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Facebook Acquires VR Audio Company, Launches 'Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation' (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the third-dimension dept.

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Verge: Facebook is looking to improve its virtual-reality audio experience with the acquisition of Two Big Ears. Facebook is rereleasing Two Big Ears' "Spatial Workstation" software as the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation, reports VentureBeat. The software is designed to "make VR audio succeed across all devices and platforms," and Two Big Ears developers will be merged with Facebook's Oculus team of employees. The acquisition of Two Big Ears is being made by Facebook and not Oculus -- the program is branded as a Facebook product, focused on 360-degree video and VR. The Spatial Workstation was first released last fall and was a platform for mixing audio that sounded realistically three-dimensional. Two Big Ears will provide "support in accordance with your current agreement" for the next 12 months to those who purchased a paid license to the old workstation. The company says it "will continue to be platform and device agnostic," not being locked into the Rift or Gear VR. Facebook did not disclose the sum of the acquisition. Two Big Ears was previously partnered with YouTube to help bring 360-degree live streaming and spatial audio to the site.

28 comments

  1. device agnostic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where did we HEAR that before with the rift...

    1. Re:device agnostic by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2

      I hope companies don't start making exclusive games for their own VR headsets, the damn things are going to expensive as it is.

      I'd like to be able to play the next Left 4 Dead game in VR with the DK2, for example.

    2. Re:device agnostic by mfh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      These devices are encumbered by shitty companies who are making them.

      Facebook is a vile and arrogant red dragon.

      Valve has had recent issues with the fanbase regarding arrogant leadership and it is yet to be discovered whether they will learn from such a mistake.

      The best kind of VR is going to operate perfectly without any cooperation from games or OSes and will remain a product for the users and not one to enslave the users.

      --
      The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    3. Re: device agnostic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't it still kind of funny to see how simple they think?

    4. Re:device agnostic by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oculus has exclusives in their store, and recently added DRM to try to defeat software called ReVive that makes the Oculus store and games work for any OpenVR headset (Currently the HTC Vive). The ReVive developer quickly released a patch to bypass the DRM for some games, and promises to free the rest. He had to bypass the license check with the headset check, so he asks us to not pirate the games. Any game bought in the Oculus store should be considered to be locked to an Oculus headset unless Oculus drops out of this DRM war quickly. This is more of a problem for Oculus' customers, who are currently locked in, but also a problem for ReVive users who bought games from the Oculus store, and can be .locked out of games they paid for.

      Games for the Rift and Vive are available through Steam with no headset lock-in, so if you avoid the Oculus store, you can avoid the lock-in, but they have some good games in there, and are building more for the touch controller release.

      There are currently Vive only games too, but that's just because the Rift doesn't do touch or room-scale yet. They'll be playable on the Rift when Oculus ships Touch and multi-camera tracking, and they'll be playable on any future OpenVR headset.

    5. Re:device agnostic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. What good is their technology if I can't trust them as a company. Facebook, in my opinion, lacks any sense of integrity. I don't want their products, nor products from any company tainted by association.

  2. Surround sound ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't surround sound already ... surround ?

    I don't get it.

    1. Re: Surround sound ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No because the microphone is not recording directions in its normal digital form. This is why cameras turn to show different positions.

      The microphone has to be 360 degrees in both x and y as well as negative z and positive z, as well as the camera. Then it automatically works.

      People and normal cameras or microphones use reflections.

      It seems pretty simple.

    2. Re:Surround sound ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose the tech is similar to the Smyth Realiser, which is surround for headphones with head tracking, i.e. the sound sources remain fixed in space even if you move your head. http://www.smyth-research.com/products.html

  3. Facebook strikes again? by Pezbian · · Score: 2

    "will continue to be platform and device agnostic"

    My ass.

    --
    In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
  4. so what's new? by sittingnut · · Score: 3, Informative

    so what's new here other than facebook bought a company?
    what exactly is the new technology here that makes sound "realistically three-dimensional"? i don't see anything new or innovative. just another implementation.
    it is just facebook hype to sell more ads.

    1. Re:so what's new? by adolf · · Score: 1

      It's not new. It is an implementation of the same stuff we were doing with EAX almost 20 years ago, before OpenAL arrived essentially stillborn.

