METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING 3D AUDIO CONTENT FROM TWO-CHANNEL STEREO CONTENT

Abstract

For generating 3D audio content from a two-channel stereo signal, the stereo signal (x(t)) is partitioned into overlapping sample blocks and is transformed into time-frequency domain. From the stereo signal directional and ambient signal components are separated, wherein the estimated directions of the directional components are changed by a predetermined factor, wherein, if changes are within a predetermined interval, they are combined in order to form a directional centre channel object signal. For the other directions an encoding to Higher Order Ambisonics HOA is performed. Additional ambient signal channels are generated by de-correlation and rating by gain factors, followed by encoding to HOA. The directional HOA signals and the ambient HOA signals are combined, and the combined HOA signal and the centre channel object signals are transformed to time domain.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to a method and to an apparatus for generating 3D audio scene or object based content from two-channel stereo based content.

BACKGROUND

The invention is related to the creation of 3D audio scene/object based audio content from two-channel stereo channel based content. Some references related to up mixing two-channel stereo content to 2D surround channel based content include: [2] V. Pulkki, “Spatial sound reproduction with directional audio coding”, J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 503-516, June 2007; [3] C. Avendano, J. M. Jot, “A frequency-domain approach to multichannel upmix”, J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 52, no. 7/8, pp. 740-749, July/August 2004; [4] M. M. Goodwin, J. M. Jot, “Spatial audio scene coding”, in Proc. 125th Audio Eng. Soc. Conv., 2008, San Francisco, Calif.; [5] V. Pulkki, “Virtual sound source positioning using vector base amplitude panning”, J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 456-466, June 1997; [6] J. Thompson, B. Smith, A. Warner, J. M. Jot, “Direct-diffuse decomposition of multichannel signals using a system of pair-wise correlations”, Proc. 133rd Audio Eng. Soc. Conv., 2012, San Francisco, Calif.; [7] C. Faller, “Multiple-loudspeaker playback of stereo signals”, J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 54, no. 11, pp. 1051-1064, November 2006; [8] M. Briand, D. Virette, N. Martin, “Parametric representation of multichannel audio based on principal component analysis”, Proc. 120th Audio Eng. Soc. Conv., 2006, Paris; [9] A. Walther, C. Faller, “Direct-ambient decomposition and upmix of surround signals”, Proc. IWASPAA, pp. 277-280, October 2011, New Paltz, N.Y.; [10] E. G. Williams, “Fourier Acoustics”, Applied Mathematical Sciences, vol. 93, 1999, Academic Press; [11] B. Rafaely, “Plane-wave decomposition of the sound field on a sphere by spherical convolution”, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 4(116), pages 2149-2157, October 2004.

Additional information is also included in [1] ISO/IEC IS 23008-3, “Information technology—High efficiency coding and media delivery in heterogeneous environments—Part 3: 3D audio”.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Loudspeaker setups that are not fixed to one loudspeaker may be addressed by special up/down-mix or re-rendering processing.

When an original spatial virtual position is altered, timbre and loudness artefacts can occur for encodings of two-channel stereo to Higher Order Ambisonics (denoted HOA) using the speaker positions as plane wave origins.

In the context of spatial audio, while both audio image sharpness and spaciousness may be desirable, the two may have contradictory requirements. Sharpness allows an audience to clearly identify directions of audio sources, while spaciousness enhances a listener's feeling of envelopment.

The present disclosure is directed to maintaining both sharpness and spaciousness after converting two-channel stereo channel based content to 3D audio scene/object based audio content.

A primary ambient decomposition (PAD) may separate directional and ambient components found in channel based audio. The directional component is an audio signal related to a source direction. This directional component may be manipulated to determine a new directional component. The new directional component may be encoded to HOA, except for the centre channel direction where the related signal is handled as a static object channel. Additional ambient representations are derived from the ambient components. The additional ambient representations are encoded to HOA.

The encoded HOA directional and ambient components may be combined and an output of the combined HOA representation and the centre channel signal may be provided.

In one example, this processing may be represented as:

• A) A two-channel stereo signal x(t) is partitioned into overlapping sample blocks. The partitioned signals are transformed into the time-frequency domain (T/F) using a filter-bank, such as, for example by means of an FFT. The transformation may determine T/F tiles.
• B) In the T/F domain, direct and ambient signal components are separated from the two-channel stereo signal x(t) based on:
  • B.1) Estimating ambient power P_N({circumflex over (t)},k), direct power P_S({circumflex over (t)},k), source directions φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k), and mixing coefficients a for the directional signal components to be extracted.
  • B.2) Extracting: (i) two ambient T/F signal channels n({circumflex over (t)},k) and (ii) one directional signal component s({circumflex over (t)},k) for each T/F tile related to each estimated source direction φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k) from B.1.
  • B.3) Manipulating the estimated source directions φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k) by a stage_width factor _W.
    • B.3.a) If the manipulated directions related to the T/F tile components are within an interval of ±center_
    • channel capture width factor c_W, they are combined in order to form a directional centre channel object signal o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) in the T/F domain.
    • B.3.b) For directions other than those in B.3.a), the directional T/F tiles are encoded to HOA using a spherical harmonic encoding vector y_s({circumflex over (t)},k) derived from the manipulated source directions, thus creating a directional HOA signal b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) in the T/F domain.
  • B.4) Deriving additional ambient signal channels ({circumflex over (t)},k) by de-correlating the extracted ambient channels n({circumflex over (t)},k), rating these channels by gain factors g_L, and encoding all ambient channels to HOA by creating a spherical harmonics encoding matrix from predefined positions, and thus creating an ambient HOA signal ({circumflex over (t)},k) in the T/F domain.
• C) Creating a combined HOA signal b({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain by combining the directional HOA signals b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and the ambient HOA signals ({circumflex over (t)},k).
• D) Transforming this HOA signal b({circumflex over (t)},k) and the centre channel object signals o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) to time domain by using an inverse filter-bank.
• E) Storing or transmitting the resulting time domain HOA signal b(t) and the centre channel object signal o_c(t) using an MPEG-H 3D Audio data rate compression encoder.

A new format may utilize HOA for encoding spatial audio information plus a static object for encoding a centre channel. The new 3D audio scene/object content can be used when pimping up or upmixing legacy stereo content to 3D audio. The content may then be transmitted based on any MPEG-H compression and can be used for rendering to any loudspeaker setup.

In principle, the inventive method is adapted for generating 3D audio scene and object based content from two-channel stereo based content, and includes:

• • partitioning a two-channel stereo signal into overlapping sample blocks followed by a transform into time-frequency domain T/F;
  • separating direct and ambient signal components from said two-channel stereo signal in T/F domain by:
    • estimating ambient power, direct power, source directions φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and mixing coefficients for directional signal components to be extracted;
    • extracting two ambient T/F signal channels n({circumflex over (t)},k) and one directional signal component s({circumflex over (t)},k) for each T/F tile related to an estimated source direction φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k);
    • changing said estimated source directions by a predetermined factor, wherein, if said changed directions related to the T/F tile components are within a predetermined interval, they are combined in order to form a directional centre channel object signal o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain,
  • and for the other changed directions outside of said interval, encoding the directional T/F tiles to Higher Order Ambisonics HOA using a spherical harmonic encoding vector derived from said changed source directions, thereby generating a directional HOA signal b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain;
    • generating additional ambient signal channels ({circumflex over (t)},k) by de-correlating said extracted ambient channels n({circumflex over (t)},k) and rating these channels by gain factors,
  • and encoding all ambient channels to HOA by generating a spherical harmonics encoding matrix from predefined positions, thereby generating an ambient HOA signal ({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain;
  • generating a combined HOA signal b({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain by combining said directional HOA signals b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and said ambient HOA signals ({circumflex over (t)},k);
  • transforming said combined HOA signal b({circumflex over (t)},k) and said centre channel object signals o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) to time domain.

