With new 3D technology and virtual reality systems making it mainstream, technology seems
to have our eyes covered, but what about our ears.
Hey guys Julia here for DNews.
kids these days.
seems they want their reality streamed right to a screen near them.
Well you’ve heard of 3D tvs and VR on your phone, get ready for 3D Audio.
This technology dates back to the 1800s, but mono and stereo sound dominated the scene
for the past hundred years or so.
3D audio or binaural audio immerses your ears in virtual world.
In a VR system, you might see a plane flying overhead and the sound will move right along
with it.
A lot of that sound depth recreates the doppler effect.
Think of the last time you were standing on a sidewalk when an ambulance went by.
The siren probably sounded higher pitched as it was screaming towards you.
But as soon as it whizzed past, the pitch dropped.
And it’s all a matter of sound waves.
When an object, like an ambulance moves towards you each time a sound wave is produced its
starting point is closer to you than the last one.
So by the time the sound reaches your ears, the waves are closer together, which means
a higher pitch.
and the inverse happens when the ambulance moves away from you.
The wave is emitted further from the last one stretching out the space between them.
Which drops the pitch.
So that’s easy enough to recreate with typical recording equipment, but 3D audio or binaural
audio as it’s called takes it a step further.
Basically because our ears are on either side of our head and pointing different directions
rather than on top and facing the same way, sound reaches our ears at slightly different
times.
We’re talking a fraction of a second, milliseconds here.
We would never notice, but this helps us know which direction the sound came from.
And it’s not just the position of our ears, but the shape of our ears and head can change
how we experience sound.
Sound traces the shape of an ear in a particular way and the way sound travels through our
thick skulls and squishy bits can change the experience too.
The way anatomy effects sound detection is called head related transfer function or HRTF.
Without it, sounds sound flat.
So how do we replicate that?
Well, create a microphone that’s shaped like an ear and attach two of them to a recording
device or even something that looks like prosthetic head.
That’s binaural audio.
Seriously, just like virtual reality cameras look..
well they still look a little silly to me, like a bunch of cameras stuck to a soccer
ball and spiked on a pole.
3D microphones look a little silly.
There’s a lot of examples of people using these types of microphones to make ASMR videos.
When their crinkling paper or softly whispering, they move from fake ear to fake ear, that
way the sound moves too and it just sounds so real and intimate.
Some people find this relaxing and even get chills and tingles from it.
While some of these systems can be used with regular headphones, some researchers are making
them custom.
Literally, every person would have a different sound experience.
The technology came out of Microsoft’s Redmond labs and uses something like a Kinect sensor
to scan a person’s head and shoulders.
The software then creates a 3D model of the person to learn their HRTF and predicts how
sound would reach their ears.
It also tracks the movements of your head, that way when you’re in a virtual reality
setting, the sound matches the direction of your ears and eerily tricks you into thinking
a sound came from a specific location, like a jet flying across the sky.
Or in a VR concert a cello sounds like it comes from the right or from the left.
And this technology isn’t just for headphones.
Researchers are working on a way to bring the power of 3D audio straight into your living
room.
So the whole family can enjoy it!
No it’s not surround sound, which uses numerous speakers to provide a 360 sound.
It’s only 2 speakers, which work in a way sort of like regular 3D tv does.
3D works by producing two separate images that get sent to different eyes.
That works by color coding or by flickering technology.
3D speakers send slightly different sounds to each of your ears.
Some versions only work if you sit in a sweet spot.
Others use head tracking technology, that can track up to 8 heads at a time!
While it’ll be sweet to see how virtual reality takes off with this technology, already
artists have starting playing around with it.
One of my favorite artists Imogen Heap used it to create her song “propeller seeds”.
It’s great seeing cool technology put to practical use - something the U.S. Air Force
does a lot.
And we wanna thank them for supporting DNews!
The United States Air Force is powered by Airmen, fueled by innovation.
Every day American Airmen go above and beyond to break barriers both professionally and
personally.
Whether it’s overcoming poverty to become a nurse and officer or becoming the first
female Thunderbird pilot, these Airmen are doing what others once thought was impossible.
So have you ever listened to 3D audio?
Did it live up to your expectations?
Tell us about it in the comments below.