JP3261941B2 - Sound field control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer, such as a personal computer (PC) or a workstation (WS), which creates a three-dimensional virtual space such as a town or a house on a computer, a computer network or a public line. And related to a technology for constructing a virtual environment in which a plurality of participants participate, and a technique for controlling the voices and environmental sounds of the participants based on the positional information in the three-dimensional space.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As prior art related to the present invention, a three-dimensional CAD (industrial design assisted by a computer) system, a three-dimensional CG (computer graphic), or a three-dimensional CG (computer graphic) is used. VR
There was a (virtual reality) system. In addition, using these technologies, a three-dimensional virtual space that imitates the real world is realized, and the computer is used on a computer connected by a network such as a LAN (local area network) or a public line. A system in which users share the same virtual space has been realized.

In this system for sharing a virtual space, a personal image (character) as an alter ego of each user can freely move around in the shared three-dimensional shared space. The data (landscape image) on the computer used also changed. However, with this system, it is not possible to control sound information (such as a voice of another user or a sound emitted from a nearby object) at the same time that the landscape image changes with the movement of the user. Or, they only had a rough control of deciding whether to transmit sound information depending on whether they were far or near.

[0004] An object of the present invention is to provide a sound field control method in a virtual environment realized by arranging a personal image as an alter ego and a personal image of another user in a virtual three-dimensional space on a computer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for performing finer control on sound information than before.

[0005]

According to the sound field control method of the present invention, an x-axis, a y-axis, and a z-axis are respectively taken in a left-right direction, a front-back direction (viewing direction), and a vertical direction in a three-dimensional space. , Position coordinates of own person image (x0, y0, z0)
And the position coordinates (x1, y1, z
1), the sound S0 uttered by the user or the sound uttered around the terminal, and the sound or sound S1 input from the terminal of another user, and the sound output from the speaker of the terminal is calculated.

The present invention is characterized in that sound information is controlled using angle information of an object with respect to a user's line of sight in a three-dimensional space, and is different from a conventional method of controlling only with distance information.

[0007]

The embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating a positional relationship between a user (self) in the three-dimensional virtual space and an object (located) on the same horizontal plane as the user. The x-axis is the axis of the user's left-right direction, the y-axis is the axis of the user's line of sight (front-back direction), and the z-axis is the axis of the user's vertical direction. My position P0
Is the origin of the coordinates, α is the angle made with the target y-axis.

In this case, when the object is in a straight forward direction (y-axis direction), that is, when the object exists in the direction of the line of sight, and when it exists in the direction out of the line of sight, there is a gap between itself and the object. Even if the distance is the same, the degree of interest is considered to be different. In order to reflect this difference, the angle in the horizontal direction, that is, the angle α in FIG.
The weight of the sound information is reduced as α is larger (cos α is smaller).

FIG. 2B is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a user (self) and an object located above (floating) in front of the user (self) in the three-dimensional virtual space. α is the angle between the y-axis of the position Pxy where the target is projected on the x and y axes, and β is the angle between the y-axis of the position Pyz where the target is projected on the yz plane. In this case, it is considered that the degree of interest is different between the case where the target object is on the front horizontal plane and the case where the target object is floating above and away from the horizontal plane, even if the distance to the target is the same. Can be To reflect this difference, the vertical angle,
That is, using the angle β in FIG. 2B, the weight of the sound information is reduced as β is larger (cos β is smaller).

