Thesis (M.S. in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Russell D. Shilling, Rudolph P. Darken. Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-172). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Walker, Bruce N.; Committee Member: Corballis, Paul M.; Committee Member: Corso, Gregory M.; Committee Member: Folds, Dennis J.; Committee Member: Houtsma, Adrianus J. M. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-73).

The requirement for multi-channel surround sound in audio production applications is growing rapidly. Audio processing in these applications can be costly, particularly in multi-channel systems. A distributed approach is proposed for the development of a realtime spatialization system for surround sound music production, using Ambisonic surround sound methods. The latency in the system is analyzed, with a focus on the audio processing and network delays, in order to ascertain the feasibility of an enhanced, distributed real-time spatialization system.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Telephony has developed substantially over the years, but the fundamental auditory model of mixing all the audio from di erent sources together into a single monaural stream has not changed since the telephone was rst invented. Monaural audio is very di cult to follow in a multiple-source situation such as a conference call. Sound originating from a speci c point in space will travel along a slightly di erent path to each ear. Although we are not consciously aware of it, our brain processes these spatial cues to help us to locate sounds in space. It is this spatial information that allows us to focus our attention and listen to a single speaker in an environment where many di erent sources may be active at the same time; a phenomenon known as the \cocktail party e ect". It is possible to reproduce these spatial cues in a sound recording, using Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) to allow a listener to experience localised audio, even when sound is reproduced through a headset. In this thesis, spatial audio is implemented in a telephony application as well as in a virtual world. Experiments were conducted which demonstrated that spatial audio increases the intelligibility of speech in a multiple-source environment and aids active speaker identi cation. Resource usage measurements show that these bene ts are, however, not without a cost. In conclusion, spatial audio was shown to be an improvement over the monaural audio model traditionally implemented in telephony. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Telefonie het ansienlik ontwikkel oor die jare, maar die basiese ouditiewe model waarin die klank van alle verskillende bronne bymekaar gemeng word na een enkelouditoriese stroom het nie verander sedert die eerste telefoon gebou is nie. Enkelouditoriese klank is baie moeilik om te volg in 'n meervoudigebron situasie, soos byvoorbeeld in 'n konferensie oproep. Klank met oorsprong by 'n sekere punt in die ruimte sal 'n e ens anderse pad na elke oor volg. Selfs is ons nie aktief bewus hiervan nie, verwerk ons brein hierdie ruimtelike aanduidinge om ons te help om klanke in die ruimte te vind. Dit is hierdie ruimtelike inligting wat ons toelaat om ons aandag te vestig en te luister na 'n enkele spreker in 'n omgewing waar baie verskillende bronne terselfdertyd aktief mag wees, 'n verskynsel wat bekend staan as die \skemerkelkiepartytjiee ek". Dit is moontlik om hierdie ruimtelike leidrade na 'n klank te reproduseer met behulp van hoofverwandeoordragfunksies (HRTFs) en om daardeur 'n luisteraar gelokaliseerde klank te laat ervaar, selfs wanneer die klank deur middel van oorfone gespeel word. In hierdie tesis word ruimtelike klank ge mplementeer in 'n telefonieprogram, sowel as in 'n virtuelew^ereld. Eksperimente is uitgevoer wat getoon het dat ruimtelike klank die verstaanbaarheid van spraak in 'n meerderebronomgewing verhoog en help met aktiewe spreker identi kasie. Hulpbrongebruiks metings toon aan dat hierdie voordele egter nie sonder 'n koste kom nie. Ter afsluiting, dit is bewys dat ruimtelike klank 'n verbetering tewees gebring het oor die enkelouditorieseklankmodel wat tradisioneel in telefonie gebruik het.

