyclic muting. Additionally, the user can be given the option of
setting the un-muted duration for each group.
[0127] As already indicated, muted groups need not be fully muted.
Where the sound sources are assigned to groups according to their
positions, a possible muting pattern would be to fully mute sound
sources in groups lying either side of the currently un-muted group
of sources, and to partially mute the sound sources of all other
groups.
[0128] Rather than the un-muting and muting of the groups being
effected in an abrupt manner, the group whose limited period of
being un-muted is ending can be cross-faded with the group whose
period of being un-muted is next to occur.
[0129] Unit 82 is a collection collapser the basic purpose of which
is to respond to a predetermined user command to collapse all sound
sources that are members of a specified collection of sound sources
to a single collection-representing sound source at a particular
location (which can be head, body, vehicle or world stabilised).
The member sound sources of the collection can be identified by a
specific tag associated with each sound source ID; however, it is
convenient to assign all sound sources to be collapsed to the same
sub-field and simply rely on the sub-field ID to identify these
sources to the block 70.
[0130] FIG. 15 illustrates the general effect of the collection
collapser 82 for a situation where all augmented-reality sound
sources 40.sub.[AR] are members of the same collection and have
been assigned to the same world-stabilised sub-field; these
augmented-reality sound sources are arranged to be collapsed to a
single collection-representing sound source 120 positioned at the
top center of the audio sub-field. Other positions for the source
120 are, of course, possible such as in line with the current
direction of facing or the location of a particular one of the
sound sources being collapsed.
[0131] The collection collapser is further arranged to reverse the
collapsing upon receipt of a suitable user command. The
collection-representing sound source 120 will generally not be
present when the member sound sources of the collection are
un-collapsed though it is possible to leave the
collection-representing sound source un-muted to serve, for
example, as notification channel to inform the user of events
relevant to the collection as a whole.
[0132] In a typical implementation, the collection-representing
sound source is created by the subsystem 13 and is given an ID that
indicates its special role; this sound source is then assigned to
the same sub-field as the collection member sound sources to be
collapsed. The collection-representing sound source is also given
its own audio label stored in memory 14 with this label being
arranged to be temporarily substituted for by any notifications
generated in relation to the collection member sound sources (each
sound source is also arranged to have its normal label temporarily
replaced by any notification related to that source). Whilst the
collection member sound sources are not collapsed, the audibility
parameters of these sound sources remain at 100% but the
collection-representing sound source has its audibility parameter
set to 0% by the collection collapser. However, when the collection
collapser 83 is triggered to collapse the collection member sound
sources, these sources have their audibility parameters set to 0%
whilst that of the collection-representing source is set to 100%
thereby replacing the collapsed sources with a single sound source
emitting the corresponding audio label (potentially periodically
interrupted by notifications from the services associated with the
collapsed sources). On user command, the collapsed sound sources
are un-muted and the collection-representing sound source muted,
thereby restoring the collection to its un-collapsed state.
[0133] Rather than the collection changing from its un-collapsed
state to its collapsed state in response to user command, the
collection collapser can be arranged to effect this change
automatically--for example, if there has been no activity in
respect of any member sound source (user service
request/service-originating event notification) for a predetermined
period of time, then the collection collapser can be arranged to
automatically put the collection in its collapsed state. Similarly,
the collection collapser can automatically un-collapse the
collection in response, for example, to the receipt of more than a
threshold number of service event notifications within a given
time, or upon the user entering a particular environment (in the
case of a mobile user provided with means for detecting the user's
environment either by location or in some other manner).
[0134] To provide clear feedback to the user as to what is
occurring when the collection is being collapsed and un-collapsed,
the collection collapser is preferably arranged to change the
collection between its two states non-instantaneously and with the
accompaniment of appropriate audible effects. For example, during
collapse, the collection-representing sound source can be faded up
as the collection-member sound sources are faded out. This can be
accompanied by a sound such as a sucking in sound to indicate that
the member sound sources are notionally being absorbed into the
collection-representing sound source. Alternatively, the locations
of the member sound sources can be moved over a second or two to
the location of the collection-representing sound source. The
reverse effects can be implemented when the collection is
un-collapsed.
[0135] It may in certain circumstances to have more than one
collection-representing sound source associated with a
collection.
[0136] As regards the non-collection sound sources (if any) in the
audio field, these are typically left un-disturbed by changes in
the state of the collection. However, it would alternatively be
possible to arrange for such sound sources to be modified to adapt
to the presence or absence of the collection member sound sources.
For example, upon un-collapsing of the collection, the location of
any sound source close to where a member sound source appears in
the audio field can be changed to ensure a minimum separation of
sound sources. As another example, upon un-collapsing of the
collection the other sound sources can be partially muted, at least
temporarily.
[0137] It will be appreciated that the collection collapser
provides more than just a way of opening an audio menu where the
member sound sources represent menu list items; in particular, the
distribution of the collection member sound sources in the
un-collapsed collection is not constrained to that of a list but is
determined by other considerations (for example, where the sound
sources represent augmented reality services, by the real-world
locations of these services).
[0138] Unit 84 is a sub-field sound setter intended to set a
sounding effect parameter in respect of sound sources of a
particular sub-field or sub-fields. The sound setter is operative
to set a particular sounding effect parameter as either on or off
for each sound source, whilst the sounding effector 74 is arranged
to apply the corresponding sound effect to all sound sources for
which the parameter is set to on. Preferably, as default, when the
sound setter is enabled the sound sources of all sub-fields have
the related sounding effect parameter set to on; however, the user
can de-select one or more sub-fields for this treatment, as
desired. In fact, multiple different sound setters 84 can be
provided, each associated with a different sound effect. Typical
sound effects are volume or pitch modulation, frequency shifting,
distortion (such as bandwidth limiting or muffling), echo, addition
of noise or other distinctive sounds, etc.
[0139] One reason to employ the sound setter 84 is to make it easy
to distinguish one type of service from another or to distinguish
the synthesised sound sources from real sound sources in the
environment. In this latter case, the audio output devices are, of
course, configured to permit the user to hear both real-world
sounds as well as the synthesised sounds.
[0140] The user is preferably enabled to choose, via appropriate
input means, what sound effect is to be used to make the
synthesised sounds distinct; advantageously, the user can also
choose to apply or remove the selected sound effect.
[0141] In fact, another way of distinguishing between one group of
sounds and another (such as real and synthesised sounds) is by way
of specifying a particular stabilization for a sub-field(s)
containing one of the group of sound sources to be distinguished.
