Abstract
The concept of a local audio environment is to have sound playback locally restricted such that, ideally, adjacent regions of an indoor or outdoor space could exhibit their own individual audio content without interfering with each other. This would enable people to listen to their content of choice without disturbing others next to them, yet, without any headphones to block conversation. In practice, perfect sound containment in free air cannot be attained, but a local audio environment can still be satisfactorily approximated using directional speakers. Directional speakers may be based on regular audible frequencies or they may employ modulated ultrasound. Planar, parabolic, and array form factors are commonly used. The directivity of a speaker improves as its surface area and sound frequency increases, making these the main design factors for directional audio systems. Even directional speakers radiate some sound outside the main beam, and sound can also reflect from objects. Therefore, directional speaker systems perform best when there is enough ambient noise to mask the leaking sound. Possible areas of application for local audio include information and advertisement audio feed in commercial facilities, guiding and narration in museums and exhibitions, office space personalization, control room messaging, rehabilitation environments, and entertainment audio systems.
Highlights
The ability to listen to whatever audio content you want, while others around you enjoy silence or their own program of choice is an attractive prospect— far, generally, achieved by wearing headphones
This study presents a survey on the current state of the art of spatially limiting local control of audio environments
At the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, NY, USA, directional speakers have a role as a source of audio content that is part of the works made by artist Bruce Nauman [32]
Summary
The ability to listen to whatever audio content you want, while others around you enjoy silence or their own program of choice is an attractive prospect— far, generally, achieved by wearing headphones. In a less idealized setting, the aim could be, for instance, to deliver focused audio to specific spots of a larger space, but to allow some sound to carry outside the intended area Such a system could be used, for example, to create location-specific audio advertisements in a shopping mall, where background noise would efficiently mask the leaking sound. Though, it is not necessary to completely silence the sound outside the target area, just to get it outside the human hearing range: either too quiet to be heard or so high-pitched that the ear does not react to it This can, up to a point, be achieved with existing technology, such as directional speakers and modulated ultrasound.
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