Two-dimensional beam tracing from visibility diagrams for real-time acoustic rendering

We present an extension of the fast beam-tracing method presented in the work of Antonacci et al. (2008) for the simulation of acoustic propagation in reverberant environments that accounts for diffraction and diffusion. More specifically, we show how visibility maps are suitable for modeling propagation phenomena more complex than specular reflections. We also show how the beam-tree lookup for path tracing can be entirely performed on visibility maps as well. We then contextualize such method to the two different cases of channel (point-to-point) rendering using a headset, and the rendering of a wave field based on arrays of speakers. Finally, we provide some experimental results and comparisons with real data to show the effectiveness and the accuracy of the approach in simulating the soundfield in an environment

VISIBILITY DETERMINATION IN BEAM TRACING WITH APPLICATION TO REAL-TIME SOUND SIMULATION

The work presents some aspects of beam tracing technique used in sound simulation. Adaptive Frustum algorithm, which was designed for detecting obstacles via beam subdivision was reviewed from efficiency point of view as well asfor its accuracy. Some possible improvements are suggested, however, they donot fully solve the problems of using this algorithm in real-time applications.Improved algorithm implementation was tested on five scenes with differentcharacteristics and varying complexity

Spatial Sound Rendering – A Survey

Simulating propagation of sound and audio rendering can improve the sense of realism and the immersion both in complex acoustic environments and dynamic virtual scenes. In studies of sound auralization, the focus has always been on room acoustics modeling, but most of the same methods are also applicable in the construction of virtual environments such as those developed to facilitate computer gaming, cognitive research, and simulated training scenarios. This paper is a review of state-of-the-art techniques that are based on acoustic principles that apply not only to real rooms but also in 3D virtual environments. The paper also highlights the need to expand the field of immersive sound in a web based browsing environment, because, despite the interest and many benefits, few developments seem to have taken place within this context. Moreover, the paper includes a list of the most effective algorithms used for modelling spatial sound propagation and reports their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the paper emphasizes in the evaluation of these proposed works

Interactive Sound Propagation for Massive Multi-user and Dynamic Virtual Environments

Hearing is an important sense and it is known that rendering sound effects can enhance the level of immersion in virtual environments. Modeling sound waves is a complex problem, requiring vast computing resources to solve accurately. Prior methods are restricted to static scenes or limited acoustic effects. In this thesis, we present methods to improve the quality and performance of interactive geometric sound propagation in dynamic scenes and precomputation algorithms for acoustic propagation in enormous multi-user virtual environments. We present a method for finding edge diffraction propagation paths on arbitrary 3D scenes for dynamic sources and receivers. Using this algorithm, we present a unified framework for interactive simulation of specular reflections, diffuse reflections, diffraction scattering, and reverberation effects. We also define a guidance algorithm for ray tracing that responds to dynamic environments and reorders queries to minimize simulation time. Our approach works well on modern GPUs and can achieve more than an order of magnitude performance improvement over prior methods. Modern multi-user virtual environments support many types of client devices, and current phones and mobile devices may lack the resources to run acoustic simulations. To provide such devices the benefits of sound simulation, we have developed a precomputation algorithm that efficiently computes and stores acoustic data on a server in the cloud. Using novel algorithms, the server can render enhanced spatial audio in scenes spanning several square kilometers for hundreds of clients in realtime. Our method provides the benefits of immersive audio to collaborative telephony, video games, and multi-user virtual environments.Doctor of Philosoph

Perceptually Driven Interactive Sound Propagation for Virtual Environments

Sound simulation and rendering can significantly augment a user‘s sense of presence in virtual environments. Many techniques for sound propagation have been proposed that predict the behavior of sound as it interacts with the environment and is received by the user. At a broad level, the propagation algorithms can be classified into reverberation filters, geometric methods, and wave-based methods. In practice, heuristic methods based on reverberation filters are simple to implement and have a low computational overhead, while wave-based algorithms are limited to static scenes and involve extensive precomputation. However, relatively little work has been done on the psychoacoustic characterization of different propagation algorithms, and evaluating the relationship between scientific accuracy and perceptual benefits.In this dissertation, we present perceptual evaluations of sound propagation methods and their ability to model complex acoustic effects for virtual environments. Our results indicate that scientifically accurate methods for reverberation and diffraction do result in increased perceptual differentiation. Based on these evaluations, we present two novel hybrid sound propagation methods that combine the accuracy of wave-based methods with the speed of geometric methods for interactive sound propagation in dynamic scenes.Our first algorithm couples modal sound synthesis with geometric sound propagation using wave-based sound radiation to perform mode-aware sound propagation. We introduce diffraction kernels of rigid objects,which encapsulate the sound diffraction behaviors of individual objects in the free space and are then used to simulate plausible diffraction effects using an interactive path tracing algorithm. Finally, we present a novel perceptual driven metric that can be used to accelerate the computation of late reverberation to enable plausible simulation of reverberation with a low runtime overhead. We highlight the benefits of our novel propagation algorithms in different scenarios.Doctor of Philosoph

