Efficiënte audiocompressie gebaseerd op de perceptieve codering van ruimtelijk geluid

Digital compression of audio signals is one of the technological fields that has always been tightly l inked to detailed knowledge on human perception. Recent advances have extended the sources for bit-rate reducti on from a predominantly masking-oriented approach towards additional exploitation of spatial perceptual irrelevancies. New techniques aim at modeling of pe rceptually-relevant spatial cues using a parametric approach. These parametric methods result in consid erable improvements in compression efficiency for s tereo and multi-channel audio coders and have consequently been adopted by standardization bodies such as MPEG (standard for audio and video compression) and 3GPP (standard for mobile transmission). Besides compre ssion efficiency, the parametric approach has shown to be applicable to spatial processing methods as well, such as rendering of virtual auditory scenes over headphone s or to provide user interactivity with audio conte nt, such as the freedom to reposition, amplify or equalize indi vidual objects in a complex auditory scene. In this paper, the perceptual basis and methods for parametric spatial techniques will be outlined and examples of the re sulting compression and processing technologies will be giv en.