Thus, audio labels for augmented-reality services can be
distinguished from real world sounds by assigning the audio-label
sound sources to a head-stabilised field so that they move relative
to the real world as the user turns their head. As another example,
the audio labels of general services could be assigned to a
head-stabilised sub-field and the audio labels of augmented-reality
services to a world-stabilised sub-field. As a refinement to always
applying the same stabilization to a particular sub-field, the
block 26 can be arranged to apply a stabilization scheme in which
the sub-field is only updated periodically to a specified
underlying stabilization, no account being taken between updates of
any changes in orientation of the user's body or head (thereby
automatically applying the stabilization associated with the
presentation reference vector between updates).
[0142] Unit 85 is a range sound setter and is applicable only where
an audio sub-field has depth (that is, the range parameter can be
different for different sound sources of the sub-field). The range
sound setter, when enabled in respect of a sub-field, is operative,
for each sound-source in the sub-field, to set a sound source
parameter according to the range of the sound source. The purpose
of doing this is to impart an audible characteristic to the sound
source that indicates to the user at least a general range of the
sound source. This parameter could, for example, be the audibility
parameter with the value of this parameter being set such that
sound sources at a greater range are presented at a lower volume.
However, in a preferred embodiment, the value of the parameter
controlled by unit 85 is used to select which audio label to render
from a set of audio labels associated with a sound source, each
label having a different presentation character at least one aspect
of which, other than or additional to loudness, differs between
labels. This aspect is, for example, speaking style, vocabulary,
speaker voice, etc. The mere change in a range value included in an
announcement is not considered to be a change in the presentation
character of the announcement.
[0143] The user can readily learn to associate the differing
presentation characters with particular range bands. FIG. 16
illustrates an example concerning a sound source for an
augmented-reality notification service from the user's local
newspaper shop; this service sound source has three associated
audio labels, stored for it in memory 14, of increasing familiarity
the closer the sound source is to the user:
1 Range extent Audio label >Z2 "Excuse me Sir, would you like
your newspaper?" Z1-Z2 "Hello Mr Smith, your newspaper" 0-Z1 Hi,
John. Paper!"
[0144] The unit 85 sets a label-selection parameter for the sound
source according to its range and the relevant label is then used
by the spatialisation processor 10. Assuming that the newspaper
notification service has indicated the real-world location of the
newspaper shop to the apparatus, the processing block 22 can
continuously update the position of the notification-service sound
source in the audio field to reflect the movement of the user in
the vicinity of the shop. As a result, the notification audio label
will change as the user approaches the shop (or moves further
away). Preferably, of course, the notification-service sound source
is assigned to a world-stabilized sub-field with the position of
the service sound source being set to be in the same direction for
the user as the shop itself.
[0145] In a variant of the arrangement described above, rather than
the sound sources presenting audio labels for services that have
associated real-world locations, the sound sources can be arranged
to present audio labels for real world entities with real-world
locations, the range of the sound sources in the audio field being
typically, though not necessarily, set to represent the actual
distance between the user and the real-world location of the entity
concerned. Indeed, the concept of using announcements each of a
different character to indicate distance between the user and a
sound source can be applied whatever entity, real or virtual, is
being represented by the sound source; in this context the term
"virtual entity" means any non-real-world entity such as a service,
a data item, or application.
[0146] The concept of using announcements each of a different
character to indicate distance can be further applied to situations
beyond the current context of a spatialised audio field. For
example, user-carried equipment can simply be arranged to make a
succession of non-spatialised audio announcements, each with a
differing presentation character, as the user approaches a
particular real-world location or a device in relation to which
range measurements can be made in any suitable manner.
[0147] FIG. 17 shows a further example beyond the context of a
spatialised audio field. In this example, a fixed device 125 with
speech output capability is arranged to sense the approach of a
person 126. As the person 126 moves closer to the device 125 (the
user's movement track is represented by dashed line 127 in FIG.
17), the range of the user from the device crosses range trigger
values Z6, Z5 and Z4 (in decreasing range order) triggering a
respective audio announcement having a range-dependent character.
As with the FIG. 16 arrangement, the formality of each announcement
decreases with distance (this merely being illustrative of one way
in which range changes can be indicated to the person 126). The
sensing of the distance between person 126 and device 125 can be
done in any suitable manner such as by using fixed sensors,
round-trip time measurements for signals sent from the device and
returned by equipment carried by person 126 (with known internal
processing delay), by a local radio location system interacting
with equipment carried by person 126, etc.--in general terms, range
determination is done by range-determining equipment at one of the
entity, the user, and generally in the environment, either alone or
in cooperation with auxiliary range-determining equipment at
another of the entity, the user, and generally in the
environment.
[0148] If a data communication path exists between the device 125
and equipment carried by the user (for example, via a wireless LAN
or a Bluetooth link), then the announcements made by the device can
be pre-specified by person 126 and sent to the device 125 (together
with personal data such as the person's name). Such a communication
path can also be used to send a range measurement made by the
equipment to the device, thereby obviating the need for the latter
to make the range measurement. Alternatively, where announcements
are held by the person-carried equipment, range data can be passed
from the device 125 to the equipment to trigger playing of the
appropriate announcement by the latter.
[0149] Further variants involve announcement data being sent from
the device 125 to the equipment carried by person 126 for use by
that equipment. The sending of this announcement data can be
triggered by person 126 crossing a range trigger value as measured
by device 125 (the data sent being for the corresponding
announcement); alternatively the appropriate announcement can be
requested from the device 125 as the person-carried equipment
determines that it has crossed a range trigger value. In another
variant, data on all announcements can be sent from the device when
the person is first detected and in this case range-dependent
triggering of the playing of the announcements can be effected
based on range measurements made by either the device, the
person-carried equipment, or a system in the local environment.
[0150] Additionally or alternatively to the announcements being
made when triggered by a range trigger value being reached, the
announcements can be made at periodic intervals, the announcement
used being dependent on the current range between user and the
device 125.
[0151] In the foregoing examples related to FIG. 17, where the
device 125 announces its presence through announcements made by the
user-carried equipment, this latter can be understood as acting as
a proxy for the device 125 (regardless of whether the announcement
phrasing is in first-person device-related terms or in third person
terms). Rather than having user-carried equipment act a proxy for
device 125, equipment (typically fixed) in the local environment
but not specific to the device 125, can be arranged to act as an
announcement proxy for the device. In this latter case, the
announcement (stored in one of the local-environment equipment,
user-carried equipment, and the device 125, and retrieved to the
local-environment equipment as required) is preferably made either
without any specific directional character or such as to appear to
the user to be coming from the device 125 itself (which is more
complex to achieve as this approach needs to know the user's
location relative to the equipment and to adapt to changes in this
location as the user moves). As already indicated above, equipment
in the local environment can also be used to determine the range
between the user and device 125 in which case it can additionally
be used to determine the appropriate announcement and either
retrieve (and use) it itself or inform the device 125 or
user-carried equipment (which ever is to make the announcement)
which announcement to use.