Ray space transform interpolation with convolutional autoencoder

In this paper we propose an algorithm for the reconstruction of the Ray Space Transform (RST) through the use of neural networks. In particular, our aim is to reconstruct the magnitude of the RST acquired from a linear microphone array, as if the array were composed by a larger amount of microphones. This is useful for applications that need a higher RST resolution when only a limited amount of microphones can be used due to practical constraints or physical limitations. The proposed solution leverages recent advancements in deep learning as it is based on a fully convolutional autoencoder. To validate our method, we show through a simulative campaign that it is possible to improve sound source localization using the reconstructed RST compared to the use of the original RST

Higher-order Finite Difference Time Domain Algorithms for Room Acoustic Modelling

The acoustic qualities of indoor spaces are fundamental to the intelligibility of speech, the quality of musical performances, and perceived noise levels. Computationally heavy wave-based acoustic modelling algorithms have gained momentum in the field of room acoustic modelling, as ever-increasing computational power makes their use more feasible. Most notably the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method is often employed for rendering the low- and mid-frequency part of room impulse responses (RIRs). However, this algorithm has known disadvantages, most prominently dispersion error, which renders a large part of the simulated RIR invalid. This thesis is concerned with the implementation and analysis of higher-order FDTD stencils as a means to improve the current state-of-art FDTD methods that solve the room acoustic wave equation. A detailed analysis of dispersive properties, stability, and required grid spacing of current and higher-order stencils is presented, and has been verified using a GPU implementation of the different algorithms. It is argued that the 4th-order stencil gives the best result in terms of output quality versus computational effort. In addition, this thesis focusses on the derivation of absorbing boundaries for the 4th-order scheme, its stability analysis, and detailed analysis of absorptive properties compared to established boundary models for 2nd-order schemes. The newly proposed 4th-order scheme and its boundaries are tested in two case studies: a large shoebox model, in order to test the validity against a common benchmark and a complex acoustic space. For the latter study, impulse responses were measured in the National Centre for Early Music in York, UK, and computationally generated using the current state-of-the-art as well as the proposed 4th-order FDTD algorithm and boundaries. It is shown that the 4th-order stencil gives at least as good as, or better results than those achieved using the 2nd-order stencil, at lower computational costs

Portal-based sound propagation for first-person computer games

First-person computer games are a popular modern video game genre. A new method is proposed, the Directional Propagation Cache, that takes adavntage of the very common portal spatial subdivision method to accelerate environmental acoustics simulation for first-person games, by caching sound propagation information between portals

Audioptimization : global-based acoustic design

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-120).Acoustic design is a difficult problem, because the human perception of sound depends on such things as decibel level, direction of propagation, and attenuation over time, none of which are tangible or visible. The advent of computer simulation and visualization techniques for acoustic design and analysis has yielded a variety of approaches for modeling acoustic performance. However, current computer-aided design and simulation tools suffer from two major drawbacks. First, obtaining the desired acoustic effects may require a long, tedious sequence of modeling and/or simulation steps. Second, current techniques for modeling the propagation of sound in an environment are prohibitively slow and do not support interactive design. This thesis presents a new approach to computer-aided acoustic design. It is based on the inverse problem of determining material and geometric settings for an environment from a description of the desired performance. The user interactively indicates a range of acceptable material and geometric modifications for an auditorium or similar space, and specifies acoustic goals in space and time by choosing target values for a set of acoustic measures. Given this set of goals and constraints, the system performs an optimization of surface material and geometric parameters using a combination of simulated annealing and steepest descent techniques. Visualization tools extract and present the simulated sound field for points sampled in space and time. The user manipulates the visualizations to create an intuitive expression of acoustic design goals. We achieve interactive rates for surface material modifications by preprocessing the geometric component of the simulation, and accelerate geometric modifications to the auditorium by trading accuracy for speed through a number of interactive controls. We describe an interactive system that allows flexible input and display of the solution and report results for several performance spaces.by Michael Christopher Monks.Ph.D

High-sensitivity interferometry

High-sensitivity interferometric techniques are considered for non-destructive testing applications. The methods enable quantitative measurement of optical path variations, resulting from dynamic changes within the test object. [Continues.