3 D Sound For Virtual Reality And Multimedia

This is the complete practical introduction to virtual reality and multimedia for those wishing to build systems. It covers the foundations and engineering needed to design and construct projects incorporating video, audio and textural elements and including the use of the latest hardware, to create an artificial world for education, information or entertainment. Production and authoring platforms are described, computer animation and hypertext are covered, but those looking for pages of software listings and computerspeak will be disappointed. This book is about the nuts and bolts: sound and video cards, head mounted displays, CrystalEyes glasses, other 3D glasses for entertainment, audio and video production, and realistic auditory and visual stimulation including stereoscopy. The creation of Cyberspace, and strategies to achieve a complete Cyberatmosphere are presented. Three-dimensional sound generation and video techniques that have never previously been published are revealed. This is the handbook for anyone working in the industry, or hoping to enter it. It also provides a guide for those hoping to 'cross-fertilise' the industry, coming from audio, video, computing or engineering backgrounds. A complete technical guide to MM and VR Includes a Hypertext edition of the book with added audio and graphics on CD Hardware, software, video and never before published 3D audio techniques covered

3D Audio offers a detailed perspective of this rapidly developing arena. Written by many of the world’s leading researchers and practitioners, it draws from science, technologies, and creative practice to provide insight into cutting-edge research in 3D audio. Through exploring the intersection of these fields, the reader will gain insight into a number of research areas and professional practice in 3D sonic space. As such, the book acts both as a primer that enables readers to gain an understanding of various aspects of 3D audio, and can inform students and audio enthusiasts, but its deep treatment of a diverse range of topics will also inform professional practitioners and academics beyond their core specialisms. The chapters cover areas such as an Ambisonics, binaural technologies and approaches, psychoacoustics, 3D audio recording, composition for 3D space, 3D audio in live sound, broadcast, and movies – and more. Overall, this book offers a definitive insight into an emerging sound world that is increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives.

Immersive Sound: The Art and Science of Binaural and Multi-Channel Audio provides a comprehensive guide to multi-channel sound. With contributions from leading recording engineers, researchers, and industry experts, Immersive Sound includes an in-depth description of the physics and psychoacoustics of spatial audio as well as practical applications. Chapters include the history of 3D sound, binaural reproduction over headphones and loudspeakers, stereo, surround sound, height channels, object-based audio, soundfield (ambisonics), wavefield synthesis, and multi-channel mixing techniques. Knowledge of the development, theory, and practice of spatial and multi-channel sound is essential to those advancing the research and applications in the rapidly evolving fields of 3D sound recording, augmented and virtual reality, gaming, film sound, music production, and post-production.

Adaptive 3D Sound Systems focuses on creating multiple virtual sound sources in 3D reverberant spaces using adaptive filters. Adaptive algorithms are introduced and explained, including the multiple-error filtered-x algorithm and the adjoint LMS algorithm. The book covers the physical, psychoacoustical, and signal processing aspects of adaptive and non-adaptive 3D sound systems. Included is an introduction to spatial hearing, sound localization and reverberation, frequency selectivity of the human auditory system, the state of the art in HRTF-based 3D sound systems, binaural synthesis, and loudspeaker displays. The adaptive approach to HRTF-based 3D sound systems is examined in detail for the general case of creating multiple virtual sound sources at the ears of multiple listeners in a reverberant 3D space. The derived solution can be applied to other applications, such as cross-talk cancellation, loudspeakers and room equalization, concert hall simulation, and active sound control. Several solutions for the problem of moving listeners are introduced. Strategies for enlarging the zones of equalization around the listeners' ears, correct loudspeakers positioning, and using multiresolution filters are proposed. Fast multiresolution spectral analysis using non-uniform sampling is developed for implementation of multiresolution filters. The well-focused topics, along with implementation details for adaptive algorithms, make Adaptive 3D Sound Systems suitable for multimedia applications programmers, advanced level students, and researchers in audio and signal processing.

This book covers all aspects of head-related transfer function (HRTF), from the fundamentals through to the latest applications, such as 3D sound systems. An introductory chapter defines HRTF, describes the coordinate system used in the book, and presents the most recent research achievements in the field. HRTF and sound localization in the horizontal and median planes are then explained, followed by discussion of individual differences in HRTF, solutions to this individuality (personalization of HRTF), and methods of sound image control for an arbitrary 3D direction, encompassing both classic theory and state of the art data. The relations between HRTF and sound image distance and between HRTF and speech intelligibility are fully explored, and measurement and signal processing methods for HRTF are examined in depth. Here, supplementary material is provided to enable readers to measure and analyze HRTF by themselves. In addition, some typical HRTF databases are compared. The final two chapters are devoted to the principles and applications of acoustic virtual reality. This clearly written book will be ideal for all who wish to learn about HRTF and how to use it in their research.

This professional book offers a unique, comprehensive and timely guide on 3D audio recording. Intended for sound engineers and professionals, and summarizing more than twenty-year research on this topic, it includes extensive information and details on various microphone techniques and loudspeaker layouts, such as Auro-3D®, Dolby® AtmosTM, DTS:X®, MMAD, SONY 360 Reality Audio and Ambisonics. It presents a rich set of results obtained from both objective measurements and subjective listening tests, and a number of case studies for 3D recording, ranging from solo-instrument techniques to full symphony orchestra, and microphone systems for virtual reality applications. Further, it includes a chapter on spatial hearing discussing issues of 3D audio sound reproduction. All in all, this book offers extensive, practical information for sound engineers and professionals.

This open access book provides a concise explanation of the fundamentals and background of the surround sound recording and playback technology Ambisonics. It equips readers with the psychoacoustical, signal processing, acoustical, and mathematical knowledge needed to understand the inner workings of modern processing utilities, special equipment for recording, manipulation, and reproduction in the higher-order Ambisonic format. The book comes with various practical examples based on free software tools and open scientific data for reproducible research. The book’s introductory section offers a perspective on Ambisonics spanning from the origins of coincident recordings in the 1930s to the Ambisonic concepts of the 1970s, as well as classical ways of applying Ambisonics in first-order coincident sound scene recording and reproduction that have been practiced since the 1980s. As, from time to time, the underlying mathematics become quite involved, but should be comprehensive without sacrificing readability, the book includes an extensive mathematical appendix. The book offers readers a deeper understanding of Ambisonic technologies, and will especially benefit scientists, audio-system and audio-recording engineers. In the advanced sections of the book, fundamentals and modern techniques as higher-order Ambisonic decoding, 3D audio effects, and higher-order recording are explained. Those techniques are shown to be suitable to supply audience areas ranging from studio-sized to hundreds of listeners, or headphone-based playback, regardless whether it is live, interactive, or studio-produced 3D audio material.