RAY ACOUSTICS USING COMPUTER GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The modeling of room acoustics and simulation of sound wave propagation remain a difficult and computationally expensive task. Two main techniques have evolved, with one focusing on a real physical - wave-oriented - sound propagation, while the other approximates sound waves as rays using raytracing techniques. Due to many advances in computer science, and especially computer graphics over the last decade, interactive 3D sound simulations for complex and dynamic environments are within reach. Inthispaperweanalyzesoundpropagationintermsofacoustic energy and explore the possibilities to map these concepts to radiometry and graphics rendering equations. Although we concentrate on ray-based techniques, we also partially consider wavebased sound propagation effects. The implemented system exploits modern graphics hardware and rendering techniques and is able to efficiently simulate 3D room acoustics, as well as to measure simplified personal HRTFs through acoustic raytracing.