Patent ID: 7756274

Claim:
A system for providing a listener with an augmented audio reality in a geographical environment, the system comprising: a position locating system configured to determine a current position and orientation of a listener in the geographical environment, the geographical environment being a real environment at which one or more items of potential interest are located, each item of potential interest having an associated predetermined audio track; an audio track retrieval system configured to retrieve for any one of the items of potential interest the audio track associated with the item and having a predetermined spatialization component dependent on the location of the item of potential interest associated with the audio track in the geographical environment; an audio track rendering system adapted to render an input audio signal based on any one of the associated audio tracks to a series of speakers such that the listener experiences a sound that appears to emanate from the location of the item of potential interest to which is associated the audio track that the input audio signal is based on; and an audio track playback system interconnected to the position locating system and the audio track retrieval system arranged such that the system automatically ascertains using the current listener position and orientation, the spatial relationship between the listener and the items of potential interest, the playback system configured to automatically ascertain which audio track, if any, to automatically forward to the rendering system according to the ascertained relationship to the items of potential interest, and further configured to forward the ascertained audio tracks to the audio rendering system for rendering depending on the current position and orientation of the listener in the geographical environment and the ascertained relationship, such that the listener for any particular item of potential interest for which an audio track has been forwarded, has the sensation that the forwarded audio track associated with the particular item is emanating from the location in the geographical environment of the particular item of interest, wherein said position locating system comprises at least one of a compass, a global positioning system, a radio frequency positioning system or an electromagnetic wave positioning.