In principle the inventive apparatus is adapted for generating 3D audio scene and object based content from two-channel stereo based content, said apparatus including means adapted to:

• • partition a two-channel stereo signal into overlapping sample blocks followed by transform into time-frequency domain T/F;
  • separate direct and ambient signal components from said two-channel stereo signal in T/F domain by:
    • estimating ambient power, direct power, source directions φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and mixing coefficients for directional signal components to be extracted;
    • extracting two ambient T/F signal channels n({circumflex over (t)},k) and one directional signal component s({circumflex over (t)},k) for each T/F tile related to an estimated source direction φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k);
    • changing said estimated source directions by a predetermined factor, wherein, if said changed directions related to the T/F tile components are within a predetermined interval, they are combined in order to form a directional centre channel object signal o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain,
  • and for the other changed directions outside of said interval, encoding the directional T/F tiles to Higher Order Ambisonics HOA using a spherical harmonic encoding vector derived from said changed source directions, thereby generating a directional HOA signal b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain;
    • generating additional ambient signal channels ({circumflex over (t)},k) by de-correlating said extracted ambient channels n({circumflex over (t)},k) and rating these channels by gain factors,
  • and encoding all ambient channels to HOA by generating a spherical harmonics encoding matrix from predefined positions, thereby generating an ambient HOA signal ({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain;
  • generate (11, 31) a combined HOA signal b({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain by combining said directional HOA signals b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and said ambient HOA signals ({circumflex over (t)},k);
  • transform (11, 31) said combined HOA signal b({circumflex over (t)},k) and said centre channel object signals o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) to time domain.

In principle, the inventive method is adapted for generating 3D audio scene and object based content from two-channel stereo based content, and includes: receiving the two-channel stereo based content represented by a plurality of time/frequency (T/F) tiles; determining, for each tile, ambient power, direct power, source directions φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and mixing coefficients; determining, for each tile, a directional signal and two ambient T/F channels based on the corresponding ambient power, direct power, and mixing coefficients;

determining the 3D audio scene and object based content based on the directional signal and ambient T/F channels of the T/F tiles. The method may further include wherein, for each tile, a new source direction is determined based on the source direction φ_s({circumflex over (t)},k), and, based on a determination that the new source direction is within a predetermined interval, a directional centre channel object signal o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) is determined based on the directional signal, the directional centre channel object signal o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) corresponding to the object based content, and, based on a determination that the new source direction is outside the predetermined interval, a directional HOA signal b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) is determined based on the new source direction. Moreover, for each tile, additional ambient signal channels ({circumflex over (t)},k) may be determined based on a de-correlation of the two ambient T/F channels, and ambient HOA signals ({circumflex over (t)},k) are determined based on the additional ambient signal channels. The 3D audio scene content is based on the directional HOA signals b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and the ambient HOA signals ({circumflex over (t)}, k).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Exemplary embodiments of the invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show in:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary HOA upconverter;

FIG. 2 illustrates Spherical and Cartesian reference coordinate system;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary artistic interference HOA upconverter;

FIG. 4 illustrates classical PCA coordinates system (left) and intended coordinate system (right) that complies with FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 illustrates comparison of extracted azimuth source directions using the simplified method and the tangent method;

FIG. 6 shows exemplary curves 6a, 6b and 6c related to altering panning directions by naive HOA encoding of two-channel content, for two loudspeaker channels that are 60° apart;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary method for converting two-channel stereo based content to 3D audio scene and object based content; and

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary apparatus configured to convert two-channel stereo based content to 3D audio scene and object based content.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Even if not explicitly described, the following embodiments may be employed in any combination or sub-combination.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary HOA upconverter 11. The HOA upconverter 11 may receive a two-channel stereo signal x(t) 10. The two-channel stereo signal 10 is provided to an HOA upconverter 11. The HOA upconverter 11 may further receive an input parameter set vector p_c 12. The HOA upconverter 11 then determines a HOA signal b(t) 13 having (N+1)² coefficient sequences for encoding spatial audio information and a centre channel object signal o_c(t) for encoding a static object. In one example, HOA upconverter 11 may be implemented as part of a computing device that is adapted to perform the processing carried out by each of said respective units.

FIG. 2 shows a spherical coordinate system, in which the x axis points to the frontal position, the y axis points to the left, and the z axis points to the top. A position in space x=(r,θ,ϕ)^T is represented by a radius r>0 (i.e. the distance to the coordinate origin), an inclination angle θ∈[0,π] measured from the polar axis z and an azimuth angle ϕ∈[0,2π[ measured counter-clockwise in the x-y plane from the x axis. (⋅)^T denotes a transposition. The sound pressure is expressed in HOA as a function of these spherical coordinates and spatial frequency

$k=\frac{\omega }{c}=\frac{2\pi f}{c},$

wherein c is the speed of sound waves in air.

The following definitions are used in this application (see also FIG. 2). Bold lowercase letters indicate a vector and bold uppercase letters indicate a matrix. For brevity, discrete time and frequency indices t,{circumflex over (t)},k are often omitted if allowed by the context.

TABLE 1
1.	x(t)	Input two-channel stereo signal, x(t) =	xϵ   2
		[x1(t), x2(t)]T, where t indicates a sample
		value related to the sampling frequency
		fs
2.	b(t)	Output HOA signal with HOA order N	bϵ   (N+1)2
		b(t) = [{dot over (b)}1(t), . . . , {dot over (b)}(N+1)2(t)]T = [b00(t), b1−1 . . . , bNN(t)]
3.	oc(t)	Output centre channel object signal	ocϵ   1
4.	p c	Input parameter vector with control
		values: stage_width W,
		center_channel_capture_width
		cW, maximum HOA order
		index N, ambient gains gLϵ L,
		direct_sound_encoding_elevation θS
5.	{circumflex over (Ω)}	A spherical position vector according
		to FIG. 2. {circumflex over (Ω)} = [r, θ, ϕ] with radius r,
		inclination θ and azimuth ϕ
6.	Ω	Spherical direction vector {circumflex over (Ω)} = [θ, ϕ]
7.	φx	Ideal loudspeaker position azimuth
		angle related to signal x1, assuming
		that −φx is the position related to x2
8.		T/F Domain variables:
9.	x({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Input and output signals in complex T/F	xϵ   2
	b({circumflex over (t)}, k)	domain, where {circumflex over (t)} indicates the discrete	bϵ   (N+1)2
	oc({circumflex over (t)}, k)	temporal index and k the discrete	ocϵ   1
		frequency index
10.	s({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Extracted directional signal component	sϵ   1
11.	a({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Gain vector that mixes the directional	aϵ   2
		components into x({circumflex over (t)}, k), a = [a1, a2]T
12.	φs({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Azimuth angle of virtual source	φsϵ   1
		direction of s({circumflex over (t)}, k)
13.	n({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Extracted ambient signal components,	nϵ   2
		n = [n1, n2]T
14.	PS({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Estimated power of directional
		component
15.	PN({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Estimated power of ambient components
		n1, n2
16.	C({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Correlation/covariance matrix,	Cϵ   2×2
		C({circumflex over (t)}, k) = E(x({circumflex over (t)}, k) x({circumflex over (t)}, k)H), with E( )
		denoting the expectation operator
17.	({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Ambient component vector consisting of	ϵ   L
		L ambience channels
18.	y s ({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Spherical harmonics vector ys =	y s
		[Y00(θS, ϕs), Y1−1 (θS, ϕs), . . . , YNN(θS, ϕs)]T to encode
		s to HOA, where θS, ϕs is the encoding
		direction of the directional component,
		ϕs =   W φs
19.	Ynm(θ, ϕ)	Spherical Harmonic (SH) of order n and	Ynm ϵ   (N+1)2
		degree m. See [1] and section HOA
		format description for details. All
		considerations are valid for N3D
		normalised SHs.
20.		Mode matrix to encode the ambient	Ψ L ϵ   (N+1)2xL
		component vector   to HOA.  =
		=
		[Y00(θL, ϕL), Y1−1(θL, ϕL), . . . , YNN(θL, ϕL)]T
21.	b s({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Directional HOA component
	({circumflex over (t)}, k)	Diffuse HOA component

