Patent ID: 7167566

Claim:
A method of substantially recreating a spatial acoustic perception of a first listener of a first loudspeaker-listener layout for a plurality of listeners of a second loudspeaker-listener layout whereby the perception of the first listener of the first loudspeaker-listener layout is caused by an excitation signal being applied through a first matrix transfer function to a loudspeakers of the first loudspeaker-listener layout, the method comprising the steps of: determining a second matrix of transfer functions from the loudspeakers of the first loudspeaker-listener layout to the ears of the first listener of the first loudspeaker-listener layout; determining a third matrix of transfer functions from a plurality of loudspeakers of the second loudspeaker-listener layout to the ears of the plurality of listeners of the second loudspeaker-listener layout; determining a fourth matrix of transfer functions from the first, second, and third matrices which substantially recreates the spatial acoustic perception of the first listener of the first loudspeaker-listener layout for the plurality of listeners of the second loudspeaker-listener layout; and applying the excitation signal to an electronic implementation of the fourth matrix and in turn to the plurality of loudspeakers of the second loudspeaker-listener layout, for the benefit of the plurality of listeners in the second loudspeaker-listener layout, wherein at least some of the elemental transfer functions of the second, third, and fourth matrices of transfer functions are derived from model head-related transfer functions, and wherein the plurality of listeners of the second loudspeaker-listener layout all listen simultaneously.