Audio signal processing systems for converting two-channel (stereo) recordings to four or five channels are increasingly relevant. These audio upmixers can be used with conventional stereo sound recordings and reproduced with multichannel home theatre or automotive loudspeaker audio systems to create a more engaging and natural-sounding listening experience. This dissertation discusses existing approaches to audio upmixing for recordings of musical performances and presents specific design criteria for a system to enhance spatial sound quality. A new upmixing system is proposed and evaluated according to these criteria and a theoretical model for its behavior is validated using empirical measurements. / The new system removes short-term correlated components from two electronic audio signals using a pair of adaptive filters, updated according to a frequency domain implementation of the normalized-least-means-square algorithm. The major difference of the new system with all extant audio upmixers is that unsupervised time-alignment of the input signals (typically, by up to +/-10 ms) as a function of frequency (typically, using a 1024-band equalizer) is accomplished due to the non-minimum phase adaptive filter. Two new signals are created from the weighted difference of the inputs, and are then radiated with two loudspeakers behind the listener. According to the consensus in the literature on the effect of interaural correlation on auditory image formation, the self-orthogonalizing properties of the algorithm ensure minimal distortion of the frontal source imagery and natural-sounding, enveloping reverberance (ambiance) imagery. / Performance evaluation of the new upmix system was accomplished in two ways: Firstly, using empirical electroacoustic measurements which validate a theoretical model of the system; and secondly, with formal listening tests which investigated auditory spatial imagery with a graphical mapping tool and a preference experiment. Both electroacoustic and subjective methods investigated system performance with a variety of test stimuli for solo musical performances reproduced using a loudspeaker in an orchestral concert-hall and recorded using different microphone techniques. / The objective and subjective evaluations combined with a comparative study with two commercial systems demonstrate that the proposed system provides a new, computationally practical, high sound quality solution to upmixing.

This thesis investigates the feasibility of using gestures as a means of control for localizing three dimensional (3D) sound sources in a distributed immersive audio system. A prototype system was implemented and tested which uses state of the art technology to achieve the stated goals. A Windows Kinect is used for gesture recognition which translates human gestures into control messages by the prototype system, which in turn performs actions based on the recognized gestures. The term distributed in the context of this system refers to the audio processing capacity. The prototype system partitions and allocates the processing load between a number of endpoints. The reallocated processing load consists of the mixing of audio samples according to a specification. The endpoints used in this research are XMOS AVB endpoints. The firmware on these endpoints were modified to include the audio mixing capability which was controlled by a state of the art audio distribution networking standard, Ethernet AVB. The hardware used for the implementation of the prototype system is relatively cost efficient in comparison to professional audio hardware, and is also commercially available for end users. the successful implementation and results from user testing of the prototype system demonstrates how it is a feasible option for recording the localization of a sound source. The ability to partition the processing provides a modular approach to building immersive sound systems. This removes the constraint of a centralized mixing console with a predetermined speaker configuration.

This Master´s thesis deals with sound apparatus. The first part is a theoretical explanation of the main part of the equipment, such as microphones, amplifiers, proofreaders, switches and speakers. Another section is devoted to the design itself, starting with the block diagram which is followed by the design of single important parts. These are made as PCB. For select-ed diagrams there is an example of PSpice program simulations and the measurement of important characteristics. The essential part of the work also addresses constructional pro-cessing of apparatus. At the end of this thesis some examples of the PCB are introduced.

No description available.

The diffusion of innovations is a fundamental aspect of the innovative process, to which the literature on innovation dedicated a lot of attention. This voluminous literature covers a variety of themes, such as different kinds of innovations, potential adopters, and mechanisms by which the innovation spreads among its potential users. However, some aspects of this vast literature still deserve some further investigation. The objective of the thesis is to study the adoption and diffusion of a consumer technology, the portable digital audio player (DAP) market in Europe and Japan. The methodology is quantitative and consists on the collection and analysis of two original datasets. The first dataset regards the demand-side consisting in a survey of 1562 young potential adopters from 9 countries (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK, and Japan). The other source of data is a dataset of 585 DAPs marketed between 2001 and 2009, including information on product characteristics (storage space, size, etc.) and price. The analysis of the data is carried out at three levels. The first one regards the demand-side, with the aim of assessing how users' characteristics shape the adoption decision, and providing a classification of potential adopters that goes beyond the usual classification based on timing of adoption or on the distribution of a single variable such as income. The second level concentrates on the supply-side, testing if there is a systematic relationship between product price and its objectively measurable characteristics and evaluating how technical change in the sector influences the diffusion path by matching products' quality change with users' preferences and patterns of adoption over time. Finally, the third level aims at providing evidence on whether conventional models of diffusion are able to provide an adequate explanation of the diffusion of DAPs, and moreover, on how the assumptions underlying these models might be combined or synthesised into a coherent framework.