Patent ID: 7489788

Claim:
A method for recording and reproducing a three dimensional auditory scene for individual listeners, the method including: arranging a directional microphone array, comprising a plurality of microphones, such that the microphones have acoustic properties that vary with the direction of sound in space, the microphone array comprising at least one primary microphone to capture a sound field to be modified and a plurality of secondary microphones arranged about the at least one primary microphone, the secondary microphones being used to characterise directional aspects of the sound field; determining directional acoustic transfer functions for a number of directions in space for a number of microphones in the microphone array by measuring at least one of an impulse response and a frequency response of each of the number of microphones for the number of directions in space; determining directional acoustic transfer functions for a number of directions in space for left and right external ears of the individual listener by measuring at least one of an impulse response and a frequency response of each ear for the number of directions in space; establishing a relative geometrical frame of reference as a function of time between the orientation and position of the external ears of the individual listener and the orientation and position of the microphone array in an original sound field at the time of the recording of the sound field; and recording a three dimensional auditory scene using the microphone array; modifying the sound recorded by the microphone array using information derived from the differences between the directional acoustic transfer functions of the microphones in the microphone array and the directional acoustic transfer functions of the external ears of the individual listener and also directional information derived from recorded microphone signals and the geometrical frame of reference in order to perceptually improve the estimate of the sound that would have been present at the ears of the individual listener were the individual listener to have been present at the position of the microphone array and facing a specific direction in the original sound field; and collecting, arranging, and/or combining the signals intended for the left and right external ears of the individual listener into an output format and identifying these signals as a representation of a three-dimensional auditory scene that enables a perceptually valid acoustic reproduction of the sound that would have been present at the ears of the individual listener, were the individual listener to have been present at the position of the microphone array in the original sound field.