Patent ID: 8027476

Claim:
An apparatus for reproducing stereophonic sound to a listener facing a listening direction, using at least one speaker, the apparatus comprising: a memory storing a plurality of transfer functions defining propagation characteristics of sound propagating between the speakers and listening positions; a filter for separating low frequency components from a binaural sound pickup signal at a filter frequency; means for delaying high frequency components of the binaural sound pickup signal relative to the separated low frequency components by a delay time; and a stereophonic sound signal generation processor for: selecting, from the memory, at least one of the transfer functions based on an angle between the listening direction and a direction to one of the speakers; and generating, based on the selected at least one transfer function, a stereophonic sound reproduction signal by processing the separated low frequency components and the delayed high frequency components, wherein the delay time reduces echo between the high frequency components and the low frequency components and causes a perceived sound image position of the sound perceived by the listener to match a physical position of the at least one speaker.