Apparatus and method for microphone positioning based on a spatial power density

An apparatus for microphone positioning includes a spatial power distribution determiner and a spatial information estimator. The spatial power distribution determiner is adapted to determine a spatial power density indicating power values for a plurality of locations of an environment based on sound source information indicating one or more power values and one or more position values of one or more sound sources located in the environment. The spatial information estimator is adapted to estimate acoustic spatial information based on the spatial power density.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from European Patent Application No. EP11191828.0, which was filed on Dec. 2, 2011 and is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

The present invention relates to audio signal processing and, in particular, an apparatus and a method for automatic microphone positioning.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Audio signal processing becomes more and more important. In particular, spatial sound recording is employed in a plurality of applications. Spatial sound recording aims at capturing a sound field with the help of multiple microphones such that at the reproduction side, a listener perceives the sound image as it was at the recording location.

Standard approaches for spatial sound recording usually involve spaced, omnidirectional microphones (e.g., AB stereophony) coincident directional microphones (e.g., in intensity stereophony), or more sophisticated microphones, such as a B-format microphone, e.g., in Ambisonics, see, for example,

A spatial microphone, for example directional microphones, microphone arrays, etc, is capable of recording spatial sound. The term “spatial microphone” refers to any apparatus for the directionally selective acquisition of spatial sound (e.g. directional microphones, microphone arrays, etc.).

For sound reproduction, existing non-parametric approaches derive desired audio playback signals directly from recorded microphone signals. A major disadvantage of these approaches is, that the spatial image recorded is relative to the spatial microphone used.

In many applications, it is not possible or feasible to place a spatial microphone in the desired position, which, for example, may be a position close to the one or more sound sources. In this case, it would be more beneficial to place multiple spatial microphones further away from the active sound sources and still be able to capture the sound scene as desired.

Some applications employ two or more real spatial microphones. It should be noted, that the term “real spatial microphone” refers to the desired microphone type or microphone combination (e.g. a directional microphone, a pair of directional microphones as used in common stereo microphones, but also a microphone array), which physically exists.

For each real spatial microphone, the Direction Of Arrival (DOA) can be estimated in the time-frequency domain. Using the information gathered by the real spatial microphones, together with the knowledge of their relative position, it may be possible to compute the output signals of a spatial microphone virtually placed at an arbitrary position (at will) in the environment. This spatial microphone is referred to as “virtual spatial microphone” in the following.

In such applications, the position and orientation of the one or more virtual microphones needs to be input manually. However, it would be appreciated if an optimal position and/or orientation of the one or more virtual microphones would be determined automatically.

It would be advantageous, if an apparatus and method would be available to determine, where to place a virtual microphone, where to place a physical microphone or to determine an optimal listening position. Moreover, it would be advantageous, how to place a microphone in an optimal orientation. The terms “microphone positioning” and “positioning information” relate to how to determine an suitable position of a microphone or a listener as well as how to determine an suitable orientation of a microphone or a listener.

SUMMARY

According to an embodiment, an apparatus for microphone positioning may have: a spatial power distribution determiner for determining a spatial power density indicating power values for a plurality of locations of an environment based on sound source information indicating one or more power values and one or more position values of one or more sound sources located in the environment, and a spatial information estimator for estimating acoustic spatial information based on the spatial power density.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus for generating a virtual output signal may have: an apparatus for microphone positioning having: a spatial power distribution determiner for determining a spatial power density indicating power values for a plurality of locations of an environment based on sound source information indicating one or more power values and one or more position values of one or more sound sources located in the environment, and a spatial information estimator for estimating acoustic spatial information based on the spatial power density, wherein the microphone position calculator of the apparatus for microphone positioning is configured to calculate the position of a microphone as a calculated microphone position, and an apparatus for generating an audio output signal as the virtual output signal to simulate a recording of a virtual microphone at the calculated microphone position, wherein the apparatus for generating an audio output signal has: a sound events position estimator for estimating a sound source position indicating a position of a sound source in the environment, the sound source emitting a sound wave, wherein the sound events position estimator is adapted to estimate the sound source position based on a first direction information provided by a first real spatial microphone being located at a first real microphone position in the environment, and based on a second direction information provided by a second real spatial microphone being located at a second real microphone position in the environment; and an information computation module for generating the audio output signal based on a first recorded audio input signal being recorded by the first real spatial microphone, based on the first real microphone position and based on the calculated microphone position.

According to another embodiment, a method for microphone positioning may have the steps of: determining a spatial power density indicating power values for a plurality of locations of an environment based on sound source information indicating one or more power values and one or more position values of one or more sound sources located in the environment, and estimating acoustic spatial information based on the spatial power density.

Another embodiment may have a computer program for implementing the method for microphone positioning, which method may have the steps of: determining a spatial power density indicating power values for a plurality of locations of an environment based on sound source information indicating one or more power values and one or more position values of one or more sound sources located in the environment, and estimating acoustic spatial information based on the spatial power density when the computer program is executed on a computer or processor.

An apparatus for determining optimal microphone or listening positions is provided. The apparatus comprises a spatial power distribution determiner and a spatial information estimator. The spatial power distribution determiner is adapted to determine a spatial power density indicating power values for a plurality of locations in an environment based on sound source information indicating one or more power values and one or more position values of one or more sound sources located in the environment. The spatial information estimator is adapted to estimate acoustic spatial information based on the spatial power density.

In the following, the terms “virtual microphone” will refer in general to any type of microphone. In particular, the term “virtual microphone” relates both to virtual spatial or non-spatial microphones, as well as to physically existing spatial or non-spatial microphones for which positioning information shall be determined.

The spatial information estimator is adapted to determine an optimal virtual microphone position or an optimal virtual microphone orientation in an environment based on the spatial power density determined by the spatial power distribution determiner. The spatial power density is determined by the spatial power distribution determiner based on power values of sound sources and corresponding position information.

An automatic way of determining an optimal position and/or orientation of one or more microphones for describing the sound scene, for example, one or more virtual microphones, is provided.

In some embodiments the spatial power distribution determiner may be adapted to make use of the optional information provided by a significance metric, which, for example, represents a measure of reliability for the estimation of the ESS positions.

For instance, in some embodiments, the diffuseness Psi of sound can be used as significance metric. The term (1-Psi) can then be simply multiplied to the source power values while computing the spatial power distribution, such that diffuse sound will contribute less than direct sound in the determination of the spatial power distribution.

An important advantage of the proposed concepts is, that they can be applied independent of the room condition and do not require any priori information regarding the number or the position of the talkers and/or the physical sound sources. By this, the system is self-reliant and can adapt to any kind of scenario using only sound analysis. According to conventional technology, a priori information may be available to determine an optimal position and/or orientation of one or more microphones. This either limits the application, or an estimation may be made, limits the accuracy. By employing the embodiments described above, this is not necessary. The position of the virtual microphone (or the plurality of virtual microphones) is computed by doing a semi-blind scene analysis and then changing it according to the requirements of the target application.

Unlike other methods for estimating an optimal position and/or orientation of the virtual microphones, the proposed method does not require any information of the considered geometric scene. For instance, there is no need of a priori information about the number of active sound sources (e.g., the number of participants in a conference), nor of any information about the relative positions of the active sound sources (e.g., the arrangement of participants in a conference room). The information on the sound is derived only from the properties of the active sound sources, which are referred to as “effective sound sources” (ESS), describing the sound scene. The ESS model a spatial sound scene in that one or more ESS are active at a certain time instant or in a certain time-frequency bin. In the following, the term “physical source” is used to describe a real source from the sound scene, e.g., a talker, whereas the term effective sound source (ESS), (also referred to as “sound source”), is used to describe a sound event which is active in a single time or time-frequency bin. Each ESS is characterized by a position and by a power. This information allows to build a spatial power distribution, e.g. a spatial power density, which allows to determine the optimal position or orientation of the virtual microphone.