[0152] As an alternative to storing multiple announcements each
with a different presentation character and selecting the
announcement appropriate for the current range value, a single
announcement can be stored to which a presentation character
appropriate to the current range is applied--for example, where the
announcement is stored as text data for conversion to speech via
text-to-speech converter, the voice data used by the text-to-speech
converter can be selected according to range so that the voice in
which the announcement is made changes with range.
Selecting a Sound Source in the Audio Field
[0153] A variety of different techniques can be used to select a
particular sound source from those present in an audio field
generated by the first or second apparatus described above. Three
specific selection techniques will now be described with reference
to FIG. 18 which shows further detail of the second apparatus
(though it is to be understood that the techniques are equally
applicable to the first apparatus); the general character of each
of the selection techniques to be described is as follows:
[0154] 1.)--rotation/displacement of the audio field to bring the
sound source to be selected to a particular selection direction
with respect to the user;
[0155] 2.)--moving an audio cursor to coincide with the sound
source to be selected;
[0156] 3.)--speech input with restricted recogniser search
space.
[0157] It will be appreciated that the apparatus need only be
provided with one selection technique although providing
alternative techniques adds to the versatility of the
apparatus.
[0158] With respect to the first technique, it is convenient to
define a selection direction as being the horizontal straight-ahead
facing direction of the user, though any other convenient direction
could be chosen such as the actual current facing direction or that
of the presentation reference vector. An indication of the chosen
selection direction is supplied on input 135 to block 26 (this
input 135, but not the block 26, is shown in FIG. 18). As already
described, the user can rotate/displace the audio field by inputs
to block 26 (on input 28 shown in FIG. 10), these inputs being
generated by input device 136 (FIG. 18).
[0159] This input device can take any suitable form, for example, a
manually-operable device or a voice-input device set to recognise
appropriate commands. For a 2D spherical field, the apparatus is
arranged to permit control of both the azimuth angle and elevation
angle of the audio-field reference vector relative to the
presentation reference vector; for a 2D cylindrical field, the
apparatus is set to permit control both of the azimuth angle of the
field and of its height (elevation). This permits any point (and
thus any sound source) in the field to be brought into line with
the predetermined selection direction by rotations/displacement
commanded by input device 136.
[0160] A selection-direction comparison unit 137 of the source
parameter set/modify block 70 is fed with an input 138 from block
26 indicating the angular offset between the selection direction
and the presentation reference direction (this offset is readily
determined by block 26 from the inputs it receives). Given this
information, unit 137 determines if any sound source in the audio
field lies in the selection direction (or within a defined angular
distance of it) and, if so, sets a selection parameter of that
sound source to `true`, resetting the parameter to `false` upon the
sound source ceasing to be in alignment with the selection
direction. The unit 137 operates on basis of the rendering position
of each sound source after any processing by other units of block
70 that may affect the rendering position of that sound source. The
unit 137 may also set a sounding effect parameter for the sound
source to give a distinctive sound for that source in order to
indicate to the user when a sound source lies in the selection
direction.
[0161] The input device 136 as well as enabling the user to
rotate/displace the audio field, also enables the user to indicate
that a sound source lying in the selection direction is to be
selected. This indication is generated, for example, using a
selection button or upon recognition of a command word such as
`select`, and results in a corresponding signal being fed on line
139 to a mode and source control block 128 of the output selection
block 12. On receiving this signal, block 128 accesses the memory
15 to determine which sound source, if any, currently has its
selection parameter set to `true`; provided such a source is
identified, the block 128 switches the apparatus from its desktop
mode to its service mode and instructs the spatialisation processor
10 on line 129 to output a full service feed for the identified
service sound source.
[0162] It may be noted that when the apparatus is in its desktop
mode, at any given moment some of the sound sources may be in a
fully muted state due to operation of units of the source parameter
set/modify block 70. Since it is unlikely that a user will
intentionally be trying to select such a muted source, when the
mode and source control block 128 accesses memory 15 to identify a
sound source lying in the selection direction, it is preferably
arranged to ignore any muted sound source, notwithstanding that the
source lies in the selection direction.
[0163] The fact that the FIG. 10 permits the presence of multiple
sub-fields has two consequences for the above-described selection
technique. Firstly, it will generally be desirable for the input
device 136 to be able to rotate/displace any desired one of the
sub-fields independently of the others; however, when the user
wishes to move a sound source to lie in the selection direction, it
is simplest to arrange for all sub-fields to be moved together by
device 136. Secondly, with multiple sub fields that are
independently movable, it is possible that multiple sound sources
can lie in the selection direction at the same time; in order to
cope with this, block 128 can operate any suitable prioritisation
scheme to choose between such sound sources or can present the
choice of sources to the user to allow the user to select the
desired one of the sources lying in the selection direction.
[0164] With regard to the selection direction comparator unit 137
setting a sounding effect parameter to give an audible indication
to the user when a sound source lies in the selection direction,
the operation of unit 137 can be refined also to adjust a sounding
effect parameter to indicate when a sound source is near the
selection direction, the adjustment to the sound effect being such
as to provide an indication of the direction in which the sound
source needs to be moved to come into alignment with the selection
direction.
[0165] The second selection technique to be described uses an audio
cursor. This cursor is a special sound source that is arranged to
be rotated/displaced by a cursor control input device 140 which,
like input device 136, can take any suitable form; indeed, devices
136 and 140 can be combined with a mode control for switching
between the respective functions of the two devices. For the FIG.
10 apparatus, one straight-forward way of implementing the audio
cursor is as a sound source aligned with the audio-field reference
vector of a dedicated sub-field; in this case, the output of the
cursor control input device is fed to block 26 to rotate/displace
that sub-field (from which it can be readily seen that the function
of input device 140 can easily be effected by input device 136).
Preferably, the audio-cursor sub-field is arranged not to move with
the other sub-fields and to be body stabilised. An alternative
audio cursor implementation is for the input device 140 to directly
set the position of the audio-cursor sound source relative to the
presentation reference vector, this being the implementation
depicted in FIG. 18 where a block 141 uses the output from device
140 to calculate the current cursor position. With either
implementation, the current rendering position of the cursor is fed
to the source parameter set/modify block 70 where it is stored in a
memory 144.
