On-Display Spatial Audio for Multiple Applications on Large Displays

Abstract

We describe a spatial audio system design for multiple applications on large displays. Our system provides spatial audio based on an application window's location on the display screen. Our approach allows conveying application audio height information without special content encoding. Our approach supports spatial audio from multiple concurrent on-display AV windows. The on-display audio location moves and resizes when the AV application window is moved and resized. Our design can handle any X.Y format content and spatialize it with a limited number of discrete loudspeakers. We have implemented this spatial audio system without requiring any special hardware, by reusing existing surround sound cards and developing special software to utilize the discrete individual audio channels supported by them. Subjective listening tests confirm the spatial location perceived by listeners matches the AV window location in our system.