The parameters of the ESS can, for example, be obtained by employing the concepts explained below for the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position. Sound events position estimation is explained below for the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone, in particular explained with reference toFIGS. 15-17. The concepts described there can be employed to determine the position of an effective sound source. Propagation compensation is explained below for the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone, in particular explained with reference toFIGS. 17-20. The concepts described there can be employed to determine the power of an effective sound source.

According to an embodiment, the spatial information estimator may comprise a sound scene center estimator for estimating a position of a center of a sound scene in the environment. The spatial information estimator may furthermore comprise a microphone position calculator for calculating a position of a microphone as the acoustic spatial information based on the position of the center of the sound scene.

In another embodiment, the microphone position calculator may be adapted to calculate the position of the microphone, wherein the microphone is a virtual microphone.

Moreover, according to another embodiment, the sound scene center estimator may be adapted to calculate a center of gravity of the spatial power density for estimating the center of the sound scene.

In a further embodiment, the sound scene center estimator may be configured to determine a power delay profile based on the spatial power density and to determine a root mean squared delay based on the power delay profile for each one of a plurality of locations in the environment. The sound scene center estimator may be configured to determine the position of the location of the plurality of locations as the center of the sound scene, which has the minimum root mean squared delay of the root mean squared delays of the plurality of locations.

In another embodiment, the sound scene center estimator may be adapted to conduct circle integration for estimating the center of the sound scene, wherein the sound scene center estimator may be adapted to conduct the circle integration by convolving the spatial power density with a circle by applying for instance the formula
g(x,y)=Γ(x,y)*C(r,o)(x,y)
wherein Γ(x, y) is the spatial power density, and wherein C(r,o)(x, y) indicates a circle, to determine a circle integration value for each one of the plurality of locations of the environment, when the environment is a two-dimensional environment.

Alternatively, the sound scene center estimator may be adapted to conduct the circle integration by convolving the spatial power density with a sphere by applying for instance the formula
g(x,y,z)=Γ(x,y,z)*C(r,o)(x,y,z)
wherein, Γ(x, y, z) is the spatial power density, and wherein C(r,o)(x, y, z) indicates a sphere, to determine a circle integration value for each one of the plurality of locations of the environment, when the environment is a three-dimensional environment.

Moreover, according to an embodiment, the sound scene center estimator may be adapted to determine a maximum of the circle integration values of each one of the plurality of locations of the environment to estimate the center of the sound scene.

In a further embodiment, the microphone position calculator may be adapted to determine a broadest-width line of a plurality of lines through the center of the sound scene in the environment. Each of the plurality of lines through the center of the sound scene may have an energy width, wherein the broadest-width line may be the line of the plurality of lines through the center of the sound scene having the largest energy width.

According to an embodiment, the energy width of a considered line of the plurality of lines may indicate a largest length of a segment on the considered line, such that the first point of the segment limiting the segment, and such that a different second point of the segment limiting the segment, have both a power value indicated by the spatial power density, that may be greater than or equal to a predefined power value. The microphone position calculator may be adapted to determine the position of the microphone such that a second line, which passes through the center of the sound scene and the position of the microphone may be orthogonal to the broadest-width line.

In an embodiment, the microphone position calculator may be configured to apply a singular value decomposition to a matrix having a plurality of columns. The columns of the matrix may indicate positions of locations in the environment relative to the center of the sound scene. Moreover, the columns of the matrix may only indicate the positions of locations having power values indicated by the spatial power density that are greater than a predefined threshold value, or the columns of the matrix may only indicate the positions of locations having power values indicated by the spatial power density that are greater than or equal to a predefined threshold value.

According to another embodiment, the spatial information estimator may comprise an orientation determiner for determining an orientation of the microphone based on the spatial power density. The orientation determiner may be adapted to determine the orientation of the microphone such that the microphone is oriented towards the center of the sound scene. The orientation determiner may be configured to determine an integration value f(φ) for each of a plurality of directions φ by applying the formula
f(φ)=∫0rmaxΓ(rcos(φ),rsin(φ))·r dr,
wherein rmaxdefines a maximum distance from the microphone, and wherein the orientation determiner is configured to determine the orientation of the microphone based on the determined integration values f(φ).

In another embodiment, the spatial power distribution determiner may be adapted to determine the spatial power density for the plurality of locations of the environment for a time-frequency bin (k, n) by applying the formula

Γ⁡(x,y,k,n)=∑i=1N⁢poweri⁡(k,n)·g⁡(γi,x-xESSi⁢y-yESSi,k,n),
when the environment is a two-dimensional environment, or by applying the formula

Γ⁡(x,y,z,k,n)=∑i=1N⁢poweri⁡(k,n)·g⁡(γi,x-xESSi,y-yESSi,z-zESSi,k,n),
when the environment is a three-dimensional environment,
wherein k denotes the frequency index and n denotes the time index, wherein x, y, z denote coordinates of one of the plurality of locations, wherein poweri(k,n) denotes the power value at an i-th sound source for time-frequency bin (k, n), wherein xESSi, yESSi, zESSidenote coordinates of the i-th sound source, wherein γiis a scalar value which may represent an indicator of how reliable the position estimates of each effective sound source are and wherein g is a function depending on x, y, z, xESSi, yESSi, zESSi, n and γi.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1illustrates an apparatus for microphone positioning according to an embodiment. The apparatus comprises a spatial power distribution determiner10and a spatial information estimator20. The spatial power distribution determiner10is adapted to determine a spatial power density spd indicating power values for a plurality of locations in an environment based on sound source information ssi indicating one or more power values and one or more position values of one or more effective sound sources (EES) located in the environment. The spatial information estimator20is adapted to estimate acoustic spatial information aspi based on the spatial power density.

FIG. 2illustrates an apparatus for microphone positioning according to another embodiment. The apparatus comprises a spatial power distribution determiner21for determining a spatial power density (SPD), also referred to as spatial power distribution, indicating power values for a plurality of locations of an environment based on effective sound source information indicating one or more core values and position values of one or more effective sound sources allocated in the environment. The apparatus furthermore comprises a spatial information estimator22for estimating a position and/or orientation of a virtual microphone (VM) based on the spatial power density.

FIG. 3illustrates the inputs and outputs of an apparatus for microphone positioning according to an embodiment. The inputs91,92, . . .9N to the apparatus comprises the power, e.g., absolute value of the sound field pressure squared and position, e.g., 2D or 3D Cartesian coordinates. The effective sound sources (ESS) are describing the sound scene (sound field).

The effective sound sources may, e.g., be equal to the instantaneous point-like sound sources (IPLS) as described below for the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position.

At the output, the position and location of the one or more virtual microphones are returned. In the following, the term “physical source” is used to describe a real source from the sound scene, e.g., a talker, whereas the term effective sound source (ESS), (also referred to as “sound source”), is used to describe a sound event which is active in a single time or time-frequency bin, as also used for the IPLS described below with respect to the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position.

Moreover, it should be noted, that the term “sound source” covers both physical sources as well as to effective sound sources.

The input of the apparatus according to the embodiment ofFIG. 2, 91, 92, . . . ,9N comprises information on the position and corresponding power of the plurality of N effective sound sources localized within a time instance or a time-frequency bin as described below for the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position, and as also described in

[20] Giovanni Del Galdo, Oliver Thiergart, Tobias Weller, and E. A. P. Habets. Generating virtual microphone signals using geometrical information gathered by distributed arrays. In Third Joint Workshop on Hands-free Speech Communication and Microphone Arrays (HSCMA '11), Edinburgh, United Kingdom, May 2011.

For example, this information can be comprised in the output106inFIG. 14of the information computation module of the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position considered below, for 1, 2, . . . , N different frequency bins when a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is applied.

Regarding the apparatus for microphone positioning, different operating modes can become active during a certain time interval, each implying various scenarios for the positioning and orientating of the one or more virtual microphones. An apparatus for microphone positioning can be employed for a plurality of application scenarios:

In a first application scenario, N omnidirectional virtual microphones may be placed inside the sound scene (seeFIG. 4a). Thus, in this application scenario, a number of virtual microphones are covering the entire sound scene.