[0166] A cursor sound setter unit 145 of block 70 compares the
position of the cursor against the final rendering position of each
sound source (the unit 145, like the unit 137, is thus arranged to
operate using the rendering position of each sound source after any
processing by other units of block 70 that may affect the rendering
position of that sound source). If no sound source is close to the
cursor's current position, a cursor-sound parameter is set to a
corresponding value and is passed, along with the cursor ID and
rendering position, via the converter 66 to memory 15. The
spatialisation processor, in conjunction with sound effector 74,
then causes a distinctive cursor sound to be generated at the
appropriate position in the audio field, the nature of the sound
being such as to indicate to the user that the cursor is not close
to another sound source. The sounding effector 74 is preferably
arranged to provide the cursor sound without the need to refer to
the subsystem 13, this variation from the treatment of the cursor
as the other sound sources being justified by the special status of
the cursor sound source.
[0167] Upon the unit 145 determining that the cursor is close to a
sound source (that is, within a threshold distance which is
preferably settable by the user), it sets the cursor-sound
parameter for the cursor to indicate this for example by setting it
to a value that is dependent on the direction of the source
relative to the cursor. The sounding effector 74 then causes the
cursor sound to be correspondingly adapted to indicate this
relative direction to the user, for example:
2 Relative Positions Cursor Sound Sound Source above cursor
Alternating high-frequency dots and dashes Sound Source below
cursor Alternating low-frequency dots and dashes Sound Source to
left of cursor Middle-frequency dots Sound Source to right of
cursor Middle-frequency dashes
[0168] As an alternative, appropriate words could be used (`above`,
`below`, `left`, `right`) repeated at a low volume level.
[0169] The distance between a sound source and the cursor can also
be indicated audibly such that it is possible to tell whether the
cursor is getting closer to, or further from, the sound source.
Thus, in the case of the above example using dots and dashes, the
repetition rate of the dots and dashes can be increased as the
cursor moves closer to a sound source and decrease as the cursor
moves away; alternatively, the separation distance can be indicated
by appropriate words.
[0170] Thus, in general terms, the cursor sounds are modified to
provide an audible indication of when the cursor is close to a
sound source with this indication being preferably set to indicate
the distance and/or direction of the sound source.
[0171] When the cursor coincides with a sound source (at least in
terms of their direction from a user reference location), the unit
145 sets the cursor-sound parameter to a further value which the
sounding effector 74 translates to another unique sound such as
rapid beeping. Unit 145 also sets to `true` a selection parameter
of the sound source to indicate its coincidence with the cursor. If
the user now indicates, using input device 140, that the sound
source is to be selected, a corresponding signal is sent on line
142 to the mode and source control block 128. As with the first
selection technique, this causes block 128 to access memory 15 to
determine which sound source has its selection parameter set to
`true` before switching the apparatus to its service mode in which
a full service feed of the selected service sound source is
enabled.
[0172] The block 128 can be arranged to handle muted sources and
multiple sources at the cursor position in the same way as it
handled the corresponding situations for the first selection
technique.
[0173] The unit 145 can be arranged not only to set the selection
parameter of the sound source pointed to by the cursor, but also to
set the value of a sounding effect parameter of any sound source
determined by unit to be close to, or in line with, the audio
cursor so that the sounds emanating from that sound source are
adapted by the sounding effector 74 (including, potentially by the
adding in of extra sounds or words) to indicate the closeness (and,
optionally, distance to) the audio cursor; thus, for example, the
volume or pitch of the sound source, or the degree of application
of a vibrato or echo effect to the sound source, could be increased
as the cursor approached the sound source (and decreased as their
separation increased). The relative direction of the cursor from
the sound source (or the reverse direction) can also be indicated
by sounds or words output from the sound source. Thus, in general
terms, the sounds emanating from the sound source are modified to
also provide an audible indication of when the cursor is close to
the sound source with this indication being preferably set to
indicate the distance and/or direction of the sound source.
[0174] The foregoing modification of sounds emanating from a sound
source near the cursor can be done as an alternative to, or
additionally to, setting the cursor-sound parameter to indicate
sound-source closeness distance/direction.; in other words, the
audible indication produced when the cursor is close to a sound
source can be provided via the cursor and/or the sound source. As
an example of providing a respective component of this audible
indication from the sound source and the cursor, the sounds
emanating from the sound source can be modified to indicate the
proximity of the cursor and their separation distance, whilst the
cursor sound source can be used to indicate the direction of the
sound source; with this arrangement, where there are several sound
sources within the closeness threshold of the cursor, the sound
sources indicate this closeness by the sounds they emit whilst the
cursor indicates the direction to the closest sound source.
[0175] The audible indication can be treated as composed of
multiples elements each with a particular significance. For
example, the audible indication can comprise a first, non-varying,
element indicative of the general proximity of the cursor to an
item-representing sound source, and a second, continuously
variable, element indicating the separation distance between the
cursor and the sound source. These elements can emanate from the
cursor or the sound source concerned or divided between the
two.
[0176] Where the audio sub-fields are of 3D form, it is possible to
arrange for the audio cursor to be moved in the third (range)
dimension. This can most conveniently done where, as shown in FIG.
18, the cursor-control input device 140 is used to directly set the
cursor position relative to the presentation reference vector; in
this case, the input device is simply further arranged to set the
range of the audio cursor and this range value is stored in memory
144. In order to provide the user with an indication of the range
of the audio cursor, the cursor sound setter unit 145 is preferably
arranged to set the value of a sounding effect parameter of the
cursor according to the current range of the cursor (regardless of
the proximity of any sound source), the sounding effector 74 then
producing a correspondingly modified sound for the cursor. For
example, where the sounding effector produces a tone to represent
the cursor, the volume of the tone can be adjusted, via an
audibility parameter, to reflect the current range position of the
cursor (the greater the range, the quieter the cursor sounds).
Alternatively, the frequency of the cursor tone can be varied with
the current range of the cursor.
[0177] It may be noted that the focus expander 80 can conveniently
be linked to the audio cursor to expand the region of the audio
field about the cursor rather than about the current direction of
facing of the user as was earlier described. In this case, the unit
80 is supplied with the current cursor position from memory 144
rather than with the current facing direction of the user.
[0178] The third selection technique is based on the use of a
speech recogniser 150 to determine when the user is speaking the
sound label of a sound source, the speaking of such a label being
taken to be an indication that the user wishes to select the
source.