Initialization

In one example, an initialisation may include providing to or receiving by a method or a device a channel stereo signal x(t) and control parameters p_c (e.g., the two-channel stereo signal x(t) 10 and the input parameter set vector p_c 12 illustrated in FIG. 1). The parameter p_c may include one or more of the following elements:

• • stage_width _W element that represents a factor for manipulating source directions of extracted directional sounds, (e.g., with a typical value range from 0.5 to 3);
  • center_channel_capture_width c_W element that relates to setting an interval (e.g., in degrees) in which extracted direct sounds will be re-rendered to a centre channel object signal; where a negative c_W value (e.g. in the range 0 to 10 degrees) will defeat this channel and zero PCM values will be the output of o_c(t); and a positive value of c_W will mean that all direct sounds will be rendered to the centre channel if their manipulated source direction is in the interval [−c_W,c_W].
  • max HOA order index N element that defines the HOA order of the output HOA signal b(t) that will have (N+1)² HOA coefficient channels;
    • ambient gains g_L elements that relate to L values are used for rating the derived ambient signals ({circumflex over (t)},k) before HOA encoding; these gains (e.g. in the range 0 to 2) manipulate image sharpness and spaciousness;
    • direct sound encoding elevation θ_S element (e.g. in the range −10 to +30 degrees) that sets the virtual height when encoding direct sources to HOA.

The elements of parameter p_c may be updated during operation of a system, for example by updating a smooth envelope of these elements or parameters.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary artistic interference HOA upconverter 31. The HOA upconverter 31 may receive a two-channel stereo signal x(t) 34 and an artistic control parameter set vector p_c 35. The HOA upconverter 31 may determine an output HOA signal b(t) 36 having (N+1)² coefficient sequences and a centre channel object signal o_c(t) 37 that are provided to a rendering unit 32, the output signal of which are being provided to a monitoring unit 33. In one example, the HOA upconverter 31 may be implemented as part of a computing device that is adapted to perform the processing carried out by each of said respective units.

T/F Analysis Filter Bank

A two channel stereo signal x(t) may be transformed by HOA upconverter 11 or 31 into the time/frequency (T/F) domain by a filter bank. In one embodiment a fast fourier transform (FFT) is used with 50% overlapping blocks of 4096 samples. Smaller frequency resolutions may be utilized, although there may be a trade-off between processing speed and separation performance. The transformed input signal may be denoted as x({circumflex over (t)},k) in T/F domain, where {circumflex over (t)} relates to the processed block and k denotes the frequency band or bin index.

T/F Domain Signal Analysis

In one example, for each T/F tile of the input two-channel stereo signal x(t), a correlation matrix may be determined. In one example, the correlation matrix may be determined based on:

$\begin{array}{cc}C\left(\hat{t},k\right)=E\left(x\left(\hat{t},k\right){x\left(\hat{t},k\right)}^H\right)=\left[\begin{array}{cc}{c}_{11}\left(\hat{t},k\right)& c_{12}\left(\hat{t},k\right)\\ c_{21}\left(\hat{t},k\right)& c_{22}\left(\hat{t},k\right)\end{array}\right],& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.1\end{array}$

wherein E( ) denotes the expectation operator. The expectation can be determined based on a mean value over t_num temporal T/F values (index {circumflex over (t)}) by using a ring buffer or an IIR smoothing filter.

The Eigenvalues of the correlation matrix may then be determined, such as for example based on:

λ₁({circumflex over (t)},k)=½(c₂₂+c₁₁+√{square root over ((c₁₁−c₂₂)²+4|c_r12|²)})  Equation No. 2a

λ₂({circumflex over (t)},k)=½(c₂₂+c₁₁−√{square root over ((c₁₁−c₂₂)²+4|c_r12|²)})  Equation No. 2b

wherein c_r12=real(c₁₂) denotes the real part of c₁₂. The indices ({circumflex over (t)},k) may be omitted during certain notations, e.g., as within Equation Nos. 2a and 2b.

For each tile, based on the correlation matrix, the following may be determined: ambient power, directional power, elements of a gain vector that mixes the directional components, and an azimuth angle of the virtual source direction s({circumflex over (t)},k) to be extracted.

In one example, the ambient power may be determined based on the second eigenvalue, such as for example:

P _N({circumflex over (t)},k):P_N({circumflex over (t)},k)=λ₂({circumflex over (t)},k)  Equation No. 3

In another example, the directional power may be determined based on the first eigenvalue and the ambient power, such as for example:

P _s({circumflex over (t)},k):P_s({circumflex over (t)},k)=λ₁({circumflex over (t)},k)−P_N({circumflex over (t)},k)  Equation No. 4

In another example, elements of a gain vector a({circumflex over (t)},k)=[a₁({circumflex over (t)},k),a₂({circumflex over (t)},k)]^T that mixes the directional components into x({circumflex over (t)},k) may be determined based on:

$\begin{array}{cc}{a}_1\left(\hat{t},k\right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+{A\left(\hat{t},k\right)}^2}},a_2\left(\hat{t},k\right)=\frac{A\left(\hat{t},k\right)}{\sqrt{1+{A\left(\hat{t},k\right)}^2}},& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.5\end{array}$

with

$\begin{array}{cc}A\left(\hat{t},k\right)=\frac{{\lambda }_1\left(\hat{t},k\right)-c_{11}}{c_{r12}};& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.5a\end{array}$

The azimuth angle of virtual source direction s({circumflex over (t)},k) to be extracted may be determined based on:

$\begin{array}{cc}{\varphi }_s\left(\hat{t},k\right)=\left(\mathrm{atan}\left(\frac{1}{A\left(\hat{t},k\right)}\right)-\frac{\pi }{4}\right)\frac{{\varphi }_x}{\left(\pi /4\right)}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.6\end{array}$

with φ_x giving the loudspeaker position azimuth angle related to signal x₁ in radian (assuming that −φ_x is the position related to x₂).