In a second application scenario, a single virtual microphone is positioned in the acoustic center of the sound scene. For example, omnidirectional virtual microphones, cardioid virtual microphones, or a virtual spatial microphone (such as a B-format microphone) is placed such that all participants are captured optimally (FIG. 4b).

In a third application scenario, one spatial microphone is placed ‘outside’ the sound scene. For example, a virtual stereo microphone is placed such that a broad spatial image is obtained, as illustrated inFIG. 4c.

In a fourth application scenario, the optimal orientation of the virtual microphone is estimated while the virtual microphone is located at a fixed position (predetermined position), for example the position and directivity of the virtual microphone might be predefined and only the orientation is calculated automatically.

It should be noted that all of the above applications may include temporal adaptability. For instance, the virtual spot microphone's position/orientation follows one talker as the talker moves in the room.

InFIGS. 2 and 3, optional information is provided by a significant metric13, which, for example, represents a measure of reliability for the estimation of the ESS positions. For example, such a metric can be derived from the variances of the direction of arrival estimators (when using two or more microphone arrays as explained) as explained below for the apparatus for generating an audio output signal of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position, or from the diffuseness parameter computed as in

The metric can be expressed either with respect to all of the inputs91, . . . ,9N, (for example, a constant value of the metric for all inputs may be used), or, can be defined differently for each input91, . . . ,9N. The outputs15,16of the apparatus ofFIG. 2may comprise the position and/or orientation of the one or more virtual microphones. Depending on the application, outputs (positions and orientations) for a plurality of virtual microphones may be generated, each corresponding to a specific virtual microphone.

FIG. 5illustrates a spatial power distribution determiner21according to an embodiment. The spatial power distribution determiner comprises a spatial power distribution main processing unit31and a spatial power distribution post processing unit32. The spatial power distribution determiner21is adapted to determine (or rather compute) a modified spatial power density (SPD) denoted in the following by Γ(x, y, z, k, n), which expresses the power localized in a certain point, e.g., (x, y, z) in space for each time-frequency bin (k, n). The SPD is generated by integrating the power values at the positions of the effective sound sources91, . . . ,9N, which are input into the spatial power distribution determiner21.

The computation of the SPD for a time-frequency bin (k, n) may be done according to the formula

The SPD generated by the spatial power distribution main processing unit31(for instance inFIG. 5), may further be processed by the spatial power distribution main processing unit32(post processing of SPD and temporal integration module) and integrated in time, e.g., by employing an autoregressive filter. In order to be more robust against sound scene outliers (i.e., caused by incorrect position estimation), any kind of post processing filter may be applied on the SPD. Such a post processing filter may, for example, be a low pass filter or a morphological (erosion, dilation) filter.

When computing the position and/or orientation of the one or more virtual microphones, an optional parameter which depends on the SPD may be employed. This parameter may refer to e.g., forbidden and/or advantageous regions of the room where to place the virtual microphones (VM), or, may refer to the SPD, choosing specific SPD ranges, which satisfy some predetermined rules.

As can be seen in formula (1), g is a function of the significance metric γ (or rather γi) in space, which has, by default, a value equal to 1. Otherwise, γ may be used to take different contributions into account. For example, if σ2is the variance of the position estimation, then, e.g. γ may be set to

Alternatively, the average diffuseness Ψ computed at the microphone arrays can be employed, resulting in γ=1−Ψ.

By this, γ may be chosen such that it decreases for more unreliable estimates and increases for more reliable ones.

A plurality of possibilities exist for constructing function g. Two examples particularly useful in practice are:

In the first function, δ(x), δ(y) and δ(z) indicate delta functions (seeFIG. 6aillustrating delta functions). In the second function, δ=[x y z]T, μ=[μxμyμz]Tis the mean vector and Σγis the covariance matrix of the Gaussian distribution function g (seeFIG. 6billustrating distribution functions). The covariance matrix is computed using the following formula:
Σγ=E[(s−μ)(s−μ)T],  (4)
which is dependent on the choice of γ for the scenario where γ=1/σ2, having in mind that, for example, for the 1D case:
σ2=E[(x−μx)2].  (5)

As can be seen in formula (3), function g can be described by a distribution function around the effective sound source positions given by the inputs91. . .9N, where e.g., the significance metric is the inverse of the variance of a Gaussian distribution. If the estimate of a sound source position has a high reliability, the according distribution will be rather narrow, whereas a more unreliable estimate would correspond to a high variants and would therefore, a wide distribution, see for example,FIG. 6billustrating a 1D example.

FIG. 7illustrates a spatial information estimator22according to an embodiment. The spatial information estimator comprises a sound scene center estimator41for estimating a position of a center of a sound scene in the environment. Furthermore, the spatial information estimator comprises a microphone position calculator42for calculating a position of a microphone as the acoustic spatial information based on the position of the center of the sound scene.

FIG. 8illustrates a spatial information estimator22according to a further embodiment. The spatial information estimator comprises a virtual microphone position calculator44being adapted to calculate an position of a virtual microphone and being further adapted to determine an orientation of a virtual microphone. The virtual microphone position calculator44is therefore also referred to as microphone position/orientation calculator44.

The spatial information estimator22ofFIG. 8uses as inputs the previously generated SPD23. It returns as outputs the position15and orientation16of one or more virtual microphones, depending on the target application. The first processing block, the sound scene center estimator41, provides an estimate of the sound scene center. The output43of block41, e.g. the position of the sound scene center, is then provided as input to the second processing block, the virtual microphone position/orientation calculator44. The virtual microphone position/orientation calculator44performs the actual estimation of the final position15and orientation16of one or more virtual microphones, depending on the target application.

The sound scene center estimator41provides an estimate of the sound scene center. The output of the sound scene center estimator41is then provided as input to the microphone position/orientation calculator44. The microphone position/orientation calculator44performs the actual estimation of the final position15and/or orientation16of the one or more virtual microphones according to the operating mode which characterizes the target application.

Embodiments of the sound scene center estimator are now explained in more detail. In order to obtain the center of the sound scene, several possible concepts exist.

According to a first concept of a first embodiment, the center of the sound scene is obtained by computing the center of gravity of the SPD Γ(x,y,z). The value of Γ(x,y,z) may be s interpreted as the existing mass at point (x,y,z) in space.

According to a second concept of a second embodiment, the position in space with a minimum time dispersion of the channel shall be found. This is achieved by considering the root mean squared (RMS) delay spread. At first, for each point in space p=(x0, y0), a power delay profile (PDP) Ap(τ) is computed based on the SPD Γ(x, y, z), for instance using

From Ap(τ), the RMS delay is then calculated using the following equation:

τRM⁢⁢S,p=∫0∞⁢(τ-τ_s)2⁢Ap⁡(τ)⁢d⁢⁢τ∫0∞⁢Ap⁡(τ)⁢d⁢⁢τ,
whereTsrepresents the mean delay of Ap(τ). The position for which the mean delay TRMS,p is minimum will represent the center of the sound scene.

According to a third concept of a third embodiment, which may be employed as an alternative to sound scene center estimation, a “circle-integration” is proposed. For example, in the 2D case, the SPD Γ(x, y) is convolved with a circle C(r,o), according to the following formula:
g(x,y)=Γ(x,y)*C(r,o)(x,y),
wherein r is the radius of the circle, and wherein o defines the center of the circle. The radius r may either be constant or may vary depending on the power value in the point (x,y). For example, high power in the point (x,y) may correspond to a large radius, whereas low power may correspond to a small radius. Additional dependencies on the power may also be possible. One such example would be to convolve the circle with a bivariate Gaussian function before using it for constructing function g(x, y). According to such an embodiment, the covariance matrix of the bivariate Gaussian function becomes dependent on the power in the position (x,y), i.e., high power corresponds to low variance, whereas low power corresponds to high variance.

