Artifact-free asynchronous geometry-based audio rendering

Most audio rendering systems include a geometry-based simulation engine which computes and updates sound propagation paths and an auralization engine which renders audible the resulting sound field. In the case of dynamic environments the attributes of the sound paths vary over time, which can cause severe artifacts in the auralized sound signal. To avoid this problem, geometrical calculations have to be conducted synchronously with the signal processing tasks and the necessary high update rates can be difficult to achieve in complex environments. In this paper, we describe a technique which allows for conducting geometrical calculations completely asynchronously from the signal processing. In particular, we introduce a prediction mechanism of path attributes which ensures that artifact free signal processing can be achieved even when geometrical information is updated at low rates. This technique can be applied to any geometry-based simulations, regardless of the technique used for finding the sound propagation paths.