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An Analysis of Ambisonic Sound Systems of First and Second Order
by
Jeffery Stephen Bamford
A thesis
presented to the University of Waterloo
in fulfilment of the
thesis requirement for the degree of
Master of Science
in
Physics
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 1995
© Jeffery Stephen Bamford 1995
I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis.
I authorize the University of Waterloo to lend this thesis to other
institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research.
I further authorize the University of Waterloo to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of
other institutions for the purpose of scholarly reserach.
The
University of Waterloo requires the signatures of all persons using or
photocopying this thesis. Please sign below, and give address and
date.
Abstract:
Over the past few years, surround sound has become increasingly
popular in the home. Dolby Surround is the most popular choice for
consumers but is not however, the best for localization of sound images.
Another system, the Ambisonic System, is described in this thesis. This
system is able to localize sounds in a 360°
horizontal plane. An
examination of how well this system works compared to current technology
is examined. It is found that this system is much better at localization
than is stereo or Dolby. The Ambisonic model is also expanded to include
non-regular arrays which will increase the usefulness of the system. The
effect of the finite distance of the loudspeakers is also investigated, as
is the feasibility of the system. If height information were included, it
would be possible to reproduce a full sphere of sound.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Professor
John Vanderkooy for
supervising this project and for providing financial support. I
would also like to thank Professors
Stanley Lipshitz and John
Hanson for being members of my committee. I appreciate all the
time the members of my committee took to read this thesis and for
providing their input and thoughts on the subject. I also
appreciate the help of the other students in the audiolab:
Scott
for his help with the computer and
Rob for helping me out after I
burnt out yet another chip for my Ambisonic Decoder.
I would also like to thank my parents, Betty and Percy,
for encouraging me to do my best and for always supporting my
decisions (even when they lead to slight detours!). I would also
like to thank my lifelong friend
Newt (a.k.a.
Jonas) for
the many discussions and fun we had growing up together. I also
thank Spot for not getting in the way too often at the keyboard
while I typed this thesis.
Trademarks:
Dolby, the Double-D symbol and Dolby Stereo are trademarks of
Dolby
Laboratories Licensing Corporation. MAPLE is a trademark of Waterloo
Maple Software, Inc. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems
Incorporated.
Dedication:
This work is dedicated to my wife, Karen. Her love, support and
understanding helped me through the long, tedious task of writing this
thesis. She also proofread this thesis many times and helped me to
understand that the comma is not my enemy! I thank her for all her
encouragement over the last five years and I look forward to our future
together.
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Jeff Bamford
Tue Jul 11 15:35:00 EDT 1995