Once g(x, y) is computed, the center of the sound scene may be determined according to the following formula:

In further embodiments, this concept is extended to 3D by employing a 3D convolution of Γ(x, y, z) with a sphere, analogously.

FIG. 9illustrates a microphone position/orientation calculator44according to another embodiment depicting more details. The center of the sound scene43is given as input to the microphone position/orientation calculator44, together with the SPD23. In the microphone position/orientation calculator44, the information about the center of the sound scene43can be copied, depending on the operating that may be used by the target application, to the output and used directly as the position of a virtual microphone, for example, when the application scenario ofFIG. 4bis applicable, relating to the scenario with one virtual microphone positioned in the acoustic center of the sound scene. Alternatively, the information about the center of the sound scene43can be used as a modifying parameter inside the microphone position/orientation calculator44.

Different concepts may be applied for calculating a microphone position, e.g.:

optimization based on projected energy width,

optimization based on principle component analysis.

It may, for illustrative purposes be assumed, that the position of the microphone is computed according to the application scenario ofFIG. 4crelating to the scenario of one spatial microphone outside the side scene. However, the explanations are equally applicable for any other application scenarios.

The concepts for estimating the position of the virtual microphones according to embodiments, which were previously enumerated, will now be described in more detail in the following.

The optimization based on projected energy width defines a set of M equally spaced lines which pass through the center of the sound scene. For each of these lines, in e.g., a 2D scenario, the SPD Γ(x,y) is orthogonally projected on them and summed up.

FIGS. 10a-10cillustrate optimization based on projected energy width. InFIG. 10a, the projected power function Pprojis computed for each of the l1, . . . li, . . . lMlines. The corresponding widths of the function are then calculated, seeFIG. 10b. For example, the width may be defined as a −3 dB width, which is equivalent to the distance for which the leftmost and rightmost points of the distance segment corresponds to a predefined power level, for example, a power level higher than −3 dB. Subsequently, the line with the broadest width is identified and the virtual microphone is placed on the orthogonal direction to it. The orientation of the virtual microphone may be set such that it points to the center of the sound scene, as explained in the next section. With this approach, two possible virtual microphone (VM) positions are obtained, since the VM can be positioned either on the positive or on the negative orthogonal direction.

The distance at which the VM is positioned may be computed, for example, based on geometric considerations together with the opening angle of the virtual microphone. This is illustrated byFIG. 10c. The distance at which the VM is positioned varies depending on the operating mode specific to the target application. This implies constructing a triangle such that the width i ofFIG. 10crepresents one side of the triangle and the center of gravity COG is the midpoint of the side. By taking the orthogonal line at the COG and defining it as the bisector of the VM opening angle α, the third vertex of the triangle is found. The length of the bisector then gives the distance between the VM position and the center of the sound scene.

According to another embodiment, the described optimization concept based on projected energy may be extended to 3D. In this case, M2equally spaced planes (in azimuthal and elevation direction) are defined instead of M lines. The width then corresponds to the diameter of the circle which comprises the largest part of the projected energy. The final position is obtained by placing the VM on the normal to the plane surface of the largest circle diameter. According to an embodiment, the distance from the center of the sound scene to the VM position may be computed again, similarly as in the 2D case, that is using geometric considerations and the opening angle specified by the operating mode.

According to another embodiment, optimization based on a principle component analysis is employed. The optimization based on a principle component analysis-like processing uses directly the information available from the SPD. At first, the SPD Γ(x,y,z) is quantized and a threshold-selective filter is applied on the quantized data set. By this, all points which have energy levels smaller than a certain threshold are discarded. Afterwards, the remaining points hi=[hx,i, hy,i, hz,i]Tare mean-centered (i.e., the mean-centered points represent the coordinates of the i-th effective source minus the coordinates of the sound scene center), and are then reorganized in a data matrix H as follows:

H=(hx,0hx,1hx,2…hx,Nhy,0hy,1hy,2…hy,Nhz,0hz,1hz,2…hz,N),
where N defines the number of points after thresholding. Then, the singular value decomposition (SVD) is applied to H, such that it is factorized into the following product:
H=U·Σ·VT.

The first column of U represents the principal component, which has the highest variability of the data set. The second column of U is orthogonal to the first and represents the direction on which we want to place the VM. The width is implicitly given by the first singular value in the matrix Σ. Knowing the width, as well as the direction, we can compute the position and orientation of the VM as described in the optimization method based on projected energy width as described above explained with reference toFIGS. 10a-10c.

In another embodiment, these methods are applied to a 2D problem, which is straightforward, as one merely needs to ignore/remove the z axis component from the equations and considerations.

For other applications, such as the application scenario ofFIG. 4a(a plurality of virtual microphones covering the entire sound scene), a different concept may be employed, such as an iterative optimization scheme. In a first step, the position with the maximum value of the SPD is identified. By this, the location of the first VM of the total of N virtual microphones is designated. Following this, all energy surrounding this position (i.e., up to a certain distance) is removed from the SPD. The previous steps are repeated until all the positions of the N virtual microphones are found. In the case where N is not defined, the iteration is performed unit the maximum value is the SPD becomes smaller than a certain threshold.

FIG. 11illustrates another embodiment, wherein a spatial information estimator22furthermore comprises an orientation determiner45. The orientation determiner45is adapted to determine a (suitable) orientation16of the microphone based on the spectral power density23.

In the following, orientation estimation will be described. The optimization approaches based on projected energy width as well as on principal component analysis compute the orientation of the virtual microphone15implicitly, since the virtual microphone is assumed to be oriented towards the center of the sound scene.

For some other application scenarios, however, it may be suitable to calculate the orientation explicitly, for example, in an application scenario, wherein the optimal orientation of the virtual microphone is estimated, wherein the virtual microphone is located at a fixed position. In this case, the orientation should be determined, such that the virtual microphone picks up most of the energy in the sound scene.

According to an embodiment, to determine the orientation of a virtual microphone, at first, the possible directions φ are sampled and integration over the energy on each of these directions is performed. The following function of φ is obtained:
f(φ)=∫0TmaxΓ(rcos(φ),rsin(φ))·r·dr,
where rmaxis defined is defined as the maximum distance from the VM and controls the VM's pick-up pattern. Then, the final orientation φ of the VM is computed as:

ϕ^=arg⁢⁢maxϕ⁢∫-ππ⁢f⁡(φ)·wϕ⁡(φ)⁢d⁢⁢φ,
where wφ(φ) is a weighting function based on the input characteristics of the VM. E.g., wφ(φ) may be the function which defines how the energy coming from direction φ is scaled given a certain viewing direction φ and a specific pick-up pattern of the VM.

In the following, an apparatus for generating an audio output signal to simulate a recording of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position in an environment is explained. An apparatus for microphone positioning according to one of the above described embodiments may be employed to determine the virtual position for the apparatus for generating the audio output signal.

FIG. 12illustrates an apparatus for generating an audio output signal to simulate a recording of a virtual microphone at a configurable virtual position posVmic in an environment. The apparatus comprises a sound events position estimator110and an information computation module120. The sound events position estimator110receives a first direction information di1from a first real spatial microphone and a second direction information di2from a second real spatial microphone. The sound events position estimator110is adapted to estimate a sound source position ssp indicating a position of a sound source in the environment, the sound source emitting a sound wave, wherein the sound events position estimator110is adapted to estimate the sound source position ssp based on a first direction information di1provided by a first real spatial microphone being located at a first real microphone position pos1mic in the environment, and based on a second direction information di2provided by a second real spatial microphone being located at a second real microphone position in the environment. The information computation module120is adapted to generate the audio output signal based on a first recorded audio input signal is 1 being recorded by the first real spatial microphone, based on the first real microphone position pos1mic and based on the virtual position posVmic of the virtual microphone. The information computation module120comprises a propagation compensator being adapted to generate a first modified audio signal by modifying the first recorded audio input signal is 1 by compensating a first delay or amplitude decay between an arrival of the sound wave emitted by the sound source at the first real spatial microphone and an arrival of the sound wave at the virtual microphone by adjusting an amplitude value, a magnitude value or a phase value of the first recorded audio input signal is 1, to obtain the audio output signal.

