Patent ID: 8660271
Filing Date: 2014-02-25
Classification: H04R,H04S

Abstract:
1. A method for virtually widening stereo audio signals played over a pair of loudspeakers, the method comprising: receiving stereo audio signals, the stereo audio signals comprising a left audio signal and a right audio signal; supplying the left audio signal to a left channel and the right audio signal to a right channel; employing acoustic dipole principles to mitigate effects of crosstalk between a pair of loudspeakers and opposite ears of a listener, without employing any computationally-intensive head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) in an attempt to completely cancel the crosstalk, said employing comprising, by one or more processors: applying a single first inverse HRTF to the first acoustic dipole to produce a left filtered signal, the first inverse HRTF being applied in a first direct path of the left channel rather than a first crosstalk path from the left channel to the right channel; applying a single second inverse HRTF function to the second acoustic dipole to produce a right filtered signal, the second inverse HRTF being applied in a second direct path of the right channel rather than a second crosstalk path from the right channel to the left channel, wherein the first and second inverse HRTFs provide an interaural intensity difference (IID) between the left and right filtered signals; enhancing the left and right filtered signals using a processor, said enhancing comprising: supplying the second left and right filtered signals for playback on the pair of loudspeakers to thereby provide a stereo image configured to be perceived by the listener to be wider than an actual distance between the left and right loudspeakers.