ETRI audio technology reflected in MPEG international standards’

Korean researchers have achieved a remarkable result in the international standardization organization that develops digital video and audio compression standards.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced that the ‘sound source location delay technology’ developed by its researchers was officially reflected in the final draft of the MPEG-I immersive audio standard, an international standard for immersive audio by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), in April.

This achievement means that the core audio technology has, in effect, been adopted as an international standard, marking an important milestone in which domestic researchers lead the international standards in the field of realistic audio.

ETRI researchers have been directly involved in the development of the SW as well as editing the standards documentation. A separate item for the corresponding signal processing has also been created and is being driven towards international standardization. Furthermore, the researchers also disclosed that a total of 12 international standard patents have been adopted, including methods and devices for compensating delayed location according to the distance of the sound source.

ETRI’s ‘sound source location delay technology’ is a technology that precisely reproduces the phenomenon in which sounds that move quickly, such as fighter jets, or occur at a distance, such as thunder and lightning, are heard slightly delayed from their actual location.

In the real world, the time difference between when a sound is generated and when it is heard is naturally perceived, known as auditory time lag, but existing virtual audio technologies do not reflect the auditory time lag factor, which leads to a lack of realism and immersion.

ETRI has overcome these technical limitations and implemented time-based auditory perception elements even in virtual environments, enabling a more natural and realistic 3D audio experience. This newly developed technology is the world’s first to capture even this auditory time lag.

‘MPEG-I immersive audio’ is an MPEG audio technology standardization that aims to standardize immersive realistic sound rendering technology for 6DoF spatial sound services that allow free movement and interaction of the listener, and metadata encoding required for rendering.

ETRI’s ‘sound source location delay technology,’ which compensates for the effects of sound source location delay for fast-moving and distant sound sources, adds time-based auditory elements to this standard, dramatically enhancing the sense of immersion. Through this, the standard can be utilized as a key element in fields that require precise reality simulation, such as VR experiences, training, and education.

This technology, which will serve as a next-generation audio technology where 3D spatial audio reacts in real-time to changes in the user’s viewpoint, is expected to be widely used in various industries, including immersive Virtual Reality (VR), the Metaverse, virtual conferencing, remote education, gaming, and realistic performances. This is projected to elevate the international status of South Korea’s realistic media technology and lead the next-generation audio market. Furthermore, it is expected to greatly contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of related industries.

Jung Won Kang, Director of ETRI’s Media Coding Research Section, stated, “This achievement is significant not only because it’s a simple technical proposal, but also because our technology has been recognized as a key component in establishing international standards. We will continue to focus on securing audio technology that can lead the world in the immersive media field and on international standardization efforts.”

Taejin Lee, Assistant Vice President of ETRI’s Media Research Division, also commented, “Until now, the immersive audio standard primarily focused on spatial elements such as sound direction and distance expression, while the time-based perceptual element, which is critical for actual auditory perception, has been overlooked in standardization discussions. The reflection of this technology is an achievement recognized not as a simple feature addition, but as a core component of establishing the international standard” Based on this technology, ETRI plans to lead the way in ultra-realistic stereoscopic media technology by ▲ developing dynamic stereoscopic media acquisition/generation and real-time content interaction technologies, and ▲ working on low-latency, high-quality simultaneous sound compression and international standardization. Furthermore, to realize ultra-realistic two-way stereoscopic communication, ETRI plans to focus on ▲ real-time spatial content generation technologies and ▲ developing and demonstrating core spatial interaction technologies (PoC).

1) MPEG-I Immersive Audio: MPEG audio technology standardization that aims to standardize immersive realistic sound rendering technology for 6DoF spatial sound services that allow free movement and interaction of the listener, and metadata encoding required for rendering.

2) Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG): An international standardization organization that develops compression standards for digital video and audio; founded in 1988, it is a working group under the International Standards Committee called ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29.

3) Sound Source Location Delay Technology: A technology that accurately and realistically implements the phenomenon where a sound from a rapidly moving or distant sound source is heard at a delayed location or time compared to the visually perceived location. This technology had not been reflected in the field of virtual environment audio until now, and through its use, more realistic and superior acoustics can be provided in VR, the Metaverse, remote education, virtual conferencing, gaming, and realistic performances.

###

This research was conducted as part of the research operation support project of ETRI as a research task titled “The research of the basic media/contents technologies”

ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research institute. Since its foundation in 1976, ETRI, a global ICT research institute, has been making its immense effort to provide Korea a remarkable growth in the field of ICT industry. ETRI delivers Korea as one of the top ICT nations in the World, by unceasingly developing world’s first and best technologies.