FIG. 13illustrates the inputs and outputs of an apparatus and a method according to an embodiment. Information from two or more real spatial microphones111,112, . . . ,11N is fed to the apparatus/is processed by the method. This information comprises audio signals picked up by the real spatial microphones as well as direction information from the real spatial microphones, e.g. direction of arrival (DOA) estimates. The audio signals and the direction information, such as the direction of arrival estimates may be expressed in a time-frequency domain. If, for example, a 2D geometry reconstruction is desired and a traditional STFT (short time Fourier transformation) domain is chosen for the representation of the signals, the DOA may be expressed as azimuth angles dependent on k and n, namely the frequency and time indices.

In embodiments, the sound event localization in space, as well as describing the position of the virtual microphone may be conducted based on the positions and orientations of the real and virtual spatial microphones in a common coordinate system. This information may be represented by the inputs121. . .12N and input104inFIG. 13. The input104may additionally specify the characteristic of the virtual spatial microphone, e.g., its position and pick-up pattern, as will be discussed in the following. If the virtual spatial microphone comprises multiple virtual sensors, their positions and the corresponding different pick-up patterns may be considered.

The output of the apparatus or a corresponding method may be, when desired, one or more sound signals105, which may have been picked up by a spatial microphone defined and placed as specified by104. Moreover, the apparatus (or rather the method) may provide as output corresponding spatial side information106which may be estimated by employing the virtual spatial microphone.

FIG. 14illustrates an apparatus according to an embodiment, which comprises two main processing units, a sound events position estimator201and an information computation module202. The sound events position estimator201may carry out geometrical reconstruction on the basis of the DOAs comprised in inputs111. . .11N and based on the knowledge of the position and orientation of the real spatial microphones, where the DOAs have been computed. The output of the sound events position estimator205comprises the position estimates (either in 2D or 3D) of the sound sources where the sound events occur for each time and frequency bin. The second processing block202is an information computation module. According to the embodiment ofFIG. 14, the second processing block202computes a virtual microphone signal and spatial side information. It is therefore also referred to as virtual microphone signal and side information computation block202. The virtual microphone signal and side information computation block202uses the sound events' positions205to process the audio signals comprised in111. . .11N to output the virtual microphone audio signal105. Block202, if it is used, may also compute the spatial side information106corresponding to the virtual spatial microphone. Embodiments below illustrate possibilities, how blocks201and202may operate.

In the following, position estimation of a sound events position estimator according to an embodiment is described in more detail.

Depending on the dimensionality of the problem (2D or 3D) and the number of spatial microphones, several solutions for the position estimation are possible.

If two spatial microphones in 2D exist, (the simplest possible case) a simple triangulation is possible.FIG. 15shows an exemplary scenario in which the real spatial microphones are depicted as Uniform Linear Arrays (ULAs) of 3 microphones each. The DOA, expressed as the azimuth angles a1(k, n) and a2(k, n), are computed for the time-frequency bin (k, n). This is achieved by employing a proper DOA estimator, such as ESPRIT,

to the pressure signals transformed into the time-frequency domain.

InFIG. 15, two real spatial microphones, here, two real spatial microphone arrays410,420are illustrated. The two estimated DOAs a1(k, n) and a2(k, n) are represented by two lines, a first line430representing DOA a1(k, n) and a second line440representing DOA a2(k, n). The triangulation is possible via simple geometrical considerations knowing the position and orientation of each array.

The triangulation fails when the two lines430,440are exactly parallel. In real applications, however, this is very unlikely. However, not all triangulation results correspond to a physical or feasible position for the sound event in the considered space. For example, the estimated position of the sound event might be too far away or even outside the assumed space, indicating that probably the DOAs do not correspond to any sound event which can be physically interpreted with the used model. Such results may be caused by sensor noise or too strong room reverberation. Therefore, according to an embodiment, such undesired results are flagged such that the information computation module202can treat them properly.

FIG. 16depicts a scenario, where the position of a sound event is estimated in 3D space. Proper spatial microphones are employed, for example, a planar or 3D microphone array. InFIG. 16, a first spatial microphone510, for example, a first 3D microphone array, and a second spatial microphone520, e.g., a first 3D microphone array, is illustrated. The DOA in the 3D space, may for example, be expressed as azimuth and elevation. Unit vectors530,540may be employed to express the DOAs. Two lines550,560are projected according to the DOAs. In 3D, even with very reliable estimates, the two lines550,560projected according to the DOAs might not intersect. However, the triangulation can still be carried out, for example, by choosing the middle point of the smallest segment connecting the two lines.

Similarly to the 2D case, the triangulation may fail or may yield unfeasible results for certain combinations of directions, which may then also be flagged, e.g. to the information computation module202ofFIG. 14.

If more than two spatial microphones exist, several solutions are possible. For example, the triangulation explained above, could be carried out for all pairs of the real spatial microphones (if N=3, 1 with 2, 1 with 3, and 2 with 3). The resulting positions may then be averaged (along x and y, and, if 3D is considered, z).

Alternatively, more complex concepts may be used. For example, probabilistic approaches may be applied as described in

According to an embodiment, the sound field may be analyzed in the time-frequency domain, for example, obtained via a short-time Fourier transform (STFT), in which k and n denote the frequency index k and time index n, respectively. The complex pressure Pv(k, n) at an arbitrary position pvfor a certain k and n is modeled as a single spherical wave emitted by a narrow-band isotropic point-like source, e.g. by employing the formula:
Pv(k,n)=PIPLS(k,n)·γ(k,pIPLS(k,n),pv),  (1)
where PIPLS(k, n) is the signal emitted by the IPLS at its position pIPLS(k, n). The complex factor γ(k, pIPLS, pv) expresses the propagation from pIPLS(k, n) to pv, e.g., it introduces appropriate phase and magnitude modifications. Here, the assumption may be applied that in each time-frequency bin only one IPLS is active. Nevertheless, multiple narrow-band IPLSs located at different positions may also be active at a single time instance.

Each IPLS either models direct sound or a distinct room reflection. Its position pIPLS(k, n) may ideally correspond to an actual sound source located inside the room, or a mirror image sound source located outside, respectively. Therefore, the position pIPLS(k, n) may also indicates the position of a sound event.

Please note that the term “real sound sources” denotes the actual sound sources physically existing in the recording environment, such as talkers or musical instruments. On the contrary, with “sound sources” or “sound events” or “IPLS” we refer to effective sound sources, which are active at certain time instants or at certain time-frequency bins, wherein the sound sources may, for example, represent real sound sources or mirror image sources.

FIG. 27a-27billustrate microphone arrays localizing sound sources. The localized sound sources may have different physical interpretations depending on their nature. When the microphone arrays receive direct sound, they may be able to localize the position of a true sound source (e.g. talkers). When the microphone arrays receive reflections, they may localize the position of a mirror image source. Mirror image sources are also sound sources.

FIG. 27aillustrates a scenario, where two microphone arrays151and152receive direct sound from an actual sound source (a physically existing sound source)153.

FIG. 27billustrates a scenario, where two microphone arrays161,162receive reflected sound, wherein the sound has been reflected by a wall. Because of the reflection, the microphone arrays161,162localize the position, where the sound appears to come from, at a position of an mirror image source165, which is different from the position of the speaker163.

Both the actual sound source153ofFIG. 27a, as well as the mirror image source165are sound sources.

FIG. 27cillustrates a scenario, where two microphone arrays171,172receive diffuse sound and are not able to localize a sound source.

While this single-wave model is accurate only for mildly reverberant environments given that the source signals fulfill the W-disjoint orthogonality (WDO) condition, i.e. the time-frequency overlap is sufficiently small. This is normally true for speech signals, see, for example,

However, the model also provides a good estimate for other environments and is therefore also applicable for those environments.