[0179] Speech recogniser 150 has speech input 151 and associated
vocabularies that define the words between which the recogniser is
to distinguish. In the present case, the vocabularies associated
with the speech recogniser include a command vocabulary (stored in
memory 152) holding command words such as "desktop" (to return to
the desktop mode); "louder" and "softer" (to generally increase and
decrease volume levels); "rotate left", "rotate right", "up",
"down" (where sub-field rotation is to be effected by spoken
command), numbers 1 to 10 (to identify sub-fields), etc. The audio
labels held in memory 14 also define a vocabulary for the
recogniser, the phonetic contents of the label words being made
available to the recogniser through an appropriate reference
database (not shown). In the event that a sound source has its
associated label constituted by an audio feed from the source or by
non-word sounds, then the label memory is preferably arranged to
store appropriate words that the user might use to select the
source, these words being advantageously supplied by the related
service when first selected by subsystem 13.
[0180] In order to facilitate the operation of the speech
recogniser 150, various measures can be taken to the reduce the
search space of the recogniser (that is, the range of words with
which it tries to match a spoken word received via input 151). In
the present case, three different restrictions are applied to the
search space though it is to be understood that these restrictions
can equally be applied in isolation of each other. These
restrictions are:
[0181] (i) A restriction to sound sources positioned within a range
gate determined by the loudness of the spoken input (this
restriction is only relevant where the audio sub-field(s) have
depth--that is, a spread of range values). Assuming that the user
knows the general range of the sound source the user wishes to
select, then the user can speak the audio label of the source at a
loudness volume reflecting the range of the source. Typically, the
user will speak the label of a nearby source louder than that of a
more distant one--the underlying model here is that the user is
reflecting the fact that nearby sound sources are generally louder
a the user than far away ones. However, it would also be possible
to use the opposite scheme where the user speaks louder for further
way sources--here the underlying model is that the user needs to
speak louder in order for the remote source to `hear`. The loudness
of the speech input is measured by block 154 and converted to a
range gate. FIG. 19 shows an example relationship between loudness
and range that can be used by block 154; in this case, for a
received loudness of L1, a range gate G is determined corresponding
to equal increments .DELTA.L either side of L1. The derived range
gate G is passed to a restrictions application block 155 that
accesses memory 15 to determine which sound sources lie within this
range gate. The recogniser search space is then restricted to the
labels (or other identification words) associated with the sound
sources within the range gate. To help the user speak a label at
the correct loudness, it is possible to provide a calibration mode
of operation (selected in any suitable manner) in which when a user
speaks a word, that word (or another sound) is rendered in the
audio field at a range corresponding to that assessed by the
loudness-to-range classifier 154; the implementation of this
feature is straight-forward and will not be described in further
detail
[0182] (ii) A restriction to sound sources that are currently
audible. This restriction is implemented by block 155 which
accesses memory to determine whether the current value of the
audibility parameter of each sound source is such as to permit it
to be heard. The recogniser search space is then restricted to the
labels (or other identification words) of the currently audible
sound sources. It is also possible to arrange for sound sources
having reduced audibility (that is, sources muted to at least
predetermined degree) to be discarded.
[0183] (iii) A restriction to sound sources that lie in the general
facing direction of the user. To implement this restriction, the
restriction application block 155 is supplied on input 156 with the
current facing direction of the user, this direction being supplied
by block 26 and specifying the current facing direction relative to
the presentation reference vector. Block 155 then searches memory
for sound sources lying within a predetermined angular extent of
the facing direction (it should be noted that the facing direction
supplied to block 155 should first be converted to the same
coordinate scheme as applied by converter 66 to the sound source
rendering positions). After determining which sound sources lie in
the general direction of facing of the user, the block causes the
recogniser to restrict its search space to the labels (or other
identification words) associated with these sound sources.
[0184] Whilst the foregoing assumes that words will be used to
identify sound sources, it is also possible to alternatively and/or
additionally use specific sounds (such as whistling, clicking,
grunts, laughter, humming, etc.) which the recogniser 150 would be
set to recognise.
[0185] It will be appreciated that although user speech input has
been described above in relation to selecting a particular service
via its audio label, it is also possible to use speech input to
address the service in the service mode of the apparatus (and,
indeed, it is also possible to arrange for a service to be
addressed and provided with input whilst the apparatus is still in
its desktop mode--in this case, addressing a service by speaking
its audio label is not assumed to be an indication that full
service feed of that service is required, this requiring an
additional pre- or post input such as speaking the word
"select").
[0186] It may also be noted that restricting the speech recogniser
search space by excluding the labels associated with services lying
outside a range gate indicated by the loudness of the user input,
can be used not only with user interfaces where the services are
represented through sound sources in an audio field, but also
generally with any user interface where items are represented to a
user with a perceivable range value and the items have respective
associated labels by which they can be addressed. For example,
items can be presented on a visual display with the range value of
each item being perceivable either by perspective in the visible
image or from an associated text label.
[0187] It will be appreciated that other techniques additional to
those described above can be used for selecting a particular sound
source in the spatialized audio field. For example, a point-by-hand
interface can be employed in which the user's pointing gestures are
detected (for example by sensing changes in an electric field or by
interpreting a stereo image) and used to determine which
spatialized sound source is being indicated.
Manually-Operated Input Devices
[0188] FIGS. 20 to 24 show various forms of manually-operated input
device that can be used for input device 136 or 140 of FIG. 18.
[0189] FIG. 20 illustrates an input device 160 similar in form to
known trackball devices and comprising trackball 161 the rotation
of which is measured by sensors (not shown) about two orthogonal
axes. The input device 160 is particularly suited for controlling
field rotation and audio cursor movement in the case of a spherical
audio field, although it can also be used with other forms of audio
field.
[0190] Conventional trackball devices measure trackball rotation
about two axes lying in a horizontal plane (assuming the mounting
plane for the trackball to be horizontal). This initially appears
inappropriate for a device intended to control rotation of a
spherical audio field in azimuth and elevation, rotation in azimuth
being about a vertical axis and therefore not directly capable of
imitation by a conventional trackball device. Accordingly, it is
envisaged that embodiments of device 140 provide for measuring
rotation about vertical axis 164 as well as about a horizontal axis
such as axis 162.
[0191] However, it has been found that having the trackball 161
rotatable about the same axes as a spherical audio field it is
intended to control has certain drawbacks. In particular, rotating
the trackball about a vertical axis is not a very natural action
for the user. Furthermore, where, as in embodiments to be described
below, rotations of the trackball are arranged to produce rotations
of the same angular extent of the audio field so that the surface
of the trackball can be marked with indications of the current
orientation of the audio field, having the straight-ahead position
lying at the mid-height of the trackball and, as a result, not
clearly visible to the user, is not helpful in translating the
indications carried by the trackball into information relevant to
using the audio field. As a consequence, it is an acceptable
compromise to measure the rotation of the trackball about its two
horizontal axes 162 and 163 with rotation about the axis 163 being
taken as indicating the required azimuth rotation (rotation in
elevation being indicated by rotation about axis 162).
