Description of audiovisual virtual 3D scenes: MPEG-4 perceptual parameters in the auditory domain

A high level of immersion can be provided for the user of virtual audiovisual environments when sound and visual impression get coordinated on a high quality level. Therefore, a comprehensive scene description language is needed for both, the auditory and the visual part. The multimedia standard MPEG-4 provides a powerful tool-set-for the scene description of 2D and 3D virtual environments. For the audio part, apart from a conventional physical description, a novel approach is available which is based on perceptual parameters which have been derived from psycho-acoustic experiments. The practical qualification of this method is discussed when applied to auditory and audiovisual 3D scenes. Enhancements are proposed to an example application of the perceptual approach which is included in the MPEG-4 standard and an. implementation for 3D audio rendering is introduced.