INRIA Production:
Optimizing Sound Rendering

© INRIA - Project-team REVES

Producing realistic sound simulations in 3D requires incredibly long computing times. The film "Rendu du son en 3D" (Sound Rendering in 3D), produced by Nicolas Tsingos and INRIA's multimedia department, offers an original method for optimizing the necessary calculations. The technique described actually exploits the physiological limitations of human auditory capacities, which are not capable of processing every sound they hear in an equivalent manner. For example, more intense sounds mask weaker sounds. The algorithm developed by Nicolas Tsingos dynamically determines which sounds are masked and which are audible, and focuses computation capacity on the latter. Another limitation of the human ear is its inability to distinguish the location of sound sources that are close together. This means that, in reconstructing a 3D sound environment for audiences' ears, it is sufficient to group sound sources into clusters, reducing required computation accordingly. These two approaches can be used separately or in combination, and make it possible to give the impression of plunger listeners into a complex sound environment using only a basic stereo headset. The film itself does not miss the opportunity to immerse viewers into applications for urbanism and video games. In fact, the patented technology has already been used in a European project for visual and acoustic simulation of the urban development resulting from tramway construction in Nice. It has also been used in video games by Eden Games, a subsidiary of Atari.

Contact:

Nicolas Tsingos
REVES project-team
INRIA Sophia Antipolis - Méditerranée
Tel.: + 33 4 92 38 76 23