In the following, the estimation of the positions pIPLS(k, n) according to an embodiment is explained. The position pIPLS(k, n) of an active IPLS in a certain time-frequency bin, and thus the estimation of a sound event in a time-frequency bin, is estimated via triangulation on the basis of the direction of arrival (DOA) of sound measured in at least two different observation points.

FIG. 17illustrates a geometry, where the IPLS of the current time-frequency slot (k, n) is located in the unknown position pIPLS(k, n). In order to determine the DOA information that may be used, two real spatial microphones, here, two microphone arrays, are employed having a known geometry, position and orientation, which are placed in positions610and620, respectively. The vectors p1and p2point to the positions610,620, respectively. The array orientations are defined by the unit vectors c1and c2. The DOA of the sound is determined in the positions610and620for each (k, n) using a DOA estimation algorithm, for instance as provided by the DirAC analysis (see [2], [3]). By this, a first point-of-view unit vector e1POV(k, n) and a second point-of-view unit vector e2POV(k, n) with respect to a point of view of the microphone arrays (both not shown inFIG. 17) may be provided as output of the DirAC analysis. For example, when operating in 2D, the first point-of-view unit vector results to:

e1POV⁡(k,n)=[cos⁡(φ1⁡(k,n))sin⁡(φ1⁡(k,n))],(2)
Here, φ1(k, n) represents the azimuth of the DOA estimated at the first microphone array, as depicted inFIG. 17. The corresponding DOA unit vectors e1(k, n) and e2(k, n), with respect to the global coordinate system in the origin, may be computed by applying the formulae:
e1(k,n)=R1·e1POV(k,n),
e2(k,n)=R2·e2POV(k,n),  (3)
where R are coordinate transformation matrices, e.g.,

R1=[c1,x-c1,yc1,yc1,x],(4)
when operating in 2D and c1=[c1,x, c1,y]T. For carrying out the triangulation, the direction vectors d1(k, n) and d2(k, n) may be calculated as:
d1(k,n)=d1(k,n)e1(k,n),
d2(k,n)=d2(k,n)e2(k,n),  (5)
where d1(k, n)=∥d1(k, n)∥ and d2(k,n)=∥d2(k, n)∥ are the unknown distances between the IPLS and the two microphone arrays. The following equation
p1+d1(k,n)=p2+d2(k,n)  (6)
may be solved for d1(k, n). Finally, the position pIPLS(k, n) of the IPLS is given by
pIPLS(k,n)=d1(k,n)e1(k,n)+p1.  (7)

In another embodiment, equation (6) may be solved for d2(k, n) and pIPLS(k, n) is analogously computed employing d2(k, n).

Equation (6) provides a solution when operating in 2D, unless e1(k, n) and e2(k, n) are parallel. However, when using more than two microphone arrays or when operating in 3D, a solution cannot be obtained when the direction vectors d do not intersect. According to an embodiment, in this case, the point which is closest to all direction vectors d is be computed and the result can be used as the position of the IPLS.

In an embodiment, all observation points p1, p2, . . . should be located such that the sound emitted by the IPLS falls into the same temporal block n. This requirement may simply be fulfilled when the distance Δ between any two of the observation points is smaller than

Δma⁢⁢x=c⁢⁢nFFT⁡(1-R)fs,
where nFFTis the STFT window length, 0≤R<1 specifies the overlap between successive time frames and fsis the sampling frequency. For example, for a 1024-point SIFT at 48 kHz with 50% overlap (R=0.5), the maximum spacing between the arrays to fulfill the above requirement is Δ=3.65 m.

In the following, an information computation module202, e.g. a virtual microphone signal and side information computation module, according to an embodiment is described in more detail.

FIG. 18illustrates a schematic overview of an information computation module202according to an embodiment. The information computation unit comprises a propagation compensator500, a combiner510and a spectral weighting unit520. The information computation module202receives the sound source position estimates ssp estimated by a sound events position estimator, one or more audio input signals is recorded by one or more of the real spatial microphones, positions posRealMic of one or more of the real spatial microphones, and the virtual position posVmic of the virtual microphone. It outputs an audio output signal os representing an audio signal of the virtual microphone.

FIG. 19illustrates an information computation module according to another embodiment. The information computation module ofFIG. 19comprises a propagation compensator500, a combiner510and a spectral weighting unit520. The propagation compensator500comprises a propagation parameters computation module501and a propagation compensation module504. The combiner510comprises a combination factors computation module502and a combination module505. The spectral weighting unit520comprises a spectral weights computation unit503, a spectral weighting application module506and a spatial side information computation module507.

To compute the audio signal of the virtual microphone, the geometrical information, e.g. the position and orientation of the real spatial microphones121. . .12N, the position, orientation and characteristics of the virtual spatial microphone104, and the position estimates of the sound events205are fed into the information computation module202, in particular, into the propagation parameters computation module501of the propagation compensator500, into the combination factors computation module502of the combiner510and into the spectral weights computation unit503of the spectral weighting unit520. The propagation parameters computation module501, the combination factors computation module502and the spectral weights computation unit503compute the parameters used in the modification of the audio signals111. . .11N in the propagation compensation module504, the combination module505and the spectral weighting application module506.

In the information computation module202, the audio signals111. . .11N may at first be modified to compensate for the effects given by the different propagation lengths between the sound event positions and the real spatial microphones. The signals may then be combined to improve for instance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Finally, the resulting signal may then be spectrally weighted to take the directional pick up pattern of the virtual microphone into account, as well as any distance dependent gain function. These three steps are discussed in more detail below.

Propagation compensation is now explained in more detail. In the upper portion ofFIG. 20, two real spatial microphones (a first microphone array910and a second microphone array920), the position of a localized sound event930for time-frequency bin (k, n), and the position of the virtual spatial microphone940are illustrated.

The lower portion ofFIG. 20depicts a temporal axis. It is assumed that a sound event is emitted at time to and then propagates to the real and virtual spatial microphones. The time delays of arrival as well as the amplitudes change with distance, so that the further the propagation length, the weaker the amplitude and the longer the time delay of arrival are.

The signals at the two real arrays are comparable only if the relative delay Dt12between them is small. Otherwise, one of the two signals needs to be temporally realigned to compensate the relative delay Dt12, and possibly, to be scaled to compensate for the different decays.

Compensating the delay between the arrival at the virtual microphone and the arrival at the real microphone arrays (at one of the real spatial microphones) changes the delay independent from the localization of the sound event, making it superfluous for most applications.

Returning toFIG. 19, propagation parameters computation module501is adapted to compute the delays to be corrected for each real spatial microphone and for each sound event. If desired, it also computes the gain factors to be considered to compensate for the different amplitude decays.

The propagation compensation module504is configured to use this information to modify the audio signals accordingly. If the signals are to be shifted by a small amount of time (compared to the time window of the filter bank), then a simple phase rotation suffices. If the delays are larger, more complicated implementations may be used.

The output of the propagation compensation module504are the modified audio signals expressed in the original time-frequency domain.

In the following, a particular estimation of propagation compensation for a virtual microphone according to an embodiment will be described with reference toFIG. 17which inter alia illustrates the position610of a first real spatial microphone and the position620of a second real spatial microphone.

In the embodiment that is now explained, it is assumed that at least a first recorded audio input signal, e.g. a pressure signal of at least one of the real spatial microphones (e.g. the microphone arrays) is available, for example, the pressure signal of a first real spatial microphone. We will refer to the considered microphone as reference microphone, to its position as reference position prefand to its pressure signal as reference pressure signal Pref(k, n). However, propagation compensation may not only be conducted with respect to only one pressure signal, but also with respect to the pressure signals of a plurality or of all of the real spatial microphones.

