Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Representation of contextual information by projecting different participants' audio from different positions in a 3D soundscape

Abstract:

An overlay network platform facilitates a multi-party conference. End users participate in the conference using client-based web browser software. According to this disclosure, an enhanced "audio" experience for a user participating in the conference is provided by rendering different participants' audio in the conference at different positions in a three-dimensional (3D) space. In operation, and given a set of audio streams that comprise the conference and that are being received, a three-dimensional (3D) position for each audio stream in a 3D soundscape is computed. In one embodiment, the 3D position for each audio stream is computed by identifying a target area region of space, and then determining the 3D position for each stream in the target area region of space. The relative 3D positions may be determined based on contextual information related to the content of an audio stream, as well as a computed "relevance" of one stream versus another. The streams are then rendered to the listener based on the computed 3D positions.