Patent ID: 8442244

Claim:
A surround sound system, for recording and realistic reproduction simulating original surround sound, comprising: a set of microphones, mounted on microphone support structure including a head portion configured to support the set of microphones in predetermined locations for surround sound recording in a designated acoustic space: said set of microphones including first and second microphones having generally cardioid directivity, located in an upper frontal region of said head portion and oriented generally horizontally and forwardly at a contained angle of about 90 degrees so as to provide left and right front channel signals respectively; and third and fourth microphones having generally omnidirectional directivity, located at left and right ear locations of the head portion so as to provide left and right ear surround sound channel signals respectively; said set of microphones constituting a surround sound signal source providing a set of surround sound channel signals to be processed in a manner so as to include head-related transfer function (HRTF) information relating to the influence of the head portion on sound patterns at the location of each microphone in the designated acoustic space associated with the signal source; an audio processing system, receiving as input the set of sound channel signals, made and arranged to process the set of sound channel signals encoded with the HRTF information and to amplify the processed signals in a predetermined manner to provide as output a corresponding set of loudspeaker signals; in a surround sound reproduction system, a set of front loudspeakers disposed in front of a listener, receiving a front-related portion of the loudspeaker signals; and a set of small loudspeakers located in close proximity to the listener's ear canals, receiving a side-and-rear-related portion of the loudspeaker signals.