Steering for listening area of reflective audio spot with parametric loudspeaker array

Abstract

A parametric loudspeaker has a high directivity by utilizing an ultrasound wave as a carrier wave. Therefore, a parametric loudspeaker can form a specific listening spot called "audio spot". Furthermore, a parametric loudspeaker can form the "reflective audio spot" by utilizing the reflected sound. The listeners in the listening area may perceive the acoustic sound image on the reflector. However, it has the problem that the reflective audio spot with a single parametric loudspeaker is narrow area. Therefore, it is difficult for several listeners to perceive the reflective audio spot at the same time. If we can expand the area of the reflective audio spot, several listeners can perceive the reflective audio spot at the same time. Thus in this paper, we attempt to steer the area of the reflective audio spot with parametric loudspeaker array. We carried out objective and subjective evaluation experiments to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system in a conference room. As a result, we confirmed the proposed system can expand the are of the reflective audio spot. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.