[0192] By the use of appropriate rotation sensing arrangements, it
is possible to sense the current orientation of the trackball 61
and then orientate the audio field to the same orientation; one
suitable sensing arrangement involves providing a pattern of
markings (not necessarily human visible) on the surface of the
trackball such that reading any small area of the pattern opposite
a small sensing camera (or other appropriate sensor depending on
the nature of the markings) is sufficient to uniquely determine the
orientation of the trackball. This permits the trackball to be
marked in a human visible manner to indicate to the user the
current orientation of the trackball and thus the commanded
rotation of the audio field--where no stabilisation offset is
applied by block 26, this orientation directly corresponds to that
of the audio field relative to the presentation reference vector
(this would be the case, for example, where headphones are being
used and the audio field is head-stabilised). By way of example,
the eight quadrants of the trackball can each be given a respective
color with the aforesaid sensing pattern being marked out using
infrared or magnetic inks; FIG. 20 depicts the application of
different markings (such as colors) to different quadrants with
three such quadrants 166, 167, and 168 being visible.
[0193] Directly marking the outside of the trackball to indicate
orientation has a disadvantage in that if the trackball 161 is
allowed to be rotatable about all three axes 162-164, then
rotations about all axes must be measured and corresponding
rotations effected to the audio field--if this is not done, the
markings on the trackball will quickly cease to correspond to the
orientation of the audio field. Whilst it is possible to engineer
restrictions on the rotation of the trackball so that it can only
rotate about the two desired axes, an alternative and preferred
approach is to provide a visual orientation indicator arrangement
that uses the sensed rotation of the trackball to determine the
orientation to be indicated by the arrangement. Such an arrangement
avoids the need to match the orientation of the trackball with that
of the audio sphere and it is possible to use a conventional
two-axis rotation sensing arrangement that simply measures angular
changes (rather than absolute orientations) potentially with
slippage.
[0194] One suitable form of fixed visual orientation indicator
arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 21 that shows a trackball-based
input device 170 similar to that of FIG. 20 but without quadrant
markings on the surface of its trackball 171; instead, a row of
indicator lights 173 (typically LEDs) is provided. Each LED 173
represents a respective quadrant of the audio field, the quadrant
concerned being depicted, for example, by a graphic adjacent the
LED.
[0195] The activation of the LEDs is controlled to indicate the
current commanded orientation of the audio field as known to block
26 of the FIG. 10 apparatus. Thus, as a commanded rotation of the
audio field brings the presentation reference vector within a
quadrant of the audio field (assuming, for the moment, no
stabilisation rotation of the audio field), the block causes the
LED 173 corresponding to that quadrant to be activated, all other
LEDs being deactivated.
[0196] Rather than arranging the LEDs 173 in a row, different
colored LEDs (or other light emitting devices) could be grouped
together inside the trackball itself, the latter being translucent
or transparent so the user can see the color of the currently
activated LED and therefore gain an indication of the current
orientation of the audio sphere. This latter configuration requires
an appropriate arrangement for powering the LEDs inside the
trackball and this can be achieved either by an arrangement of
sliding contacts or by flexible wiring runs and physical limiters
on the movement of the trackball to prevent excessive twisting of
the wiring. In a further alternative embodiment of the indicator
arrangement, the trackball surface is covered with a layer the
visual properties of which can be altered by control signals; in
this manner the visual appearance of the trackball provides the
desired orientation indication.
[0197] Rather than the visual orientation indicator arrangement
indicating the orientation of the audio field relative to the
presentation reference vector without regard to any stabilisation
rotation of the audio field (that is, only indicating the commanded
rotation), it is preferable to arrange for the indicator
arrangement to indicate the audio-field orientation relative to a
selected "indicator reference" direction (for example, the
presentation reference vector, the current facing direction of the
user, the forward-facing direction of the user, a world-fixed
direction such as North, or a vehicle straight-ahead direction for
in-vehicle audio systems) with account being taken, where required,
of any rotation of the audio field effected to give it a specified
stabilisation. The required output indication from the indicator
arrangement is determined, for example, by block 26 and may require
information (rotation of the user's head relative to their body,
rotation of the user's head relative to the world or to a vehicle,
rotation of the user's body relative to the world or to a vehicle)
not available from any sensors currently being used for achieving a
specified audio-field stabilisation sensors--in such cases, the
appropriate sensors will need to be provided to supply the required
information to the block 26.
[0198] Basically, in order for the block 26 (or other processing
means) to appropriately control the visual orientation indicator
arrangement, it needs to know about any changes in the offset
between the audio field reference and the presentation reference
vector (either user commanded or required to achieve a particular
stabilisation), as well as any changes in the orientation of the
indicator reference direction relative to the presentation
reference (caused, for example, by rotation of the user's head or
body). In certain cases, at least components of the changes in the
offset between the audio field reference and the presentation
reference vector required to achieve a particular stabilisation in
the presence of rotation of the user's head/body, will match the
changes in orientation of the indicator reference relative to the
presentation reference resulting from the rotation of the user's
head/body. In such cases, it is only necessary to take account of
the unmatched components (notably, but not in all cases
exclusively, the user-commanded component) of the offset between
the audio field reference and the presentation reference. In
implementing block 26 (or other processing means) for determining
the orientation between the audio-field reference and the indicator
reference direction, it is not, of course, necessary first to
determine the offset between the audio field reference and the
presentation reference vector and the orientation of the indicator
reference relative to the presentation reference, before going on
to determine the orientation between the audio-field reference and
the indicator reference direction; instead the various measured
components can be directly combined to determine the orientation
between the audio-field reference and the indicator reference
direction (with components that match each other out preferably not
being processed). This is depicted in FIG. 22 where block 26 is
shown as having a processing sub-block 177 for determining the
offset between the audio-field reference and the presentation
reference, and a processing sub-block 178 for determining the
orientation between the audio-field reference and the indicator
reference direction, each sub-block working directly from measured
components (for example: commanded rotation, rotation of user's
head relative to user's body, and rotation of user's body relative
to the world--from which rotation of the user's head relative to
the world can be derived; it will be appreciated that this latter
could be measured, in which case one of the other measured
components--not commanded input--is no longer needed). Sub-block
178 controls a visual orientation indicator arrangement 179.
[0199] The table below indicates for audio output devices in the
form of headphones (inherently head-stabilised), the component
quantities needed to be known, for each of three different
stabilisations, in order to determine the orientation of the audio
field relative to each of three different indicator reference
directions.