      Psychoacoustics is not a new science, though it may be a largely forgotten one.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
    2. Re:so what's new? by mekahd · · Score: 1

      so what's new here other than facebook bought a company? what exactly is the new technology here that makes sound "realistically three-dimensional"? i don't see anything new or innovative. just another implementation. it is just facebook hype to sell more ads.

      device agnostic

    3. Re:so what's new? by swb · · Score: 1

      What's new is binaural recordings with web tracking, ads, patent encumbered and DRM controlled formats.

    4. Re:so what's new? by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      I'd argue that EAX wasn't really that sophisticated; it had a library of cheap DSP effects that was an improvement over nothing, but had no ability to transition from one to another, and didn't handle environments other than closed ones.

      It turned out to be far more flexible and pragmatic to do it all in software, where developers weren't constrained by a single, indifferent hardware developer. (With bonus points for working everywhere, instead of requiring a single-source product). Creative was never interested in an API that would allow anybody's hardware to use it.

      Insert OpenAL: Loki Software implemented an open and cross-platform API for 3D audio, with software fallback.For a while, OpenAL was one of the audio libraries of choice - Doom 3, BioShock, Unreal Tournament, Jedi Knight, Battlefield 2. Creative even deprecated EAX in favor of OpenAL.

      But game makers were pragmatic and started doing the DSP in software, since it would work everywhere instead of being specific to Creative hardware.

      I don't even know of modern software that supports anything like EAX in hardware anymore. (Well, other than Creative's Demos...)

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
  5. Yeah ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The company says it "will continue to be platform and device agnostic," not being locked into the Rift or Gear VR."

    I believe that. /s

    1. Re: Yeah ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then You believe HTTP and JavaScript is on every device, it is not at all.

      Basically, you are an idiot.

    2. Re:Yeah ... by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 0

      I wonder if those that use nice OSes have a higher incidence of hypertension.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    3. Re: Yeah ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What? Wtf are you talking about.

  6. Who is aquired next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This bodes well for http://visisonics.com/ (UMD)
    >Featuring the best 3D audio in VR/Gaming and the world’s most advanced system for 3D audio capture and analysis
    >VisiSonics' RealSpace 3D Audio Software Licensed by Oculus for Virtual Reality

    1. Re: Who is aquired next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mach1

  7. Is Google asleep on the job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    TWO BIG EARS was partnering with youtube, a google subsidiary, in providing a 360-degree spatial audio sensation to youtube streaming, and yet, Google let this one slips away, just like that !

    Google has spent too much time and has been focusing too much on that stupid driverless car thing that is getting no where and generate NO PROFIT

    In the meantime FB is doing everything it can to provide the users the 'experience' they want

    Methinks google shares are going to have a deep dive pretty soon

  8. Why is this a big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You just record audio in the same degree (set of degrees) that you record the video, with a deflector.

    You know like a piece of metal on a $2 servo, which is just a motor with a resistor that has different values printed on a PCB.

    Seriously, why make this so hard? Why waste people's time, just to associate this idea with back or previous? Don't you realize that breaks language and if that's what you really want why not just say that really early to the children?

    You have problems, we fix them... What the hell do you think will be the outcome?

    Why can't your understand blood flows and explain them BEFORE associations are made? Why can't your understand how words can still be real in the situation and thoughts can be different?

    Why are you so fucking stupid?

    Don't you understand that if you forget how your car or computer works that someone will take advantage of it, and there afterward, you?

    Lol

  9. Poor Ossic by mentil · · Score: 1

    I was wondering why Oculus didn't acquire Ossic. Now we know. Glad I held off, there are going to be so many competing hardware/software solutions for VR audio in a year, paying $300 to get something in 6 months that might already be obsolete/unsupported didn't make much sense (even though the tech seems solid). Add in the prototype headphones that do galvanic vestibular stimulation and there's two important VR advances begging to be rolled into one device, both of which will probably be part of the HMD in the near future.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  10. Facebook is for the last generation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing they can do about it... they're the next MySpace.... mainly because nobody trusts their over marketing *beep*

  11. Glad I got rid of Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are SUPER creepy when it comes to the data they mine from your phone, websites, etc. Get rid of Facebook. It's all just bullshit.