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Audio
Industrial Research applies signal processing expertise to develop audio technologies for enhancing listener experience. Our research focus is holographic audio - systems for the accurate recording, enhancement and reproduction of three dimensional sound fields - and the application of this research in commercial products. This involves applying algorithms based on acoustics and signal processing to audio products to produce accurate, stable reproduction over the audio frequency range.
Holographic audio includes the following key research areas:
Surround Sound
Surround sound systems aim to produce a desired 3D sound field over a region of space using an array of loudspeakers. They require a large number of loudspeakers for reproduction over a large region at full audio bandwidths. Inevitable compromises must be made for practical installations, and this leads to the need to optimise the system to minimise the reproduction errors that occur with a limited number of loudspeakers. Read more >>
Virtual acoustics
Virtual acoustics systems allow the reproduction, or the synthesis, of binaural sound, in which the exact aural cues of any sound event are preserved, and reproduced in the listener’s ears. We have developed a virtual acoustics system for the efficient production of binaural sound over headphones or loudspeakers. This system has been licensed by Phitek Ltd for application in their noise cancelling headsets for personal mobile sound. Read more >>
Multichannel sound systems
In the 1990s IRL developed the Variable Room Acoustics System, a multichannel room acoustic enhancement, which achieves reverberation gain using a regenerative system that places a multichannel reverberator between the system microphones and loudspeakers. Read more >>
Variable Room Acoustics System
The Variable Room Acoustics System (VRAS) is a multichannel room acoustic enhancement which was developed at IRL[?] during the 1990s. It achieves reverberation gain using a regenerative system which places a multichannel reverberator between the system microphones and loudspeakers. Read more >>
Audio signal processing
The key research areas above are supported by our expertise in audio signal processing. Our aim to develop audio and acoustic products that leverage our core signal processing expertise in areas such as
- Digital signal processing
- Robust inverse filtering
- Signal detection and classification
- Adaptive filters
- Active control of sound fields.
- Time frequency analysis.
As part of this work, we have designed a multichannel signal processing system based on the Analog Devices ADSP21029 floating point chip, which will be used to implement algorithms developed in our research programme.