The relationship between the pressure signal PIPLS(k, n) emitted by the IPLS and a reference pressure signal Pref(k, n) of a reference microphone located in prefcan be expressed by formula (9):
Prefa(k,n)=PIPLS(k,n)·γ(k,pIPLSpref),  (9)

In general, the complex factor γ(k, pa, pb) expresses the phase rotation and amplitude decay introduced by the propagation of a spherical wave from its origin in pato pb. However, practical tests indicated that considering only the amplitude decay in γ leads to plausible impressions of the virtual microphone signal with significantly fewer artifacts compared to also considering the phase rotation.

The sound energy which can be measured in a certain point in space depends strongly on the distance r from the sound source, inFIG. 6from the position pIPLSof the sound source. In many situations, this dependency can be modeled with sufficient accuracy using well-known physical principles, for example, the 1/r decay of the sound pressure in the far-field of a point source. When the distance of a reference microphone, for example, the first real microphone from the sound source is known, and when also the distance of the virtual microphone from the sound source is known, then, the sound energy at the position of the virtual microphone can be estimated from the signal and the energy of the reference microphone, e.g. the first real spatial microphone. This means, that the output signal of the virtual microphone can be obtained by applying proper gains to the reference pressure signal.

Assuming that the first real spatial microphone is the reference microphone, then pref=p1. InFIG. 17, the virtual microphone is located in pv. Since the geometry inFIG. 17is known in detail, the distance d1(k, n)=∥d1(k, n)∥ between the reference microphone (inFIG. 17: the first real spatial microphone) and the IPLS can easily be determined, as well as the distance s(k, n)=∥s(k, n)∥ between the virtual microphone and the IPLS, namely
s(k,n)=∥s(k,n)∥=∥p1+d1(k,n)−pv∥.  (10)

The sound pressure Pv(k, n) at the position of the virtual microphone is computed by combining formulas (1) and (9), leading to

As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the factors γ may only consider the amplitude decay due to the propagation. Assuming for instance that the sound pressure decreases with 1/r, then

When the model in formula (1) holds, e.g., when only direct sound is present, then formula (12) can accurately reconstruct the magnitude information. However, in case of pure diffuse sound fields, e.g., when the model assumptions are not met, the presented method yields an implicit dereverberation of the signal when moving the virtual microphone away from the positions of the sensor arrays. In fact, as discussed above, in diffuse sound fields, we expect that most IPLS are localized near the two sensor arrays. Thus, when moving the virtual microphone away from these positions, we likely increase the distance s=∥s∥ inFIG. 17. Therefore, the magnitude of the reference pressure is decreased when applying a weighting according to formula (II). Correspondingly, when moving the virtual microphone close to an actual sound source, the time-frequency bins corresponding to the direct sound will be amplified such that the overall audio signal will be perceived less diffuse. By adjusting the rule in formula (12), one can control the direct sound amplification and diffuse sound suppression at will.

By conducting propagation compensation on the recorded audio input signal (e.g. the pressure signal) of the first real spatial microphone, a first modified audio signal is obtained.

In embodiments, a second modified audio signal may be obtained by conducting propagation compensation on a recorded second audio input signal (second pressure signal) of the second real spatial microphone.

In other embodiments, further audio signals may be obtained by conducting propagation compensation on recorded further audio input signals (further pressure signals) of further real spatial microphones.

Now, combining in blocks502and505inFIG. 19according to an embodiment is explained in more detail. It is assumed that two or more audio signals from a plurality different real spatial microphones have been modified to compensate for the different propagation paths to obtain two or more modified audio signals. Once the audio signals from the different real spatial microphones have been modified to compensate for the different propagation paths, they can be combined to improve the audio quality. By doing so, for example, the SNR can be increased or the reverberance can be reduced.

Possible solutions for the combination comprise:Weighted averaging, e.g., considering SNR, or the distance to the virtual microphone, or the diffuseness which was estimated by the real spatial microphones. Traditional solutions, for example, Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC) or Equal Gain Combining (EQC) may be employed, orLinear combination of some or all of the modified audio signals to obtain a combination signal. The modified audio signals may be weighted in the linear combination to obtain the combination signal, orSelection, e.g., only one signal is used, for example, dependent on SNR or distance or diffuseness.

The task of module502is, if applicable, to compute parameters for the combining, which is carried out in module505.

Now, spectral weighting according to embodiments is described in more detail. For this, reference is made to blocks503and506ofFIG. 19. At this final step, the audio signal resulting from the combination or from the propagation compensation of the input audio signals is weighted in the time-frequency domain according to spatial characteristics of the virtual spatial microphone as specified by input104and/or according to the reconstructed geometry (given in205).

For each time-frequency bin the geometrical reconstruction allows us to easily obtain the DOA relative to the virtual microphone, as shown inFIG. 21. Furthermore, the distance between the virtual microphone and the position of the sound event can also be readily computed.

The weight for the time-frequency bin is then computed considering the type of virtual microphone desired.

In case of directional microphones, the spectral weights may be computed according to a predefined pick-up pattern. For example, according to an embodiment, a cardioid microphone may have a pick up pattern defined by the function g(theta),
g(theta)=0.5+0.5 cos(theta),
where theta is the angle between the look direction of the virtual spatial microphone and the DOA of the sound from the point of view of the virtual microphone.

Another possibility is artistic (non physical) decay functions. In certain applications, it may be desired to suppress sound events far away from the virtual microphone with a factor greater than the one characterizing free-field propagation. For this purpose, some embodiments introduce an additional weighting function which depends on the distance between the virtual microphone and the sound event. In an embodiment, only sound events within a certain distance (e.g. in meters) from the virtual microphone should be picked up.

With respect to virtual microphone directivity, arbitrary directivity patterns can be applied for the virtual microphone. In doing so, one can for instance separate a source from a complex sound scene.

Since the DOA of the sound can be computed in the position pvof the virtual microphone, namely

φv⁡(k,n)=arccos⁡(s·cvs),(13)
where cvis a unit vector describing the orientation of the virtual microphone, arbitrary directivities for the virtual microphone can be realized. For example, assuming that Pv(k,n) indicates the combination signal or the propagation-compensated modified audio signal, then the formula:
{tilde over (P)}v(k,n)=Pv(k,n)[1+cos(φv(k,n))]  (14)
calculates the output of a virtual microphone with cardioid directivity. The directional patterns, which can potentially be generated in this way, depend on the accuracy of the position estimation.

In embodiments, one or more real, non-spatial microphones, for example, an omnidirectional microphone or a directional microphone such as a cardioid, are placed in the sound scene in addition to the real spatial microphones to further improve the sound quality of the virtual microphone signals105inFIG. 8. These microphones are not used to gather any geometrical information, but rather only to provide a cleaner audio signal. These microphones may be placed closer to the sound sources than the spatial microphones. In this case, according to an embodiment, the audio signals of the real, non-spatial microphones and their positions are simply fed to the propagation compensation module504ofFIG. 19for processing, instead of the audio signals of the real spatial microphones. Propagation compensation is then conducted for the one or more recorded audio signals of the non-spatial microphones with respect to the position of the one or more non-spatial microphones. By this, an embodiment is realized using additional non-spatial microphones.

In a further embodiment, computation of the spatial side information of the virtual microphone is realized. To compute the spatial side information106of the microphone, the information computation module202ofFIG. 19comprises a spatial side information computation module507, which is adapted to receive as input the sound sources' positions205and the position, orientation and characteristics104of the virtual microphone. In certain embodiments, according to the side information106that needs to be computed, the audio signal of the virtual microphone105can also be taken into account as input to the spatial side information computation module507.

The output of the spatial side information computation module507is the side information of the virtual microphone106. This side information can be, for instance, the DOA or the diffuseness of sound for each time-frequency bin (k, n) from the point of view of the virtual microphone. Another possible side information could, for instance, be the active sound intensity vector Ia(k, n) which would have been measured in the position of the virtual microphone. How these parameters can be derived, will now be described.

According to an embodiment, DOA estimation for the virtual spatial microphone is realized. The information computation module120is adapted to estimate the direction of arrival at the virtual microphone as spatial side information, based on a position vector of the virtual microphone and based on a position vector of the sound event as illustrated byFIG. 22.