In this manner, the strength of the sound information is determined by using the angles α and β with respect to the current line-of-sight axis as parameters, in addition to the distance between the current position P0 of the user and the position P1 of the object generating the sound. . Hereinafter, the determination method will be described using the symbols shown in FIG. With respect to your own line of sight (viewing direction), the horizontal direction is the x-axis direction, and the line of sight perpendicular to this is y.
The vertical direction perpendicular to the axial direction, the x axis and the y axis is defined as the z axis direction. In FIG. 1, for convenience, the own position P0 is set as the position of the origin on the coordinate axis. The own position P0 is represented in the order of a position on the x-axis, a position on the y-axis, and a position on the z-axis,
(X0, y0, z0). Also, the target position P1
Is similarly set to (x1, y1, z1). The perpendicular foot from the symmetric position to the xy plane is defined as Pxy (x1, y1, z
0), and similarly, the foot of the perpendicular to the yz plane is Pyz (x
0, y1, z1). Furthermore, let Pzx (x1, y0, z1) be the foot of the perpendicular to the xz plane. In FIG. 1, a perpendicular foot further lowered from Pxy in the x-axis direction is denoted by Px (x
1, y0, z0), the perpendicular foot lowered in the y-axis direction is Py
(X0, y1, z0), the perpendicular foot lowered from Pyz in the z-axis direction is indicated as Pz (x0, y0, z1).

The distance between each point is obtained as follows.
The distance between yourself (P0) and Px, Py, Pz is dx, d
y, dz, dx = | x1-x0 | (1) dy = | y1-y0 | (2) dz = | z1-z0 | (3) own (P0) and Pxy, Pyz, Pzx Distance of dx
Assuming that y, dyz and dzx, dxy = √ (dx ² + dy ² ) (4) dyz = √ (dy ² + dz ² ) (5) dzx = √ (dz ² + dx ² ) (6) ) And the object (P1) as d: d = √ (dx ² + dy ² + dz ² ) (7) Using these symbols, a weighting parameter m for the sound S1 emitted from the object is determined as follows. I do.

M = m1 × m2 (8) m1 = 1 / d ² (9) m2 = cosα × cosβ (10) Here, the element m1 of the weighting parameter is based on the distance between the subject and the object. It is necessary to reduce the sound as the distance increases. On the other hand, the weighting parameter element m2 controls the sound according to the angle from the line of sight according to the present invention, and reduces the sound as the distance from the line of sight increases.

The angles α and β are obtained from the values of the distances described above.
It is determined as follows. cosα = dy / dxy (11) cosβ = dy / dyz (12) Also, since interest in upper and lower sounds is weaker than left and right sounds, m2 = cosα × using an angle γ on the xz plane. cosβ × cosγ (13) cosγ = dx / dzx (14)

Based on the weighting parameter m, the sound information S0 generated at the user, and the sound information S1 generated at the object, output sound information S0 'is determined as follows. S1 ′ = m × S1 (15)

[0015]

(Equation 2)

Thus, when S0 = 0, S0 '
= S1 ', and when S1' = 0, S0 '= S0, and a natural result is obtained. If S0 '= (S0 + S
1 ′) / 2, if S0 ′ is determined, then S0 =
When it is 0, it becomes S0 '= S1' / 2, and when it becomes S1 '= 0, it becomes S0' = S0 / 2 and S0 'becomes half of the normal value, which is not preferable.

If there is not one input data, Sn '(n = 2, 3,..., N) is calculated in the same manner, and S0'
Can be determined as follows.

[0018]

(Equation 3)

A computer is connected to the computer network,
FIG. 3 shows a system configuration diagram in the case where each user exchanges his / her position data and voice information via this. Here, assuming that a computer currently used by the user is 4 in FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a sound information input device (such as a microphone) used by the user, and reference numeral 2 denotes a position information input device used by the user. The device 3 is a sound information output device (such as a speaker) used by the user. 6 and 10
Is a computer used by a user who operates an object as an object viewed from the computer 4. Calculator 4, Calculator 6, Calculator 10
Are connected using a computer network cable 5.

In the computer 4, the generated sound information is input from the input device 1 to the position information from the input device 2, respectively, and is subjected to AD (analog-digital) conversion by the AD conversion device 4a. Is sent to another computer (in this case, the computer 6 and the computer 10) via the computer network cable 5 by multicast transmission. The other is sent to the calculator 4c.

The arithmetic unit 4c performs multicast transmission from another computer separately from the input from the AD converter 4a.
The data received via the computer network is input after the network receiving device 4d determines whether or not the data has been sent to the computer 4, and is input from the position information input device 2 of the user (self). It is calculated by the above-mentioned formula based on the position information obtained. The calculated sound information is DA (digital-analog) converted by the DA converter 4 e and output from the sound information output device 3.

