Abstract: A system provides tactile navigation guidance in a video game environment. The system includes: a detection unit configured to detect at least part of surroundings of a player in the game environment and a guidance unit configured to adjust a tension level of at least one variable tension input on a controller. The adjustment is made in dependence on the result of detection by the detection unit so as to indicate to a user at least a subset of the detected surroundings through the controller.

Abstract: A user input method includes the steps of inputting real events arising from a user acting as a spectator of content, analysing the real events to estimate user sentiment, and modifying an aspect of computer-controlled character behaviour in response to estimated user sentiment.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes processing circuitry to generate images of a computer-generated environment for display to a first user, storage circuitry to temporarily store at least some of the images, where the storage circuitry is configured to temporarily store a respective image in dependence upon one or more storage conditions, receiving circuitry to receive user input data indicative of selection by a first user of a predetermined function for reporting abusive interaction by another user associated with the computer-generated environment, recording circuitry to generate a respective recording in response to the user input data, the respective recording comprising at least some of the images stored by the storage circuitry and output circuitry to output the respective recording

Abstract: A noise cancellation system comprising an audio identification unit configured to identify audio to which a noise cancellation process is to be applied, an output generation unit configured to generate one or more noise cancellation signals in dependence upon the identified audio, and two or more audio output units each configured to reproduce a respective subset of the generated one or more noise cancellation signals, such that the two or more audio output units are configured to produce different outputs.

Abstract: A method of improving accessibility for the user operation of a first application on a computer includes the steps of taking one or more measurements of a current user's interaction with an application on the computer, comparing the one or more measurements with expectations derived from measurements from a first corpus of users, characterising one or more needs of the current user based upon the comparison, and modifying at least a first property of the first application responsive to the characterised need or needs.

Abstract: An input device for controlling a computing system includes one or more sensors configured to sense a change in weight distribution of a user positioned on the input device in use, and a transmitter configured to transmit a signal based on the sensed change in weight distribution, for use in a virtual joystick input to a computing system.

Abstract: A controller for a multimedia entertainment system is provided. The controller comprises a weighted component connected to the controller, wherein the weighted component is rotationally movable relative to the controller. The controller is configured to rotate the weighted component from a start position to an end position to shift the centre of mass of the controller in response to a trigger event; wherein the weighted component stops moving at the end position. This movement of the weighted component provides directional haptic feedback to a user of the controller.

Abstract: A system for generating a personalised Head-Related Transfer Function, HRTF, for a user, the system comprising: a sound source at a first position; a user device comprising: a left microphone arranged to be at a left ear of the user, when the user device is worn; a right microphone arranged to be at a right ear of the user, when the user device is worn; and a controller configured to: prompt the user to move to series of different second positions; control the sound source to emit a predetermined sound signal when the user is at each second position; obtain a detected sound signal from each of the left and right microphones when the user is at each second position; generate a personalised HRTF based on the predetermined sound signal and the detected sound signal for each microphone and each second position.

Abstract: An audio personalisation method for simulating perception of a vertical displacement of a sound source, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining an input head related transfer function, HRTF, associated with a user; determining an intended vertical displacement for the sound source; selecting at least one frequency region in the input HRTF; and adjusting the amplitude of the selected frequency region(s) to simulate the intended vertical displacement for the sound source. This provides improvements to the generation and/or manipulation of HRTFs to allow adjustment of the perceived location of a sound source.

Abstract: An apparatus provides personalized binaural audio rendering of an input signal. The apparatus has a left ear transducer configured to generate a left ear audio signal and a right ear transducer configured to generate a right ear audio signal. Moreover, the apparatus has processing circuitry configured to determine, based on a current target direction of the input signal, an adjusted current target direction using a personalized adjustment function that describes a functional relationship between a plurality of reference target directions of a reference sound signal and a plurality of perceived reference target directions of the reference sound signal as perceived by a user. The processing circuitry is further configured to implement a target direction renderer configured to generate based on the input signal and the adjusted target direction a first driving signal for driving the left ear transducer and a second driving signal for driving the right ear transducer.