FIG. 22depicts a possible way to derive the DOA of the sound from the point of view of the virtual microphone. The position of the sound event, provided by block205inFIG. 19, can be described for each time-frequency bin (k, n) with a position vector r(k, n), the position vector of the sound event. Similarly, the position of the virtual microphone, provided as input104inFIG. 19, can be described with a position vector s(k,n), the position vector of the virtual microphone. The look direction of the virtual microphone can be described by a vector v(k, n). The DOA relative to the virtual microphone is given by a(k,n). It represents the angle between v and the sound propagation path h(k,n). h(k, n) can be computed by employing the formula:
h(k,n)=s(k,n)−r(k,n).

The desired DOA a(k, n) can now be computed for each (k, n) for instance via the definition of the dot product of h(k, n) and v(k,n), namely
a(k,n)=arcos(h(k,n)·v(k,n)/(∥h(k,n)∥∥v(k,n)∥).

In another embodiment, the information computation module120may be adapted to estimate the active sound intensity at the virtual microphone as spatial side information, based on a position vector of the virtual microphone and based on a position vector of the sound event as illustrated byFIG. 22.

From the DOA a(k, n) defined above, we can derive the active sound intensity Ia(k, n) at the position of the virtual microphone. For this, it is assumed that the virtual microphone audio signal105inFIG. 19corresponds to the output of an omnidirectional microphone, e.g., we assume, that the virtual microphone is an omnidirectional microphone. Moreover, the looking direction v inFIG. 22is assumed to be parallel to the x-axis of the coordinate system. Since the desired active sound intensity vector Ia(k, n) describes the net flow of energy through the position of the virtual microphone, we can compute Ia(k, n) can be computed, e.g. according to the formula:
Ia(k,n)=−(½rho)|Pv(k,n)|2*[cosa(k,n), sina(k,n)]T,
where [ ]Tdenotes a transposed vector, rho is the air density, and Pv(k, n) is the sound pressure measured by the virtual spatial microphone, e.g., the output105of block506inFIG. 19.

If the active intensity vector shall be computed expressed in the general coordinate system but still at the position of the virtual microphone, the following formula may be applied:
Ia(k,n)=(½rho)|Pv(k,n)|2h(k,n)/∥h(k,n)∥.

The diffuseness of sound expresses how diffuse the sound field is in a given time-frequency slot (see, for example, [2]). Diffuseness is expressed by a value ψ, wherein 0≤ψ≤1. A diffuseness of 1 indicates that the total sound field energy of a sound field is completely diffuse. This information is important e.g. in the reproduction of spatial sound.

Traditionally, diffuseness is computed at the specific point in space in which a microphone array is placed.

According to an embodiment, the diffuseness may be computed as an additional parameter to the side information generated for the Virtual Microphone (VM), which can be placed at will at an arbitrary position in the sound scene. By this, an apparatus that also calculates the diffuseness besides the audio signal at a virtual position of a virtual microphone can be seen as a virtual DirAC front-end, as it is possible to produce a DirAC stream, namely an audio signal, direction of arrival, and diffuseness, for an arbitrary point in the sound scene. The DirAC stream may be further processed, stored, transmitted, and played back on an arbitrary multi-loudspeaker setup. In this case, the listener experiences the sound scene as if he or she were in the position specified by the virtual microphone and were looking in the direction determined by its orientation.

FIG. 23illustrates an information computation block according to an embodiment comprising a diffuseness computation unit801for computing the diffuseness at the virtual microphone. The information computation block202is adapted to receive inputs111to11N, that in addition to the inputs ofFIG. 14also include diffuseness at the real spatial microphones. Let ψ(SMI)to ψ(SMN)denote these values. These additional inputs are fed to the information computation module202. The output103of the diffuseness computation unit801is the diffuseness parameter computed at the position of the virtual microphone.

A diffuseness computation unit801of an embodiment is illustrated inFIG. 24depicting more details. According to an embodiment, the energy of direct and diffuse sound at each of the N spatial microphones is estimated. Then, using the information on the positions of the IPLS, and the information on the positions of the spatial and virtual microphones, N estimates of these energies at the position of the virtual microphone are obtained. Finally, the estimates can be combined to improve the estimation accuracy and the diffuseness parameter at the virtual microphone can be readily computed.

Let Edir(SMI)to E(SM N)and Ediff(SM1)to Ediff(SM N)denote the estimates of the energies of direct and diffuse sound for the N spatial microphones computed by energy analysis unit810. If Piis the complex pressure signal and ψiis diffuseness for the i-th spatial microphone, then the energies may, for example, be computed according to the formulae:
Edir(SMi)=(1−Ψi)·|Pi|2
Ediff(SMi)=ψi·|Pi|2

The energy of diffuse sound should be equal in all positions, therefore, an estimate of the diffuse sound energy Ediff(VM)at the virtual microphone can be computed simply by averaging Ediff(SM1)to Ediff(SM N), e.g. in a diffuseness combination unit820, for example, according to the formula:

A more effective combination of the estimates Ediff(SM1)to Ediff(SM N)could be carried out by considering the variance of the estimators, for instance, by considering the SNR.

The energy of the direct sound depends on the distance to the source due to the propagation. Therefore, Edir(SM1)to Edir(SM N)may be modified to take this into account. This may be carried out, e.g., by a direct sound propagation adjustment unit830. For example, if it is assumed that the energy of the direct sound field decays with 1 over the distance squared, then the estimate for the direct sound at the virtual microphone for the i-th spatial microphone may be calculated according to the formula:

Similarly to the diffuseness combination unit820, the estimates of the direct sound energy obtained at different spatial microphones can be combined, e.g. by a direct sound combination unit840. The result is Edir(VM), e.g., the estimate for the direct sound energy at the virtual microphone. The diffuseness at the virtual microphone ψ(VM)may be computed, for example, by a diffuseness sub-calculator850, e.g. according to the formula:

As mentioned above, in some cases, the sound events position estimation carried out by a sound events position estimator fails, e.g., in case of a wrong direction of arrival estimation.FIG. 25illustrates such a scenario. In these cases, regardless of the diffuseness parameters estimated at the different spatial microphone and as received as inputs111to11N, the diffuseness for the virtual microphone103may be set to 1 (i.e., fully diffuse), as no spatially coherent reproduction is possible.

Additionally, the reliability of the DOA estimates at the N spatial microphones may be considered. This may be expressed e.g. in terms of the variance of the DOA estimator or SNR. Such an information may be taken into account by the diffuseness sub-calculator850, so that the VM diffuseness103can be artificially increased in case that the DOA estimates are unreliable. In fact, as a consequence, the position estimates205will also be unreliable.

FIG. 26illustrates an apparatus991for generating a virtual output signal according to an embodiment. The apparatus991for generating a virtual output signal comprises an apparatus992for microphone positioning according to one of the above-described embodiments which comprises a microphone position calculator993. Furthermore, the apparatus for generating a virtual output signal comprises an apparatus994for generating an audio output signal according to one of the above-described embodiments. The output signal generated by the apparatus994for generating an audio output signal is the virtual output signal vos. The microphone position calculator992of the apparatus for microphone positioning991is configured to calculate the position of a microphone as a calculated microphone position cmp. The apparatus994for generating an audio output signal is configured to simulate a recording of a virtual microphone at the calculated microphone position calculated by the apparatus992for microphone positioning. By this, the apparatus992for microphone positioning calculates the virtual position of the virtual microphone for the apparatus994for generating an audio output signal.

The inventive decomposed signal can be stored on a digital storage medium or can be transmitted on a transmission medium such as a wireless transmission medium or a wired transmission medium such as the Internet.

Some embodiments according to the invention comprise a non-transitory data carrier having electronically readable control signals, which are capable of cooperating with a programmable computer system, such that one of the methods described herein is performed.

REFERENCES