Directional and Ambient Signal Extraction

In this sub section for better readability the indices ({circumflex over (t)},k) are omitted. Processing is performed for each T/F tile ({circumflex over (t)},k). For each T/F tile, a first directional intermediate signal is extracted based on a gain, such as, for example:

$\begin{array}{cc}\hat{s}:=g^Tx& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.7a\\ \mathrm{with}g=\left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{a_1P_s}{P_s+P_N}\\ \frac{a_2P_s}{P_s+P_N}\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.7b\end{array}$

The intermediate signal may be scaled in order to derive the directional signal, such as for example, based on:

$\begin{array}{cc}s=\sqrt{\frac{P_s}{{\left(g_1a_1+g_2a_2\right)}^2P_s+\left(g_1^2+g_2^2\right)P_N}}\hat{s}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.8\end{array}$

The two elements of an ambient signal n=[n₁,n₂]^T are derived by first calculating intermediate values based on the ambient power, directional power, and the elements of the gain vector:

$\begin{array}{cc}{\hat{n}}_1=h^Tx\mathrm{with}h=\left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{a_2^2P_s+P_N}{P_s+P_N}\\ \frac{-a_1a_2P_s}{P_s+P_N}\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.9a\\ {\hat{n}}_2=w^Tx\mathrm{with}w=\left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{-a_1a_2P_s}{P_s+P_N}\\ \frac{a_1^2P_s+P_N}{P_s+P_N}\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.19b\end{array}$

followed by scaling of these values:

$\begin{array}{cc}{n}_1=\sqrt{\frac{P_N}{{\left(h_1a_1+h_2a_2\right)}^2P_s+\left(h_1^2+h_2^2\right)P_N}}{\hat{n}}_1& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.10a\\ n_2=\sqrt{\frac{P_N}{{\left(w_1a_1+w_2a_2\right)}^2P_s+\left(w_1^2+w_2^2\right)P_N}}{\hat{n}}_2& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.10b\end{array}$

Processing of Directional Components

A new source direction ϕ_s({circumflex over (t)},k) may be determined based on a stage_width _W and, for example, the azimuth angle of the virtual source direction (e.g., as described in connection with Equation No. 6). The new source direction may be determined based on:

ϕ_s({circumflex over (t)},k)=_Wφ_s({circumflex over (t)},k)  Equation No. 11

A centre channel object signal o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) and/or a directional HOA signal b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) in the T/F domain may be determined based on the new source direction. In particular, the new source direction ϕ_s({circumflex over (t)},k) may be compared to a center_channel_capture_width c_W. If |ϕ_s({circumflex over (t)},k)|<c_W, then

o _c({circumflex over (t)},k)=s({circumflex over (t)},k) and b_s({circumflex over (t)},k)=0  Equation No. 12a

else:

o _c({circumflex over (t)},k)=0 and b_s({circumflex over (t)},k)=y_s({circumflex over (t)},k)s({circumflex over (t)},k)  Equation No. 12b

where y_s({circumflex over (t)},k) is the spherical harmonic encoding vector derived from {circumflex over (φ)}_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and a direct sound encoding elevation θ_S. In one example, the y_s({circumflex over (t)},k) vector may be determined based on the following:

y _s({circumflex over (t)},k)=[Y₀⁰(θ_S,ϕ_s),Y₁⁻¹(θ_S,ϕ_s), . . . ,Y_N^N(θ_S,ϕ_s)]^T  Equation No. 13

Processing of Ambient HOA Signal

The ambient HOA signal ({circumflex over (t)},k) may be determined based on the additional ambient signal channels ({circumflex over (t)},k). For example, the ambient HOA signal ({circumflex over (t)},k) may be determined based on:

({circumflex over (t)},k)=diag(g_L)({circumflex over (t)},k)  Equation No. 14

where diag(g_L) is a square diagonal matrix with ambient gains g_L on its main diagonal, ({circumflex over (t)},k) is a vector of ambient signals derived from n and is a mode matrix for encoding ({circumflex over (t)},k) to HOA. The mode matrix may be determined based on:

=, . . . ,], =[Y₀⁰(θ_L,ϕ_L),Y₁⁻¹(θ_L,ϕ_L), . . . ,Y_N^N,(θ_L,ϕ_L)]^T  Eq No. 15

wherein, L denotes the number of components in ({circumflex over (t)},k).

In one embodiment L=6 is selected with the following positions:

TABLE 2
l (direction number,	θl	ϕl
ambient channel number)	Inclination/rad	Azimuth/rad
1	π/2	30 π/180
2	π/2	−30 π/180
3	π/2	105 π/180
4	π/2	−105 π/180
5	π/2	180 π/180
6	0	0

The vector of ambient signals is determined based on:

$\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{\dots }{n}\left(\hat{t},k\right)=\left[\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\\ F_s\left(k\right)& 0\\ 0& F_s\left(k\right)\\ F_B\left(k\right)& F_B\left(k\right)\\ F_T\left(k\right)& F_T\left(k\right)\end{array}\right]n& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.16\end{array}$

with weighting (filtering) factors F_i(k)ϵ¹, wherein

$\begin{array}{cc}{F}_i\left(k\right)=a_i\left(k\right)e^{-2\pi \mathrm{ik}\frac{d_i}{{\mathrm{fft}}_{\mathrm{size}}}},d_i,a_i\left(k\right)\mathrm{ϵℝ},& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.17\end{array}$

d_i is a delay in samples, and a_i(k) is a spectral weighting factor (e.g. in the range 0 to 1).

Synthesis Filter Bank

The combined HOA signal is determined based on the directional HOA signal b_s({circumflex over (t)},k) and the ambient HOA signal ({circumflex over (t)},k). For example:

b({circumflex over (t)},k)=b_s({circumflex over (t)},k)+({circumflex over (t)},k)  Equation No. 18

The T/F signals b({circumflex over (t)},k) and o_c({circumflex over (t)},k) are transformed back to time domain by an inverse filter bank to derive signals b(t) and o_c(t). For example, the T/F signals may be transformed based on an inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT) and an overlap-add procedure using a sine window.

Processing of Upmixed Signals

The signals b(t) and o_c(t) and related metadata, the maximum HOA order index N and the direction

${\Omega }_{o_c}=\left[\frac{\pi }{2},0\right]$

of signal o_c(t) may be stored or transmitted based on any format, including a standardized format such as an MPEG-H 3D audio compression codec. These can then be rendered to individual loudspeaker setups on demand.

Primary Ambient Decomposition in T/F Domain

In this section the detailed deduction of the PAD algorithm is presented, including the assumptions about the nature of the signals. Because all considerations take place in T/F domain indices ({circumflex over (t)},k) are omitted.

Signal Model, Model Assumptions and Covariance Matrix

The following signal model in time frequency domain (T/F) is assumed:

x=as+n,  Equation No. 19a

x ₁ =a ₁ s+n ₁,  Equation No. 19b

x ₂ =a ₂ s+n ₂,  Equation No. 19c

√{square root over (a₁²+a₂²)}=1  Equation No. 19d

The covariance matrix becomes the correlation matrix if signals with zero mean are assumed, which is a common assumption related to audio signals:

$\begin{array}{cc}C=E\left({\mathrm{xx}}^H\right)=\left[\begin{array}{cc}{c}_{11}& c_{12}\\ c_{12}^{*}& c_{22}\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.20\end{array}$

wherein E( ) is the expectation operator which can be approximated by deriving the mean value over T/F tiles.