3 Orientation of Audio-Field Stabilisation Indicator Reference
w.r.t. Indicator Reference Head Stabilised Current facing direction
Commaned rotation (inherent) (presentation reference) Forward
facing direction Commanded rotation + head rotation (wrt
body).sup.1 World direction Commanded rotation + Head rotation (wrt
world).sup.1 Body Stabilised Current facing Direction Commanded
rotation - (presentation reference) head rotation (wrt body)
Forward facing direction Commanded rotation World direction
Commanded rotation + Body rotation (wrt world).sup.1 World
Stabilised Current facing direction Commanded rotation -
(presentation reference) Head rotation (wrt world) Forward facing
direction Commanded rotation - Body rotation (wrt world).sup.1,2
World direction Commanded rotation .sup.1Requires sensing
additional to that needed for stabilisation .sup.2In this case, any
component of the offset between the audio-field reference and the
presentation reference that is due to rotation of the user's head
relative to the user's body is matched by a change in orientation
of the indicator reference direction relative to the presentation
reference, thereby leaving the offset components of the
user-commanded rotation and rotation of the user's body relative to
the world.
[0200] In one preferred embodiment, the audio field is
body-stabilised and the indicator reference direction is the
forward-facing direction of the user.
[0201] Similar tables can readily be produced for body-mounted,
vehicle-mounted, and world-mounted audio output devices. Also, the
tables can be extended to include vehicle-stabilised audio fields
and an indicator reference direction of a vehicle straight-ahead
direction.
[0202] It will be appreciated that embodiments of the visual
orientation indicator arrangement that indicate the current
orientation of the audio field relative to a specified indicator
reference direction as described above, facilitate an appreciation
by the user what part of the audio field they are currently looking
at and enables them to more rapidly find a desired service sound
source. It will also be appreciated that the visual orientation
indicator arrangement may change the indicated audio-field
orientation without any operation of the trackball if the
orientation of the user changes and results in audio-field rotation
relative to the indicator reference direction as a consequence of
the current audio field stabilisation.
[0203] The LEDs 173 can also be used to indicate when a new service
sound source appears within a quadrant and/or when a service sound
source in a quadrant has a new notification. In either case, the
LED for the quadrant in which the service sound source lies can be
arranged to flash at least for a limited period. If the LED
concerned is already activated because it encompasses the selected
direction controlling LED activation, then the LED can still be
flashed to provide the required indication. It is, of course,
possible to provide a separate set of LEDs (or other visual
indicators) solely for the purpose of indicating a new source or
new notification in which case the required indication can simply
be activation of the relevant LED. A set of LEDs can be provided
for this purpose in device 160 of FIG. 20.
[0204] Another suitable form of fixed visual orientation indicator
arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 23 that shows a trackball-based
input device 180 in which a small display panel 185 is mounted to
show a depiction of that part of the audio field lying either side
of the indicator reference direction. This depiction preferably
gives both an indication of the portion of the audio field
concerned (for example, in terms of field coordinate ranges, or a
quadrant name), and an indication of the sound sources in this
portion of the audio field.
[0205] The orientation of the audio field can be indicated by other
types of diagram or image displayed on display panel 185.
[0206] The FIG. 23 input device also includes, as well as a
trackball 181, a set of LEDS for indicating, in the manner
described above with reference to FIG. 21, when a new sound source
or new notification is available.
[0207] FIG. 24 shows a form of input device 190 specifically
adapted for use with cylindrical audio fields though also usable
with other fields. The input device 190 comprises a cylinder 191
that can be moved by hand back and forth along a shaft 192 coaxial
with cylinder 191 (see dashed arrow 193) as well as rotated (see
dashed arrow 194) about the shaft. Both the position of the
cylinder 191 along the shaft 192 and the angular position of the
cylinder 191 about the shaft are measured by suitable sensor
arrangements (for example, electro-optical sensors) and are
respectively used to set the height and azimuth angle of the
cylindrical field being controlled. The cylinder 191 carries an
index marking 195 that cooperates with a fixed scale 196 to
indicate the current height of the audio field. Further markings
(not shown) on the cylinder can be used to indicate the current
azimuth setting of the audio field. A set of LEDs 198 (or other
light output devices) can be used to indicate the presence of a new
sound source or of a new notification, the LED 198 activated being
dependent on the height of the sound source concerned (the scale
196, or other markings, can be used to indicate the height
significance of each LED).
[0208] With the form of the input device 190 shown in FIG. 24,
because the azimuth orientation of the audio field is indicated by
markings carried by the cylinder 191, only the offset between the
audio-field reference and presentation reference can be indicated
and this without any account being taken of rotation of the audio
field to achieve a particular field stabilisation. To overcome
these limitations, the input device 190 can be provided with any of
the above-described forms of visual orientation indicator
arrangements controlled by block 26 to give the field orientation
relative to a given indicator reference direction.
[0209] It will be appreciated that the above-described forms of
visual orientation indicator arrangements controlled by block 26
(or other processing means) to give the field orientation relative
to a given indicator reference direction, can be implemented
separately from the input devices themselves. Furthermore, the
visual orientation indicator arrangements can still be employed
where the user is not provided with means to change the offset
between the audio field reference and the presentation reference
(though, of course, there is little point in doing this in the
above-mentioned cases where the user-commanded input was the only
variable component of the orientation of the audio field reference
relative to the indicator reference). Finally, it may be noted that
the orientation of the audio-field reference relative to the
indicator reference may have one, two or more degrees of freedom
and the visual orientation indicator arrangement is therefore
preferably correspondingly adapted to be able to indicate all
degrees of orientation changes. By way of example, where a
head-stabilised audio field is presented through headphones and the
indicator reference direction is the current facing direction, then
if only azimuth changes are involved for user-commanded rotations,
for audio-field stabilisation and in determining the current
orientation of the indicator reference relative to the audio field,
then the orientation of the audio field relative to the indicator
reference has only a single degree of freedom; however, if, for
example, the user-commanded inputs can also change the elevation
between the audio field reference and the presentation reference,
then the orientation of the audio field relative to the indicator
reference will have two degrees of freedom. The visual orientation
indicator arrangement can, however, be restricted to indicate less
than all of the degrees of freedom associated with the orientation
of the audio field relative to the indicator reference.
