Audio communication device

Abstract

An audio communication device includes: a sound position determiner that determines sound localization positions for N audio signals in a virtual space having first and second walls; N sound localizers each performing sound localization processing to localize sound in the sound localization position determined by the sound position determiner, and outputting localized sound signals; an adder that sums the N localized sound signals, and outputs a summed localized sound signal. Each sound localizer performs the processing using: a first head-related transfer function (HRTF) assuming that a sound wave emitted from the sound localization position of the sound localizer determined by the sound position determiner directly reaches each ear of a hearer virtually present at the hearer position; and a second HRTF assuming that the sound wave emitted from the sound localization position reaches each ear of the hearer after being reflected by closer one of the first and second walls.

1 - 4 . (canceled) 
     
     
         5 . An audio communication device, comprising:
 N inputters, where N is an integer of two or more, each receiving one of N audio signals;   a sound position determiner that determines, for the N audio signals input from the N inputters, sound localization positions in a virtual space;   N sound localizers, each associated with one of the N inputters, performing sound localization processing to localize sound in one of the sound localization positions determined for one of the N inputters associated with the sound localizer by the sound position determiner, and outputting one of N localized sound signals;   a first adder that sums the N localized sound signals output from the N sound localizers, and outputs a first summed localized sound signal;   a background noise signal storage that stores a background noise signal indicating background noise in the virtual space; and   a second adder that sums the first summed localized sound signal and the background noise signal, and outputs a second summed localized sound signal, wherein
 the sound position determiner determines the sound localization positions of the N audio signals to not overlap each other as viewed from a hearer position, and 
 each of the N sound localizers performs the sound localization processing using a head-related transfer function assuming that a sound wave emitted from a sound localization position determined for the sound localizer by the sound position determiner directly reaches each ear of a hearer virtually present at the hearer position. 
   
     
     
         6 . The audio communication device according to  claim 5 , wherein
 the background noise signal stored in the background noise signal storage includes one or more background noise signals,   the audio communication device further comprises a selector that selects one or more background noise signals out of the one or more background noise signals stored in the background noise signal storage, and   the second adder sums the first summed localized sound signal and the one or more background noise signals selected by the selector, and outputs a second summed localized sound signal.   
     
     
         7 . The audio communication device according to  claim 6 , wherein 
 the selector changes, over time, the one or more background noise signals to be selected.   
     
     
         8 . A server device, comprising:
 the plurality of the audio communication devices according to  claim 5 , wherein   each of the audio communication devices receiving different subset having N audio signals out of (N+1) audio signals.   
     
     
         9 . The server device according to  claim 8 , wherein:
 the second adder of each of the audio communication devices sums the first summed localized sound signal and the background noise signal, and   the background noises in all of the audio communication devices are the same.