Next the Eigenvalues of the covariance matrix are derived. They are defined by

λ_1,2(C)={x:det(C−xI)=0}.  Equation No. 21

Applied to the covariance matrix:

$\begin{array}{cc}\det \left([\begin{array}{cc}{c}_{11}-x& c_{12}\\ c_{12}^{*}& c_{22}-x\end{array}]\right)=\left(c_{11}-x\right)\left(c_{22}-x\right)-{c_{12}}^2=0\mathrm{with}c_{12}^{*}c_{12}={c_{12}}^2.& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.22\end{array}$

The solution of λ_1,2 is:

λ_1,2=½(c₂₂+c₁₁±√{square root over ((c₁₁−c₂₂)²+4|c₁₂|²)})  Equation No. 23

The model assumptions and the covariance matrix are given by:

• • Direct and noise signals are not correlated E(sn_1,2*)=0
  • The power estimate is given by P_s=E(ss*)
  • The ambient (noise) component power estimates are equal: P_N=P_n1=P_n2=E(n₁n₁)
  • The ambient components are not correlated: E(n₁n₂*)=0

The model covariance becomes

$\begin{array}{cc}C=\left[\begin{array}{cc}{a_1}^2P_s+P_N& a_1a_2^{*}P_s\\ a_1^{*}a_2P_s& {a_2}^2P_s+P_N\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.24\end{array}$

In the following real positive-valued mixing coefficients a₁, a₂ and √{square root over (a₁²+a₂²)}=1 are assumed, and consequently c_r12=real(c₁₂). The Eigenvalues become:

$\begin{array}{cc}{\lambda }_{1,2}=\frac{1}{2}\left(c_{22}+c_{11}\pm \sqrt{{\left(c_{11}-c_{22}\right)}^2+4{c_{r12}}^2}\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.25a\\ =0.5\left(P_s+2P_N\pm \sqrt{\left({P_s^2\left(a_1^2-a_2^2\right)}^2+4a_1^2a_2^2P_s\right)}\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.25b\\ =0.5\left(P_s+2P_N\pm \sqrt{\left({P_s^2\left(a_1^2+a_2^2\right)}^2\right)}\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.25c\\ =0.5\left(P_s+2P_N\pm P_s\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.25d\end{array}$

Estimates of Ambient Power and Directional Power

The ambient power estimate becomes:

P _N=λ₂=½(c₂₂+c₁₁−√{square root over ((c₁₁−c₂₂)²+4|c_r12|²)})  Equation No. 26

The direct sound power estimate becomes:

P _S=λ₁−P_N=√{square root over ((c₁₁−c₂₂)²+4|c_r12|²)}  Equation No. 27

Direction of Directional Signal Component

The ratio A of the mixing gains can be derived as:

$\begin{array}{cc}A=\frac{a_2}{a_1}=\frac{{\lambda }_1-c_{11}}{c_{r12}}=\frac{P_N+P_s-c_{11}}{c_{r12}}=\frac{c_{22}-P_N}{c_{r12}}=\frac{\left(c_{22}-c_{11}+\sqrt{{\left(c_{11}-c_{22}\right)}^2+4{c_{r12}}^2}\right)}{2c_{r12}}& \mathrm{Eq}.\mathrm{No}.28\end{array}$

with a₁²=1−a₂², and a₂²=1−a₁² it follows:

$a_1=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+A^2}}\mathrm{and}a_2=\frac{A}{\sqrt{1+A^2}}$

The principal component approach includes:

The first and second Eigenvalues are related to Eigenvectors v₁,v₂ which are given in mathematical literature and in [8] by

$\begin{array}{cc}V=\left[v_1,v_2\right]=\left[\begin{array}{cc}\cos \left(\hat{\varphi }\right)& -\sin \left(\hat{\varphi }\right)\\ \sin \left(\hat{\varphi }\right)& \cos \left(\hat{\varphi }\right)\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.29\end{array}$

Here the signal x₁ would relate to the x-axis and the signal x₂ would relate to the y-axis of a Cartesian coordinate system. This would map the two channels to be 90° apart with relations: cos({circumflex over (φ)})=a₁s/s, sin({circumflex over (φ)})=a₂s/s. Thus the ratio of the mixing gains can be used to derive {circumflex over (φ)}, with:

$\begin{array}{cc}A=\frac{a_2}{a_1}:\hat{\varphi }=\mathrm{atan}\left(A\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.30\end{array}$

The preferred azimuth measure φ would refer to an azimuth of zero placed half angle between related virtual speaker channels, positive angle direction in mathematical sense counter clock wise. To translate from the above-mentioned system:

$\begin{array}{cc}\varphi =-\hat{\varphi }+\frac{\pi }{4}=-\mathrm{atan}\left(A\right)+\frac{\pi }{4}=\mathrm{atan}\left(1/A\right)-\pi /4& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.31\end{array}$

The tangent law of energy panning is defined as

$\begin{array}{cc}\frac{\tan \left(\varphi \right)}{\tan \left({\varphi }_o\right)}=\frac{a_1-a_2}{a_1+a_2}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.32\end{array}$

where φ_o is the half loudspeaker spacing angle. In the model used here,

${\varphi }_o=\frac{\pi }{4},\tan \left({\varphi }_o\right)=1.$

It can be shown that

$\begin{array}{cc}\varphi =\mathrm{atan}\left(\frac{a_1-a_2}{a_1+a_2}\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.33\end{array}$

Based on FIG. 2, FIG. 4a illustrates a classical PCA coordinates system. FIG. 4b illustrates an intended coordinate system.

Mapping the angle φ to a real loudspeaker spacing includes: Other speaker φ_x spacings than the 90°

$\left({\varphi }_o=\frac{\pi }{4}\right)$

addressed in the model can be addressed based on either:

$\begin{array}{cc}{\varphi }_s=\varphi \frac{{\varphi }_x}{{\varphi }_o}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.34a\end{array}$

or more accurate

$\begin{array}{cc}{\stackrel{.}{\varphi }}_s=\mathrm{atan}\left(\tan \left({\varphi }_x\right)\frac{a_1-a_2}{a_1+a_2}\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.34b\end{array}$

FIG. 5 illustrates two curves, a and b, that relate to a difference between both methods for a 60° loudspeaker spacing

$\left({\varphi }_x=30°\frac{\pi }{180°}\right).$

To encode the directional signal to HOA with limited order, the accuracy of the first method

$\left({\varphi }_s=\varphi \frac{{\varphi }_x}{{\varphi }_o}\right)$

is regarded as being sufficient.

