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3D Sound by Creator of MP3

Posted by michael on from the jaws-theme dept.

im333mfg writes "News.com has an article detailing the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Technology's latest and greatest audio solution, Iosono, or as they're putting it 'true three dimensional audio, which can give the impression of, for example, a horse galloping through the center aisle of a movie theater, or pinpoint a noise so that it sounds exactly like a person shouting from outside theater walls. The best existing surround sound speakers can approximate this only for a small sweet spot, perhaps a few feet wide, while the Iosono system would create the same realistic illusion for everyone in the room.'"

8 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. How does this compare to Ambisonics? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Supposedly, "ambisonic" sound is superior to traditional stereo/5.1/7.1 systems and has the added benefit of actually being used in some recordings, so is there any comparison between the two methods?

  2. prior work by dekeji · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The IOSONO people didn't invent wave field synthesis. People got serious about it in the Netherlands and France in the 1980's (here).

    However, the reason why it took until the 1980's to do it isn't that people didn't think of it before, but simply that hardware and software had developed to the point that that became feasible. I suspect that if you do some digging, you can probably find the suggestion earlier. It's really a pretty straightforward idea.

    Of course, that won't keep people from trying to slice their patents out of it. It's MP3 all over again.

  3. Replacing wallpaper with flat sound panels by Morgaine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This sounds very like the phased array speaker technology that 1 Limited have been using ...

    Possibly, although the Fraunhofer Institute seems to be doing it in a massively less efficient way.

    The key issue seems to be that as you progress from just a few point sources to hundreds, you're no longer just approximating a fully distributed source but you're actually starting to implement one physically. Once you accept that that's what you're doing, then you should stop thinking about "number of speakers" and focus on area coverage with flat panels.

    Nobody is nuts enough to consider wiring up hundreds of speakers as a viable home market option, but replacing wallpaper with a few large robust decorative sound panels would easily be acceptable in many an ordinary home.

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
  4. they musta mist it by thehomeland · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I believe the audiobook of Steven King's "The Mist" did this a number of years ago, in at least 1995 or earlier? All it required was one set of headphones and you could hear a fly buzzing around your ear or could practically see someone walk past you if you closed your eyes.

    --
    thehomeland(.org)
  5. Re:(Submarine) patents? by treat · · Score: 1, Interesting
    As much as I despise patents, it's not like they prevented GIF and MP3 formats from being widely used. It doesn't sound too bad when patents are used not to prevent competition, but to get back some of the money you spent on research.

    So what you're saying is that you're OK with the law if everyone is free to break it?

  6. What's it gonna cost me? by mnemotronic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Fraunhofer Gesellschaft IIS has a history of defending their IP (MPEG 1 audio layer 3 e.g. MP3). As most /.-ers know, MP3 decoder licensing is free, but a "commercial" encoder will cost ya (licensing info). I wonder what the scam will be for losono.....

    --
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  7. Re:Size of theater matter? by carnivore302 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Normally, moving around a couple of feet will truly change the way you perceive sound. It's one of the major challenges for sound engineers (which is perfectly demonstrated in Spatial Sound by Francis Rumsey. Great book by the way)

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  8. two important points by Onan+The+Librarian · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1. This is Fraunhofer we're talking about here, and they were quite aggressive in ridding the world of those damned pesky free MP3 encoders. This announcement may be news for nerds, but it ain't stuff that matters to the free & open-source community (technically speaking)..

    2. As another post points out, wave field synthesis is hardy a new thing. Marije Baalman demonstrated her recent work at the last Linux audio conference in April, you can check out her implementation of the system at http://gigant.kgw.tu-berlin.de/~baalman/program/in dex.html.
    Cool stuff...