
3D Audio From Ordinary Speakers (Video Demo) - shawndumas
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2011/04/23/3d-audio-from-ordinary-speakers-video-demo/
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abcd_f
Wouldn't his technique require the listener to be sitting still and have his
ears in exact specified locations? Not very practical then if that's the case.
I guess the system can include some sort of (visual) ear recognition and
tracking logic and adjust the cross-talk filter respectively, but (a) that's
pretty far off (b) still won't work for more than one listener.

Moreover...

> _The filter is designed to work with loudspeakers - not headphones_

Because regular stereo in headphones already has no cross-talk, so it is
naturally 3D. And this leads to the trivial 3D stereo solution (if one really
wants it) - just put the headphones on.

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olihb
I think the most useful application of this technology(except entertainment)
would be conference calls. Even with a polycom conference phone, you still
have to concentrate to follow the conversation. It's even worse when people
don't wait their turn to talk...

If someone can include this technology in an unobtrusive way in Skype, there's
a Nobel prize waiting for them...

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wazoox
In the late 80s-early 90s, 3D sound with stereo speakers was all the rage :
Q-Sound, Roland RSS... there were several competing processing systems.
Sting's "The Soul Cages" did use Q-Sound quite heavily, for anyone interested
(edit: correct Sting album reference).

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ck2
Downloaded the 720p version (it has 128kbps AAC) to play back with a better
decoder than flash and it does seem to work - I'd like to hear more demos
though.

On rare occasion the old stereo-wide feature on my TV can make a sound seem
like it occurred behind me (with just 2 cheap speakers) now that's something
they need to research and reproduce - this demo had nothing from behind me.

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Entlin
Great stuff. Without correct speaker positioning and well-matching HRTFs for
each listener, I feel that this won't fly.

Btw: I'm thinking about creating a 3D audio game where the HRTF model is
constantly refined for the player while he is playing. Does anybody know
whether there has already been work done in this direction, either
academically or in the indie game world?

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ericmoritz
<http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/default.aspx>

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sp332
Is Creative sponsoring this? I thought they killed A3D in favor of the
(inferior) EAX after they bought Aureal.

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headShrinker
This effect didn't work so well for me. 3D Audio (from stereo source) has been
experimented with for years. I have heard most of them. The most believable
reproduction I have heard is here,
[http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/downloads/4-654%20matches....](http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/downloads/4-654%20matches.mp3)
. It should be heard with high quality headphones. You can hear from the short
demo, the replay has complete 360 degree reproductive control. You can almost
feel the blowdryer in your ear,
[http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/downloads/4-654%20blowdry....](http://www.nucleusdevelopment.com/downloads/4-654%20blowdry.mp3)
.

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huhtenberg
Both links are dead.

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headShrinker
Sorry. Fixed.

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TeMPOraL
I've just watched the video on my laptop and this 3D audio actually works!
It's amazing! I'd really like to see more demos.

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amccloud
My guess is that his "filter" is phase cancellation, which is nothing new.

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sp332
As he explains in the video, phase cancellation doesn't work well when you
stick your head into it. The head-related transfer function interacts with it
in complex ways, so it's not easy to keep audio fidelity and spatial
information at the same time. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-
related_transfer_function>

