After revolutionizing the world of music with the MP3 format, its co-creator is tackling spatial audio with a solution to make listening even more immersive.
Music lover or simply owner of headphones that support it, you surely know thespatial audio. A function that creates a virtual spatialization in your ears while you listen to a song or watch a compatible video 5.1, 7.1 Or Dolby Atmos. In fact, it is simulate multiple sound sources around you to completely immerse yourself. For example, you really have the impression that the actors are talking a few steps away from you in this dialogue scene, or that the instruments making up this title are playing around you.
Spatial audio is not new. On the smartphone side, Apple Music has offered it since 2021 and Android followed the following year. The technology is found in several earphones or headsets such as AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, to name a few. The teacher Karlheinz Brandenburgfamous for having co-invented the MP3 format, asked the question: “How can we achieve better audio quality with headphones for a more realistic spatial experience similar to real-world situations?” His answer is already concrete.
The “father” of MP3 develops technology for total immersion in spatial audio
Let’s clarify it right away, it is not a question of proposing a new audio format. Thanks to research carried out to understand “how the brain works when it listens to sounds”, the Brandenburg Labs teams have developed a system using virtual reality technologies. The general idea is to locate your position in a room and of determine how your head is turned For adjust the sound heard according to.
The prototype takes the form of a helmet on which a Vive position sensor from HTC. The result is that the sound changes as you move and move your head in one direction or the other, as if you were walking through a room with multiple speakers in different locations. What Karlheinz Brandenburg considers “spatial audio plus” is still in the testing stage. The scientist believes that its system could be ready within two to three years and would especially equip the virtual reality headset.
Source: Brandenburg Labs