Patent ID: 8705748

Claim:
A processing module for a virtual-sound system configured to convert between virtual sound system operational modes, the processing module comprising: a spatial processor configured to receive a surround-left channel signal, a surround-right channel signal, a front-left channel signal, and a front-right channel signal from a decoder and to spatially process the received surround-left channel signal, surround-right channel signal, front-left channel signal, and front-right channel signal to generate spatially-processed signals, the generated spatially-processed signals comprising a virtualized front-left audio signal based on the received front-left channel signal and a virtualized front-right audio signal based on the received front-right channel signal, the spatial processor comprising a front-channel spatial-processing circuitry having at least one head-related transfer function filter to process the received front-left channel signal and the received front-right channel signal; a circuitry, coupled to the spatial processor, configured to receive the spatially-processed signals generated by the spatial processor, to generate separate signals for a first driver and a second driver of a center channel array in a single center speaker unit by removing crosstalk from the received spatially-processed signals and adding a center channel signal to the received spatially-processed signals after the removing of the crosstalk from the received spatially-processed signals, and to provide the generated separate signals to the first driver and the second driver of the center channel array in the single center speaker unit; and a front-virtualization control circuitry, coupled to the decoder and the spatial processor, configured to provide the front-left channel signal and the front-right channel signal from the decoder to the spatial processor and to cause: the spatial processor to selectively refrain from the spatially processing of the received front-left channel signal, including the at least one head-related transfer function filter processing of the received front-left channel signal, based on a detection of an electrical connection from the front-virtualization control circuitry to a front-left speaker and to inhibit providing the virtualized front-left audio signal from the spatial processor to one of the first driver and the second driver of the center channel array in the single center speaker unit, and the spatial processor to selectively refrain from the spatially processing of the received front-right channel signal, including the at least one head-related transfer function filter processing of the received front-right channel signal, based on a detection of an electrical connection from the front-virtualization control circuitry to a front-right speaker and to inhibit providing the virtualized front-right audio signal from the spatial processor to other one of the first driver and the second driver of the center channel array in the single center speaker unit.