[AG-TECH] Sound localisation work?

[Osland, CD (Chris)]

On reflection, in the context of a videowall in an AG, the audio
out side is not too difficult.  Use an eight channel audio card,
have a 2 high by 4 wide array of speakers, basically with a
speaker at each corner of each video projector's image, and then
set up levels accordingly.  This would work fine if each node only
had one video feed out.  As soon as there is more than one, you
need an audio feed per video feed (i.e. the sending end does the
work) or enough spatial information for the receiving end to do the
work.  This latter allows the receiving end more flexibility in the
way their own videowall is organized, but is much more complex.

All our cards (to the best of my knowledge) handle stereo.  By way
of a start we could see how effective it was for two sites to
set themselves up with all their people in a row, and use the
Gentner's mixer functions (and sub-mixes) to create a decent
stereo image.  Then do the corresponding work at the receiving
ends - all the images in a row, and see whether any decent
localization/spatialization is discernible.

After that, if successful, we could attack the idea of multi-channel:
I can bring a Korg 1212 I/O card in for testing if I can find any
Linux drivers for it that RAT likes!

Cheers

Chris

____________________________________________________________________
Chris Osland                         Office tel: +44 (0) 1235 446565
Digital Media and Access Grid      Medialab tel: +44 (0) 1235 446459
BIT Department             Access Grid room tel: +44 (0) 1235 445666
e-mail:   C.D.Osland at rl.ac.uk               Fax: +44 (0) 1235 445597

CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Bldg. R18)
Chilton, DIDCOT, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK

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-----Original Message-----
From: Don Morton [mailto:donmorton at fastmail.fm]
Sent: 02 December 2002 14:11
To: Osland, CD (Chris) ; Sergeant A. G. Tech
Subject: RE: [AG-TECH] Sound localisation work?


On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 10:45:24 -0000 , "Osland, CD (Chris) "
<C.D.Osland at rl.ac.uk> said:
> Just a quick note to say that my comments last week on this
> referred to a different interpretation of the word 'localization'.
> I was talking about moving each virtual sound source so that it
> married up with the position of the corresponding picture on the
> video wall.  Everyone else seems to be talking about highlighting
> the corresponding picture.


i always had this vision of a matrix of speakers behind the screen,
with appropriate switching technology to get the right audio source
at least "near" the right picture.  conceptually simple, and in the
long run, i think chris' definition is the way to go - a voice 
actually sounding like it's coming out of the right mouth.

this would be fun to pursue, with appropriate resources - i'm good
at soldering (but not at the moment!)

--

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   Don Morton                   http://MRoCCS.cs.umt.edu/~morton/
   Department of Computer Science       The University of Montana
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