[0210] Each of the input devices 160, 170, 180 and 190 also
includes a selection button, respectively 165, 172, 182, and 197
for enabling the user to indicate that they wish to select a
particular service either lying in the selection direction or
overlaid with the audio cursor. Where sub field
rotation/displacement (including rotation/displacement of a cursor
sub-field) is to be controlled by any of the devices, then that
device is preferably also provided with means for selecting which
sub field is to be controlled; these means can take any suitable
form such as selection buttons, a rotary selector switch, a touch
screen selection display, etc. Similarly, selection means can be
provided to switch between audio (sub-)field control and cursor
control where the cursor, instead of being associated with a
sub-field, has its rendering position directly controlled by the
input device. Further selection means can be provided to enable a
user to select a particular indicator reference direction from a
set of such directions which block 26 is set up to handle.
[0211] The input devices described above are suitable for use with
2D audio fields. The devices are also suitable for 3D audio fields
where the field/audio cursor is not required to be moved in the
third (range) dimension. Where exploration in the third dimension
is required (such as when an audio cursor is to be moved back and
forth in the Z or range dimension), each device can be provided
with a range slider generating an output signal in dependence on
the position of a slider along a track.
Variants
[0212] It will be appreciated that many variants are possible to
the above described embodiments of the invention. For example, in
relation to the cylindrical audio field forms described above,
whilst these have been described with the axis of the cylindrical
field in a vertical orientation, other orientations of this axis
are possible such as horizontal. Also with respect to the
cylindrical field form embodiments, it is possible to implement
such embodiments without the use of leakage into the focus zone
and, indeed, in appropriate circumstances, even without the use of
a focus zone.
[0213] As regards the audio labels used to announce each service
sound source in the desktop mode of the described apparatus, these
labels can include a component that is dynamically determined to
indicate the actual or relative position of the corresponding sound
sources in the audio field. Thus, if an email service is provided
on the second floor of an audio field organised as depicted in FIG.
8, then the audio label could be "email on second" or "email down
one" (where the user is currently located on the third floor). As
another example, the audio label of a service sound source can
include the word "left" or "right" to indicate whether the service
is to the left or right of the user. Thus, a service sound source
may indicate its location as "upper left" when situated to the left
and above the reference direction being used. In one implementation
of this feature, a dynamic label processor continually checks the
position of each sound source (either its absolute position in the
audio field or its position relative to a selected reference such
as the user's current facing direction, or straight-ahead facing
direction, or the presentation reference) and updates the audio
label of the sound source accordingly in memory 14. In an
alternative implementation, the sounding effector 74 (see FIG. 10)
is arranged to add an appropriate location key word(s) to each
label according to the value of a location parameter that is set
for each sound source by a location-label setter of the source
parameter set/modify block 70. This location-label unit functions
by examining the position of each sound source at frequent
intervals and determining the appropriate location keyword(s) to
add to its audio label depending on the absolute or relative
position of the sound source (again, relative position can be
judged in relation to any appropriate reference such as user
current facing direction, straight-ahead facing direction, or
presentation reference). As regards the details of determining the
location of a sound source relative to the selected reference, this
is similar to the above-described determination of the orientation
of the audio-field reference relative to the indicator reference
for controlling a visual orientation display arrangement; however,
a further, possibly variable, component,is now involved, namely the
location of the sound source relative to the audio-field reference.
Whilst the location of a sound source relative to the selected
reference may have two or more degrees of freedom, in some
embodiments it maybe appropriate to restrict determination of this
relative location to only one of the degrees of freedom, the audio
indication of this relative location being similarly limited.
[0214] The possibility of having multiple sound sources associated
with a service has been generally described above. One example
where this can be useful is in relation to a service such as
electronic mail or voice mail where it is desired to be able to
directly select either the mail inbox or outbox (or message
generation function).; in this case, each of these service elements
is represented by a corresponding sound source in the desktop audio
field.
[0215] Another example of the use of multiple sound sources
associated with the same service was given above in relation to the
ghost advisory service used to provide upper and lower summary
sound sources 60, 61 (see FIG. 8 and related description). The
advisory service is a ghost service in the sense that its only
manifestation is through the audio labels associated with its sound
sources--there is no underlying service component that can be
activated by selection of the sound sources.
[0216] A further example of a ghost service with multiple sound
sources is the use of a sub-field to provide an audio compass
available to the user independently of whatever other audio
sub-fields are being provided. The compass sub-field takes the form
of a world-stabilised sub-field with one or more sound sources at
key compass points (such as north, south, east and west, and the
user's current facing direction). An electronic compass can be used
to provide the necessary input to block 26 to rotate the audio
sub-field such that the spatialized north sound source always lay
in the north direction relative to the user (the other key compass
point sound sources, being then automatically correctly aligned as
a result of their positioning in the audio field relative to the
north sound source). The compass-point sound sources can be set to
announce continually or, where speech command input is provided,
only when a command (such as "Compass") is spoken. Similarly, the
user's current facing direction can be arranged to be announced
upon the user issuing a command such as "Direction". Whilst the
accuracy of perception by the user of the key compass points
announced through the spatialized sound sources will only be very
approximate, the announcement of the current facing direction can
give the user much more precise direction information since it
announces a measured direction rather than relying on spatial audio
awareness to convey the direction information.
[0217] Of course, the audio compass can also be implemented where
only a single, world-stabilised audio field is produced by the
apparatus. Furthermore, additional useful functionality can be
achieved by linking the apparatus with an electronic map system
that has an associated absolute position determining system such as
a GPS system. In this case, the user can specify a map location
(for example, by pointing to it where the electronic map system has
an appropriate display subsystem for detecting which map location
is being pointed to) and a sound source is then automatically
generated in the audio field in alignment with the direction of the
map location indicated. This sound source can output an audio label
giving information about what is at the map location and also give
instructions as to whether the user needs to turn their head left
or right to look directly in the direction of the map location.
Another possible function would be to tell the user what is ahead
in their current facing direction or current direction of
travel.
[0218] It will be appreciated that most of the functionality of the
functional blocks of the various forms of apparatus described
above, will typically be implemented in software for controlling
one or more general-purpose or specialised processors according to
modem programming techniques. Furthermore, whilst a number of
separate memories have been illustrated the described embodiments,
it will be appreciated that this is done to facilitate a clear
description of the operation of the apparatus; memory organisations
and data structures different to those described above are, of
course, possible.
[0219] It should also be understood that the term "services" as
used above has been used very broadly to cover any resource item
that it may be useful to indicate to the user in much the same way
as a PC visual desktop can be used to represent by visible icons a
wide variety of differing resource items including local software
applications and individual documents as well as remote services.
However, as illustrated by the above-described ghost services, the
described forms of apparatus can also be used to present items that
are not simply place-holders for underlying services but provide
useful information in their own right.
* * * * *