Directional and Ambient Signal Extraction

Directional Signal Extraction

The directional signal is extracted as a linear combination with gains g^T=[g₁,g₂] of the input signals:

ŝ:=g ^T x=g ^T(as+n)  Equation No. 35a

The error signal is

err=s−g^T(as+n)  Equation No. 35b

and becomes minimal if fully orthogonal to the input signals x with ŝ=s:

E(xerr*)=0  Equation No. 36

aP _ŝ ag ^T aP _ŝ +gP _n=0  Equation No. 37

taking in mind the model assumptions that the ambient components are not correlated:

(E(n₁n₂*)=0)  Equation No. 38

Because the order of calculation of a vector product of the form g^Ta is interchangeable, g^Ta=ag^T:

(aa^Tp_ŝ+IP_N)g=aP_ŝ  Equation No. 39

The term in brackets is a quadratic matrix and a solution exists if this matrix is invertible, and by first setting P_ŝ=P_s the mixing gains become:

$\begin{array}{cc}g={\left({\mathrm{aa}}^TP_{\hat{s}}+{\mathrm{IP}}_N\right)}^{-1}aP_{\hat{s}}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.40a\\ \left({\mathrm{aa}}^TP_{\hat{s}}+{\mathrm{IP}}_N\right)=\left[\begin{array}{cc}{a}_1^2P_{\hat{s}}+P_N& a_1a_2P_{\hat{s}}\\ a_1a_2P_{\hat{s}}& a_2^2P_{\hat{s}}+P_N\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.40b\end{array}$

Solving this System Leads to:

$\begin{array}{cc}g=\left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{a_1P_s}{P_s+P_N}\\ \frac{a_2P_s}{P_s+P_N}\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.41\end{array}$

Post-Scaling:

The solution is scaled such that the power of the estimate ŝ becomes P_s, with

$\begin{array}{cc}P_{\hat{s}}=E\left(\hat{s}{\hat{s}}^{*}\right)=g^T\left({\mathrm{aa}}^TP_s+{\mathrm{IP}}_N\right)g& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.42a\\ s=\sqrt{\frac{P_s}{g^T\left({\mathrm{aa}}^TP_s+{\mathrm{IP}}_N\right)g}}\hat{s}=\sqrt{\frac{P_s}{{\left(g_1a_1+g_2a_2\right)}^2P_s+\left(g_1^2+g_2^2\right)P_N}}\hat{s}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.42b\end{array}$

Extraction of Ambient Signals

The unscaled first ambient signal can be derived by subtracting the unscaled directional signal component from the first input channel signal:

{circumflex over (n)} ₁ =x ₁ −a ₁ ŝ=x ₁ −a ₁ g ^T x:=h ^T x  Equation No. 43

Solving this for {circumflex over (n)}₁=h^Tx leads to

$\begin{array}{cc}h=\left[\begin{array}{c}1\\ 0\end{array}\right]-a_1g=\left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{a_2^2P_s+P_N}{P_s+P_N}\\ \frac{-a_1a_2P_s}{P_s+P_N}\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.44\end{array}$

The solution is scaled such that the power of the estimate {circumflex over (n)}₁ becomes P_N, with

$\begin{array}{cc}{P}_{{\hat{n}}_1}=E\left({\hat{n}}_1{\hat{n}}_1^{*}\right)=h^TE\left(xx^H\right)h=h^T\left({\mathrm{aa}}^TP_s+{\mathrm{IP}}_N\right)h:& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.42a\\ n_1=\sqrt{\frac{P_N}{{\left(h_1a_1+h_2a_2\right)}^2P_s+\left(h_1^2+h_2^2\right)P_N}}{\hat{n}}_1& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.42b\end{array}$

The unscaled second ambient signal can be derived by subtracting the rated directional signal component from the second input channel signal

{circumflex over (n)} ₂ =x ₂ −a ₂ ŝ=x ₂ −a ₂ g ^T x:=w ^T X  Equation No. 46

Solving this for {circumflex over (n)}₂=w^TX leads to

$\begin{array}{cc}w=\left[\begin{array}{c}0\\ 1\end{array}\right]-a_2g=\left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{-a_1a_2P_s}{P_s+P_n}\\ \frac{a_1^2P_s+P_n}{P_s+P_n}\end{array}\right]& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.47\end{array}$

The solution is scaled such that the power P_{{circumflex over (n)}} of the estimate {circumflex over (n)}₂ becomes P_N, with

$\begin{array}{cc}{P}_{{\hat{n}}_2}=E\left({\hat{n}}_2{\hat{n}}_2^{*}\right)=w^TE\left(xx^H\right)w=w^T\left({\mathrm{aa}}^TP_s+{\mathrm{IP}}_N\right)w& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.48a\\ n_2=\sqrt{\frac{P_N}{{\left(w_1a_1+w_2a_2\right)}^2P_s+\left(w_1^2+w_2^2\right)P_N}}{\hat{n}}_2& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.48b\end{array}$

Encoding Channel Based Audio to HOA

Naive Approach

Using the covariance matrix, the channel power estimate of x can be expressed by:

P _x =tr(C)=tr(E(xx^H))=E(tr(xx^H))=E(tr(x^Hx))=E(x^Hx)  Eq No. 49

with E( ) representing the expectation and tr( ) representing the trace operators.

When returning to the signal model from section Primary ambient decomposition in T/F domain and the related model assumptions in T/F domain:

x=as+n,  Equation No. 50a

x ₁ =a ₁ s+n ₁,  Equation No. 50b

x ₂ =a ₂ s+n ₂,  Equation No. 50c

√{square root over (a₁²+a₂²)}=1,  Equation No. 50d

the channel power estimate of x can be expressed by:

P _x =E(x^Hx)=P_s+²P_N  Equation No. 51

The value of P_x may be proportional to the perceived signal loudness. A perfect remix of x should preserve loudness and lead to the same estimate.

During HOA encoding, e.g., by a mode-matrix Y(Ω_x), the spherical harmonics values may be determined from directions Ω_x of the virtual speaker positions:

b _x1 =Y(Ω_x)x  Equation No. 52

HOA rendering with rendering matrix D with near energy preserving features (e.g., see section 12.4.3 of Reference [1]) may be determined based on:

$\begin{array}{cc}{D}^HD\approx \frac{I}{{\left(N+1\right)}^2},& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.53\end{array}$

where I is the unity matrix and (N+1)² is a scaling factor depending on HOA order N:

{hacek over (x)}=DY(Ω_x)x  Equation No. 54

The signal power estimate of the rendered encoded HOA signal becomes:

$\begin{array}{cc}P_{\check{x}}=E\left(x^H{Y\left({\Omega }_x\right)}^HD^H\mathrm{DY}\left({\Omega }_x\right)x\right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.55a\\ \approx E\left(\frac{1}{{\left(N+1\right)}^2}x^H{Y\left({\Omega }_x\right)}^HY\left({\Omega }_x\right)x\right)=\mathrm{tr}\left({\mathrm{CY}\left({\Omega }_x\right)}^HY\left({\Omega }_x\right)\frac{1}{{\left(N+1\right)}^2}\right)& \mathrm{Eq}.\mathrm{No}.55b\end{array}$

The following may be determined then:

P _{{hacek over (x)}} P _x,  Equation No. 55c

This may lead to:

Y(Ω_x)^HY(Ω_x):=(N+1)²I,  Equation No. 56

which usually cannot be fulfilled for mode matrices related to arbitrary positions. The consequences of Y(Ω_x)^HY(Ω_x) not becoming diagonal are timbre colorations and loudness fluctuations. Y(Ω_id) becomes a un-normalised unitary matrix only for special positions (directions) Ω_id where the number of positions (directions) is equal or bigger than (N+1)² and at the same time where the angular distance to next neighbour positions is constant for every position (i.e. a regular sampling on a sphere).

Regarding the impact of maintaining the intended signal directions when encoding channels based content to HOA and decoding:

Let x=as, where the ambient parts are zero. Encoding to HOA and rendering leads to {circumflex over (x)}=D Y(Ω_x)a s.

