2003 Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 433-442
The sound field reproduction technique based on the Huygens's principle is important to realize auditory virtual reality. However, it is necessary to transmit many multi-channel signals. In this paper, a new spatial coding technique for the multi-channel signals is proposed to reduce transmission bit rate. Source signals are extracted by convolving the inverse transfer function calulated from a room transfer function to the channel signals at an encoded side. At a decoded side, channel signals are reconstructed by convolving the room transfer function to the extracted source signals. As a result, the size of data to be transmitted is reduced from the number of channels to that of sound sources. A coding experiment was performed for a real sound field. It was confirmed by subjective assessment that the perceptual distortion of the coding had little effect on the perceptual quality of sound field even if the source signals are not completely extracted.