Abstract: An audio personalisation method for a first user includes: testing a first user on a calibration test, the calibration test comprising requiring a user to match a test sound to a test location, either by controlling the position of the presented sound or controlling the position of the presented location, for a sequence of test matches, each test sound being presented at a position using a default head related transfer function ‘HRTF’, receiving an estimate of each matching location from the first user, and calculating a respective error for each estimate, to generate a sequence of location estimate errors for the first user; and comparing at least some of the location estimate errors for the first user with estimate errors of the same locations previously generated for at least a subset of a corpus of reference individuals; identifying a reference individual with the closest match of compared location estimation errors to those of the first user; and using an HRTF, previously obtained for the identified refe

Abstract: A head-related transfer function, HRTF, dataset modification system, the system including an HRTF identifying unit operable to identify a first HRTF from an HRTF dataset, a filter generating unit operable to generate a filter in dependence upon the first HRTF, and an HRTF modification unit operable to modify the first HRTF by applying the generated filter to generate an output HRTF, where the generating comprises the steps of: identifying a spectral response of the first HRTF, identifying a plurality of second HRTFs within the HRTF dataset, each within a predetermined distance of the first HRTF, and a spectral response associated with each of the second HRTFs, generating an average of each of the identified spectral responses of the first and second HRTFs, and generating a filter using the inverse of this average.

Abstract: An audio personalisation method for a user includes: testing the user with an audio test, the audio test comprising: moving a portable device, comprising a position tracking mechanism and a speaker, to a plurality of predetermined test positions relative to the user's head; when within a threshold distance of a predetermined test position, playing a test sound through the speaker of the portable device; and detecting the test sound using a microphone proximate to each of the user's ears, and associating resulting measurement data with the predetermined test position, where the resulting measurement data derived from the detected test sounds is characteristic of the user's head morphology; for a corpus of reference individuals for whom respective HRTFs have been generated, comparing the measurement data from the user's audio test or a head-related transfer function ‘HRTF’ derived from this measurement data with corresponding measurement data of some or all respective reference individuals in the corpus or HRTF

Abstract: A head mountable display, HMD, system to display images to a user via an HMD includes an illumination detector to detect an illumination level of an ambient environment around the HMD; an operation detector to detect one or more operations indicative of one or both of: (i) initiation of the HMD being put on by the user; and (ii) initiation of the HMD being taken off by the user; and a controller to control the illumination level of the display images, the controller being configured to generate and apply a temporary illumination level variation to the display images in response to a detection of the one or more operations by the operation detector.

Abstract: An audio personalisation method for a user, to reproduce an area-based or volumetric sound source, includes the steps of, for a head related transfer function ‘HRTF’ associated with the user, smoothing HRTF coefficients relating to peaks and notches in the HRTF's spectral response, responsive to the size of the area or volume of the sound source; filtering the sound source using the smoothed HRTF for the notional position of the sound source; and outputting the filtered sound source signal for playback to the user.

Abstract: A method for obtaining a position of a peripheral device for an audiovisual entertainment system, the method comprising: controlling an audio source to output an audio signal at a first time; determining a second time at which the audio signal arrives at an audio detector, wherein the peripheral device comprises at least one of the audio source and audio detector; and estimating a position of the peripheral device based on an acoustic time-of-flight between the first time and the second time

Abstract: The invention provides techniques for intelligently positioning speech in a virtual environment. Factors such as user preferences, the location of virtual environment audio and/or visual events, avatar location, and others can be taken into account when selecting a suitable location for the speech. The virtual environment can be a game environment, a meeting environment, an augmented reality environment, a virtual reality environment, and the like. The invention can be implemented by an audio processing unit which may be part of a game console.

Abstract: A system for generating outputs to a user in dependence upon audio emitted by one or more audio markers, the system comprising an audio detection unit operable to detect audio emitted by one or more of the audio markers, the audio markers being configured to emit audio in accordance with one or more predetermined conditions, an audio marker locating unit operable to determine one or more properties, including at least a proximity to a user, of audio markers in dependence upon the detected audio corresponding to that audio marker, and a rendering unit operable to output one or more images for display to a user in dependence upon one or more of the determined properties of the one or more audio markers.

Abstract: A system for modifying interactions between a user and displayed content, the system comprising an input detection unit operable to detect one or more inputs from a peripheral device operated by a user, an input characterisation unit operable to characterise the detected one or more inputs, and a content modification unit operable to modify one or more aspects of the user’s interaction in dependence upon the characterisation of the detected inputs.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes allocation circuitry to allocate a graphical feature for a virtual environment to a respective layer from a plurality of respective layers in dependence upon one or more properties for the graphical feature, where the plurality of respective layers comprise a mobile layer and at least one of a mobile re-projection layer and a static re-projection layer, rendering circuitry to render graphical features allocated to respective different layers of the plurality of respective layers with a different rendering quality, and an output image generator to generate an image for display according to a viewpoint of a virtual camera, where the image includes graphical features allocated to respective different layers of the plurality of layers.