Past, Present, and Future of Spatial Audio and Room Acoustics
Shoichi Koyama, Enzo De Sena, Prasanga Samarasinghe, Mark R. P. Thomas, Fabio Antonacci
TL;DR
This paper surveys the past, present, and future of spatial audio and room acoustics, addressing the problem of delivering immersive sound in enclosed spaces by combining recording, simulation, and reproduction techniques across psychoacoustic and physical acoustics. It synthesizes historical channel-based recording, soundfield representations (object-based and scene-based, including Ambisonics and HOA), and room-acoustic modeling (geometric, wave-based, and data-driven) to outline current capabilities and limitations. The authors discuss real-time auralization, 6-DOF rendering, upmixing, dereverberation, and adaptive room compensation as central themes driving recent research. The work highlights cross-disciplinary contributions from ICASSP/IEEE SPS communities and emphasizes pathways toward AI-assisted, personalized, and device-agnostic spatial audio for AR/VR, cinema, and mobile platforms.
Abstract
The study of spatial audio and room acoustics aims to create immersive audio experiences by modeling the physics and psychoacoustics of how sound behaves in space. In the long history of this research area, various key technologies have been developed based both on theoretical advancements and practical innovations. We highlight historical achievements, initiative activities, recent advancements, and future outlooks in the research area of spatial audio recording and reproduction, and room acoustic simulation, modeling, analysis, and control.