Cheol-Ho Jeong

Nikolas Borrel-Jensen, Somdatta Goswami, Allan P. Engsig-Karup et al.

We address the challenge of sound propagation simulations in 3D virtual rooms with moving sources, which have applications in virtual/augmented reality, game audio, and spatial computing. Solutions to the wave equation can describe wave phenomena such as diffraction and interference. However, simulating them using conventional numerical discretization methods with hundreds of source and receiver positions is intractable, making stimulating a sound field with moving sources impractical. To overcome this limitation, we propose using deep operator networks to approximate linear wave-equation operators. This enables the rapid prediction of sound propagation in realistic 3D acoustic scenes with moving sources, achieving millisecond-scale computations. By learning a compact surrogate model, we avoid the offline calculation and storage of impulse responses for all relevant source/listener pairs. Our experiments, including various complex scene geometries, show good agreement with reference solutions, with root mean squared errors ranging from 0.02 Pa to 0.10 Pa. Notably, our method signifies a paradigm shift as no prior machine learning approach has achieved precise predictions of complete wave fields within realistic domains. We anticipate that our findings will drive further exploration of deep neural operator methods, advancing research in immersive user experiences within virtual environments.$

Yuanxin Xia, Xinyan Li, Matteo Calafà et al.

Standardized laboratory characterizations for absorbing materials rely on idealized sound field assumptions, which deviate largely from real-life conditions. Consequently, \emph{in-situ} acoustic characterization has become essential for accurate diagnosis and virtual prototyping. We propose a physics-informed neural field that reconstructs local, near-surface broadband sound fields from sparse pressure samples to directly infer complex surface impedance. A parallel, multi-frequency architecture enables a broadband impedance retrieval within runtimes on the order of seconds to minutes. To validate the method, we developed a compact microphone array with low hardware complexity. Numerical verifications and laboratory experiments demonstrate accurate impedance retrieval with a small number of sensors under realistic conditions. We further showcase the approach in a vehicle cabin to provide practical guidance on measurement locations that avoid strong interference. Here, we show that this approach offers a robust means of characterizing \emph{in-situ} boundary conditions for architectural and automotive acoustics.

Matteo Calafà, Yuanxin Xia, Cheol-Ho Jeong

We present a novel neural network architecture for the efficient prediction of sound fields in two and three dimensions. The network is designed to automatically satisfy the Helmholtz equation, ensuring that the outputs are physically valid. Therefore, the method can effectively learn solutions to boundary-value problems in various wave phenomena, such as acoustics, optics, and electromagnetism. Numerical experiments show that the proposed strategy can potentially outperform state-of-the-art methods in room acoustics simulation, in particular in the range of mid to high frequencies.

Nikolas Borrel-Jensen, Allan P. Engsig-Karup, Cheol-Ho Jeong

Realistic sound is essential in virtual environments, such as computer games and mixed reality. Efficient and accurate numerical methods for pre-calculating acoustics have been developed over the last decade; however, pre-calculating acoustics makes handling dynamic scenes with moving sources challenging, requiring intractable memory storage. A physics-informed neural network (PINN) method in 1D is presented, which learns a compact and efficient surrogate model with parameterized moving Gaussian sources and impedance boundaries, and satisfies a system of coupled equations. The model shows relative mean errors below 2%/0.2 dB and proposes a first step in developing PINNs for realistic 3D scenes.

Hermes Sampedro Llopis, Allan P. Engsig-Karup, Cheol-Ho Jeong et al.

The use of model-based numerical simulation of wave propagation in rooms for engineering applications requires that acoustic conditions for multiple parameters are evaluated iteratively and this is computationally expensive. We present a reduced basis methods (RBM) to achieve a computational cost reduction relative to a traditional full order model (FOM), for wave-based room acoustic simulations with parametrized boundary conditions. In this study, the FOM solver is based on the spectral element method, however other numerical methods could be applied. The RBM reduces the computational burden by solving the problem in a low-dimensional subspace for parametrized frequency-independent and frequency-dependent boundary conditions. The problem is formulated and solved in the Laplace domain, which ensures the stability of the reduced order model based on the RBM approach. We study the potential of the proposed RBM framework in terms of computational efficiency, accuracy and storage requirements and we show that the RBM leads to 100-fold speed-ups for a 2D case with an upper frequency of 2kHz and around 1000-fold speed-ups for an analogous 3D case with an upper frequency of 1kHz. While the FOM simulations needed to construct the ROM are expensive, we demonstrate that despite this cost, the ROM has a potential of three orders of magnitude faster than the FOM when four different boundary conditions are simulated per room surface. Moreover, results show that the storage model for the ROM is relatively high but affordable for the presented 2D and 3D cases.