Academic Press Library in Signal Processing

Chapter 32

Sound Field Synthesis

Rudolf Rabenstein*, Sascha Spors^† and Jens Ahrens^‡,    ^*University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany,    ^†University Rostock, Rostock, Germany,    ^‡Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA

Abstract

The synthetic creation of sound fields is an essential component of virtual environments. Current audio technologies allow to drive a large number of loudspeakers independently of each other. In this way, the spatial and temporal variations of sound fields can be controlled in an extended listening area by signal processing methods. This chapter presents the required foundations starting from the acoustic wave equation and the representation of its solutions in terms of multidimensional signals and systems. Then three ...