Explaining the relationship with the above formula, the input from the sound information input device 1 is S0, and the input from the position information input device 2 is three-dimensional information x0, y0,
z0. What is output from the sound information output device 3 is S0 '. On the other hand, the data input by multicast transmission via the computer network cable 5 are S1 and x1, y1, and z1. Of course, the data transmitted by multicast is not limited to one.

FIG. 4 shows the flow of the processing here. In FIG. 4, the following processing is performed each time the data transmitted in multicast at 15 is received. That is, the position data (x1, y1, z1) of the object is extracted from the multicast packet at 16, the weight parameter m is calculated from the above equation based on this at 17, and the sound information of the object is calculated from the multicast packet at 18. S1 is extracted, output sound information S0 'is determined from S0, S1, and m in 19, and output in 20.

As described above, sound information can be output based on mutual positional information in the same manner as in an actual three-dimensional space. Further, it goes without saying that the sound information of the object transmitted through the computer network is not limited to one, and is not limited to only the local area network (LAN) as shown in FIG. It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a case where a public line is widely used.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the distance information between the position of the user (self) in the three-dimensional space and the object using the computer and the angle information of the object with respect to the user's line of sight are obtained. Based on this, finer control can be performed on the sound information than before. By realizing a virtual three-dimensional space on a computer using the present invention, it is possible to transmit sound information closer to the actual three-dimensional space, and to work in a virtual space,
For example, information can be transmitted without discomfort to a person who remotely conferences.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a positional relationship (coordinates, distance, and angle) between oneself and an object existing in front and above on a three-dimensional coordinate axis.

FIG. 2A is a diagram showing a positional relationship between the subject and an object existing on a horizontal plane on a three-dimensional coordinate axis, and FIG. The figure shown on the original coordinate axis.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram in a case where each user exchanges his / her position data and sound information via a computer connected to a computer network using the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a processing flow in the system of FIG. 3;

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI H04M 3/56 G10K 15/00 M (56) References JP-A-8-186648 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated ( Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06T 11/80 G06T 15/70 G10K 15/00 H04S 7/00 G09G 5/00 510 H04M 3/56

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sound field control method in a virtual environment realized by arranging a personal image (character) as an alter ego and a personal image of another user in a virtual three-dimensional space on a computer, Left and right direction in three-dimensional space, front and back direction (line of sight),
Take the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis in the up and down directions, respectively, and set the coordinates (x0, y0, z0) of the position P0 of your own person image
And the coordinates (x1, y) of the position P1 of the person image of another user.
1, z1), the voice S0 uttered by the user or the voice around the terminal, and the voice or sound S1 input from the terminal of another user, the distance between P0 and P1 and P0
A sound field control method comprising calculating angle information of P1 as viewed from the outside and calculating a sound output from a speaker of the terminal using the calculated angle information. 2. The xy plane of the position P1 according to claim 1, wherein the position P0 is taken as an origin of coordinates.
Let α and β be the angles of the positions Pxy and Pyz projected on the plane with the y axis, and γ be the angle of the position P1 with the position Pzx projected on the zx plane with the x axis.
The voice or sound S1 has a weighting parameter m2 = cos
α × cosβ or m2 = cosα × cosβ × cos
A sound field control method characterized by being weighted by γ. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein dx = │x0-x1│ dy = │y0-y1│ dz = │z0-z1│, and dxy = ， (dx ² + dy ² ) dyz. = √ (dy ² + dz ² ) dxy = √ (dz ² + dx ² ) dxy, dyz, dzx are calculated, and d = √ (dx ² + dy ² + dz ² ), S1 ′ = S1 × (1 / d ² ) × (dy / dxy) × (d
y / dyz) or S1 ′ = S1 × (1 / d ² ) × (dy / dxy) × (d
y / dyz) × (dx / dzx) using S1 ′, A sound field control method, wherein a sound S0 'output from a speaker of the terminal is calculated.