Only rendering matrices satisfying D Y(Ω_x)=I would lead to the same spatial impression as replaying the original. Generally, D=Y(Ω_x)⁻¹ does not exist and using the pseudo inverse will in general not lead to D Y(Ω_x)=I.

Generally, when receiving HOA content, the encoding matrix is unknown and rendering matrices D should be independent from the content.

FIG. 6 shows exemplary curves related to altering panning directions by naive HOA encoding of two-channel content, for two loudspeaker channels that are 60° apart. FIG. 6 illustrates panning gains gn_l and ga_r of a signal moving from right to left and energy sum

sumEn=gn_l²+gn_r²  Equation No. 57

The top part shows VBAP or tangent law amplitude panning gains. The mid and bottom parts show naive HOA encoding and 2-channel rendering of a VBAP panned signal, for N=2 in the mid and for N=6 at the bottom. Perceptually the signal gets louder when the signal source is at mid position, and all directions except the extreme side positions will be warped towards the mid position. Section 6a of FIG. 6 relates to VBAP or tangent law amplitude panning gains. Section 6b of FIG. 6 relates toa naive HOA encoding and 2-channel rendering of VBAP panned signal for N=2. Section 6c relates to naive HOA encoding and 2-channel rendering of VBAP panned signal for N=6.

PAD Approach

Encoding the Signal

x=as+n  Equation No. 58a

after performing PAD and HOA upconversion leads to

b _x2 =y _s s+ {circumflex over (n)},  Equation No. 58b

with

{circumflex over (n)}=diag(g_L)  Equation No. 58c

The power estimate of the rendered HOA signal becomes:

$\begin{array}{cc}{P}_{\tilde{x}}=E\left(b_{x2}^HD^H{\mathrm{Db}}_{x2}\right)\approx E\left(\frac{1}{{\left(N+1\right)}^2}b_{x2}^Hb_{x2}\right)=E\frac{1}{{\left(N+1\right)}^2}\left(s^{*}y_s^Hy_ss+{\hat{n}}^H{\Psi }_{\stackrel{...}{n}}^H{\Psi }_{\stackrel{...}{n}}\hat{n}\right))& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.59\end{array}$

For N3D normalised SH:

y _s ^H y _s=(N+1)²  Equation No. 60

and, taking into account that all signals of ii are uncorrelated, the same applies to the noise part:

P _{{tilde over (x)}} ≈P _s+Σ_l=1^LP_nl=P_S+P_NΣ_l=1^Lg_l²,  Equation No. 61

and ambient gains g_L=[1,1,0,0,0,0] can be used for scaling the ambient signal power

Σ_l=1^LP_nl=2P_N  Equation No. 62a

and

P _{{tilde over (x)}} =P _x.  Equation No. 62b

The intended directionality of s now is given by Dy_s which leads to a classical HOA panning vector which for stage_width _W=1 captures the intended directivity.

HOA Format

Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) is based on the description of a sound field within a compact area of interest, which is assumed to be free of sound sources, see [1]. In that case the spatio-temporal behaviour of the sound pressure p(t,x) at time t and position {circumflex over (Ω)} within the area of interest is physically fully determined by the homogeneous wave equation. Assumed is a spherical coordinate system of FIG. 2. In the used coordinate system the x axis points to the frontal position, the y axis points to the left, and the z axis points to the top. A position in space {circumflex over (Ω)}=(r,θ,ϕ)^T is represented by a radius r>0 (i.e. the distance to the coordinate origin), an inclination angle θ∈[0,π] measured from the polar axis z and an azimuth angle ϕ∈[0,2π[measured counter-clockwise in the x-y plane from the x axis. Further, (⋅)^T denotes the transposition.

A Fourier transform (e.g., see Reference [10]) of the sound pressure with respect to time denoted by _t(⋅), i.e.

P(ω,{circumflex over (Ω)})=_t(p(t,{circumflex over (Ω)}))=∫_−∞^∞p(t,{circumflex over (Ω)})e^−iωtdt,  Equation No. 63

with ω denoting the angular frequency and i indicating the imaginary unit, can be expanded into a series of Spherical Harmonics according to

P(ω=kc_s,r,δ,ϕ)=Σ_n=0^NΣ_m=−nⁿ(k)j_n(kr)Y_n^m(θ,ϕ)  Equation No. 64

Here c_s denotes the speed of sound and k denotes the angular wave number, which is related to the angular frequency ω by

$k=\frac{\omega }{c_s}.$

Further, j_n(⋅) denote the spherical Bessel functions of the first kind and Y_n^m(θ,ϕ) denote the real valued Spherical Harmonics of order n and degree m, which are defined below. The expansion coefficients A_n^m(k) only depend on the angular wave number k. It has been implicitly assumed that sound pressure is spatially band-limited. Thus, the series is truncated with respect to the order index n at an upper limit N, which is called the order of the HOA representation.

If the sound field is represented by a superposition of an infinite number of harmonic plane waves of different angular frequencies ω and arriving from all possible directions specified by the angle tuple (θ,ϕ), the respective plane wave complex amplitude function B(ω,θ,ϕ) can be expressed by the following Spherical Harmonics expansion

B(ω=kc_s,θ,ϕ)=Σ_n=0^NΣ_m=−nⁿB_n^m(k)Y_n^m(θ,ϕ)  Equation No. 65

where the expansion coefficients B_n^m(k) are related to the expansion coefficients A_n^m(k) by

A _n ^m(k)=iⁿB_n^m(k)  Equation No. 66

Assuming the individual coefficients B_n^m(ω=kc_s) to be functions of the angular frequency ω, the application of the inverse Fourier transform (denoted by ⁻¹(⋅) provides time domain functions

$\begin{array}{cc}{b}_n^m\left(t\right)={ℱ}_t^{-1}\left(B_n^m\left(\omega /c_s\right)\right)=\frac{1}{2\pi }{\int }_{-\infty }^{\infty }B_n^m\left(\frac{\omega }{c_s}\right)e^{i\omega t}d\omega & \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.67\end{array}$

for each order n and degree m, which can be collected in a single vector b(t) by

$\begin{array}{cc}b\left(t\right)=[\begin{array}{cccccccccccc}{b}_0^0\left(t\right)& b_1^{-1}\left(t\right)& b_1^0\left(t\right)& b_1^1\left(t\right)& b_2^{-2}\left(t\right)& b_2^{-1}\left(t\right)& b_2^0\left(t\right)& b_2^1\left(t\right)& b_2^2\left(t\right)& \dots & b_N^{N-1}\left(t\right)& {b_N^N\left(t\right)]}^T.\end{array}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.68\end{array}$

The position index of a time domain function b_n^m(t) within the vector b(t) is given by n(n+1)+1+m. The overall number of elements in the vector b(t) is given by 0=(N+1)².

The final Ambisonics format provides the sampled version b(t) using a sampling frequency f_S as

{b(lT_S)}={b(T_S),b(2T_S),b(3T_S),b(4T_S), . . . },  Equation No. 69

where T_S=1/f_S denotes the sampling period. The elements of b(lT_S) are here referred to as Ambisonics coefficients. The time domain signals b_n^m(t) and hence the Ambisonics coefficients are real-valued.

