Virtual bass preprocessing and carrier frequency optimization for the parametric array loudspeaker

Abstract

The parametric array loudspeaker (PAL) is a novel type of loudspeaker that can project a directional sound beam. It is usually used in creating personal sound zone and projecting private messages to a targeted audience. However, the PAL has a very poor low-frequency response due to the inherent nonlinear acoustic principle generating sound from ultrasound in air. A psychoacoustic signal processing method known as the virtual bass (VB) has been proved to be an effective method to improve the bass quality of consumer electronics with miniature or flat loudspeaker unit. This paper proposes the VB processing based on the phase vocoder (PV) for the bass enhancement of the PAL that adopts a vestigial sideband modulation method. The harmonics generated by the VB processing are presented in the partial sideband, while the audio input without the bass component is embedded in the full sideband. A measure, namely the in-band peak flatness, is thereafter proposed in this paper to determine the optimal carrier frequency, given a practical uneven frequency response of the ultrasonic transducer. The subjective testing results validate that the proposed VB processing together with the optimal carrier frequency can finally realize the improvement of bass sound quality of the PAL.