Patent ID: 7533346

Claim:
An interactive spatialized audiovisual system for linking a plurality of remote user terminals, the system comprising: a processing system coupled to a network; and; an associated user database coupled to or part of the processing system, the user database including user data, including user status information for each corresponding user, wherein the processing system is configured to: receive a plurality of audio streams and associated locating data from the remote user terminals each audio stream corresponding to a user as a source of audio, the locating data for virtually locating the users relative to one another within a virtual user environment; select at least one group of at least one of the plurality of audio streams based on status information in the user database, each group corresponding to one of the users, combine at least some of the plurality of audio streams to form a combined stream, and send to each of at least one of the remote user terminals via the network the respective selected group of audio streams and associated locating data corresponding to the user of the remote user terminal, and send to the at least one of the remote user terminals via the network a function of the combined stream; the function possibly user dependent, wherein, a particular remote user terminal coupled to the network and corresponding to a particular user is configured to: receive the sent group of audio streams and the function of the combined stream; display a visual representation of the virtual user environment, including representations of at least some of the users; and convert the audio streams of the group corresponding to the particular user and the function of the combined stream to a pair of audio headphones signals including binauralized reverberant signals generated according to the combined stream, wherein the converting includes spatializing the audio streams of the group such that the particular user, listening to the headphone signals over headphones, has the sensation that the audio streams of the group are emanating from their respective user locations in the virtual user environment relative to the location of the particular user, wherein the spatializing includes HRTF processing to take into account the orientation and location of the particular user in the virtual user environment, and to take into account direct sounds and early echoes, and reverberation according to a non-spatial combination of audio streams.