Definition of Real-Valued Spherical Harmonics

The real-valued spherical harmonics Y_n^m(θ,ϕ) (assuming N3D normalisation) are given by

$\begin{array}{cc}{Y}_n^m\left(\theta ,\phi \right)=\sqrt{\left(2n+1\right)\frac{\left(n-m\right)!}{\left(n+m\right)!}}P_{n,m}\left(\cos \theta \right){\mathrm{trg}}_m\left(\phi \right)& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.70a\end{array}$

with

$\begin{array}{cc}{\mathrm{trg}}_m\left(\phi \right)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\sqrt{2}\cos \left(m\phi \right)& m>0\\ 1& m=0\\ -\sqrt{2}\sin \left(m\phi \right)& m<0\end{array}& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.70b\end{array}$

The associated Legendre functions P_n,m(x) are defined as

$\begin{array}{cc}{P}_{n,m}\left(x\right)={\left(1-x^2\right)}^{m/2}\frac{d^m}{{\mathrm{dx}}^m}P_n\left(x\right),m\ge 0& \mathrm{Equation}\mathrm{No}.70c\end{array}$

with the Legendre polynomial P_n(x) and without the Condon-Shortley phase term (−1)^m.

Definition of the Mode Matrix

The mode matrix Ψ^(N1,N2) of order N₁ with respect to the directions

Ω_q^(N2),q=1, . . . ,O₂=(N₂+1)²(cf.[11])  Equation No. 71

related to order N₂ is defined by

Ψ^(N1,N2):=[y₁^(N1)y^(N1) . . . y_O2^(N1)]∈^O1×O2   Equation No. 72

with y_q^(N1):

=[Y₀⁰(Ω_q^(N2))Y₋₁⁻¹(Ω_q^(N2))Y₋₁⁰(Ω_q^(N2))Y₋₁¹(Ω_q^(N2))Y₋₂⁻²(Ω_q^(N2))Y₋₁⁻²(Ω_q^(N2)) . . . Y_N1^N1(Ω_q^(N2))]^T∈^O1   Equation No. 73

denoting the mode vector of order N₁ with respect to the directions Ω_q^(N2), where O₁=(N₁+1)².

A digital audio signal generated as described above can be related to a video signal, with subsequent rendering.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary method for determining 3D audio scene and object based content from two-channel stereo based content. At 710, two-channel stereo based content may be received. The content may be converted into the T/F domain. For example, at 710, a two-channel stereo signal x(t) may be partitioned into overlapping sample blocks. The partitioned signals are transformed into the time-frequency domain (T/F) using a filter-bank, such as, for example by means of an FFT. The transformation may determine T/F tiles.

At 720, direct and ambient components are determined. For example, the direct and ambient components may be determined in the T/F domain. At 730, audio scene (e.g., HOA) and object based audio (e.g., a centre channel direction handled as a static object channel) may be determined. The processing at 720 and 730 may be performed in accordance with the principles described in connection with A-E and Equation Nos. 1-72.

FIG. 8 illustrates a computing device 800 that may implement the method of FIG. 7. The computing device 800 may include components 830, 840 and 850 that are each, respectively, configured to perform the functions of 710, 720 and 730. It is further understood that the respective units may be embodied by a processor 810 of a computing device that is adapted to perform the processing carried out by each of said respective units, i.e. that is adapted to carry out some or all of the aforementioned steps, as well as any further steps of the proposed encoding method. The computing device may further comprise a memory 820 that is accessible by the processor 810.

It should be noted that the description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of the proposed methods and apparatus. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements that, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the proposed methods and apparatus and the concepts contributed by the inventors to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass equivalents thereof.

The methods and apparatus described in the present document may be implemented as software, firmware and/or hardware. Certain components may e.g. be implemented as software running on a digital signal processor or microprocessor. Other components may e.g. be implemented as hardware and or as application specific integrated circuits. The signals encountered in the described methods and apparatus may be stored on media such as random access memory or optical storage media. They may be transferred via networks, such as radio networks, satellite networks, wireless networks or wireline networks, e.g. the Internet.

The described processing can be carried out by a single processor or electronic circuit, or by several processors or electronic circuits operating in parallel and/or operating on different parts of the complete processing.

The instructions for operating the processor or the processors according to the described processing can be stored in one or more memories. The at least one processor is configured to carry out these instructions.

Claims

1. A method for determining 3D audio scene and object based content from two-channel stereo based content, comprising: receiving the two-channel stereo based content, wherein the two-channel stereo based content is represented by at least a time/frequency (T/F) tile;determining, for each T/F tile, ambient power, direct power, source directions and mixing coefficients of a corresponding T/F tile;determining, for each T/F tile, a directional signal and at least an ambient T/F channel based on the ambient power, the direct power, and the mixing coefficients of the corresponding T/F tile;determining the 3D audio scene and the object based content based on the directional signal and the ambient T/F channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each T/F tile, a new source direction is determined based on the source direction, and, when there is a determination that the new source direction is within a predetermined interval, a directional center channel object signal is determined based on the directional signal, the directional center channel object signal corresponding to the object based content, and,when there is a determination that the new source direction is outside the predetermined interval, a directional HOA signal is determined based on the new source direction.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, for each T/F tile, additional ambient signal channels based on the at least an ambient T/F channel, and ambient HOA signals are determined based on the additional ambient signal channels.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, the 3d audio scene content is based on the directional HOA signals and the ambient HOA signals.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the two-channel stereo signal is partitioned into overlapping sample blocks and the sample blocks are transformed into T/F tiles based on a filter-bank or a fast fourier transform (FFT).

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising transforming the 3D audio scene and the channel object signals to a time domain based on an inverse filter-bank or an inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the 3D audio scene and object based content are based on an MPEG-H 3D Audio data standard.

8. Apparatus for generating 3D audio scene and object based content from two-channel stereo based content, said apparatus comprising: a receiver for receiving the two-channel stereo based content, wherein the two-channel based content is represented by at least a time/frequency (T/F) tile;a first processor unit for determining, for each T/F tile, ambient power, direct power, a source direction and mixing coefficients of a corresponding T/F tile;a second processor unit for determining, for each T/F tile, a directional signal and at least an ambient T/F channel based on the ambient power, the direct power, and the mixing coefficients of the corresponding T/F tile;a third processor unit for determining the 3D audio scene and the object based content based on the directional signal and the ambient T/F channels.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein, for each T/F tile, the first processor or the second processor or the third processor is configured to determine a new source direction based on the source direction, and, when there is a determination that the new source direction is within a predetermined interval, a directional center channel object signal is determined based on the directional signal, the directional center channel object signal corresponding to the object based content, and,when there is a determination that the new source direction is outside the predetermined interval, a directional HOA signal is determined based on the new source direction.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein, for each T/F tile, additional ambient signal channels based on the at least an ambient T/F channel, and ambient HOA signals are determined based on the additional ambient signal channels.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein, the 3d audio scene content is based on the directional HOA signals and the ambient HOA signals.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, the first processor or the second processor or the third processor is further configured to determine to partition the two-channel stereo signal into overlapping sample blocks and the sample blocks are transformed into T/F tiles based on a filter-bank or a fast fourier transform (FFT).

13. The apparatus of claim 8, the first processor or the second processor or the third processor is further configured to determine to transform the 3D audio scene and the channel object signals to a time domain based on an inverse filter-bank or an inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT).

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the 3D audio scene and object based content are based on an MPEG-H 3D Audio data standard.