US 12,225,367 B2
Virtual height and surround effect in soundbar without up-firing and surround speakers
James Zheng, Guangdong (CN)
Assigned to Harman International Industries, Incorporated, Stamford, CT (US)
Appl. No. 17/435,809
Filed by HARMAN INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES, INCORPORATED, Stamford, CT (US)
PCT Filed Mar. 6, 2019, PCT No. PCT/CN2019/077139
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 2, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/177095, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 10, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0150653 A1, May 12, 2022
Int. Cl. H04S 3/00 (2006.01); H04R 3/14 (2006.01); H04R 5/02 (2006.01); H04R 5/04 (2006.01); H04S 3/02 (2006.01)
CPC H04S 3/002 (2013.01) [H04R 3/14 (2013.01); H04R 5/02 (2013.01); H04R 5/04 (2013.01); H04S 3/008 (2013.01); H04S 3/02 (2013.01); H04S 2400/01 (2013.01); H04S 2420/01 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for realizing a virtual height and a surround effect by front speakers, comprising:
an input source configured to provide input signals via at least one of front, surround, and height channels;
a processor configured to perform optimizing processes on the at least one of front, surround, and height channels of the input source; and
front speakers comprising a plurality of speakers;
wherein output signals after processing via the processor are fed to the front speakers,
wherein the height channels of the input source comprise at least one of left/right height channels, and the processor comprises a height-effect processor which applies both a channel separation and a head-related transfer function on the at least one of the left/right height channels to produce a plurality of virtual left/right height channels, respectively,
wherein the front channels of the input source comprise at least one of left/right channels, and the processor further comprises a beamforming processor configured to apply beamforming on the at least one of the left/right channels to produce a plurality of virtual left/right channels, respectively, and
wherein a number of the plurality of virtual left/right channels produced by the beamforming processor is greater than a number of the plurality of virtual left/right height channels produced by the height-effect processor.