immersive audio
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Two years in, Sony wants to bring 360 Reality Audio to the masses
Sony's plan to bring its immersive 360 Reality Audio to more people includes the combo of new speakers, more content, software plug-ins and licensing.
Sony is still trying to make 360 Reality Audio a thing
At CES last year, Sony impressed me with its carefully planned headphone and speaker demos for 360 Reality Audio. The 2019 installment of the show was the debut for the company's immersive audio standard -- technology that we would repeatedly hear about until Amazon debuted the first device that could handle it: the Echo Studio. I wrote that Sony had created what I hoped would be the future of music, and I still feel that way. However, thus far, Sony has made the technology available on headphones through its audio companion app, via a camera-based ear calibration tool. But it still hasn't announced a speaker of its own, or added the capability to existing devices.
Immersive Communications Environment adds spatial dimension to in-game audio
Although we some may scoff at any research that won't directly lead to a "cure for cancer," the less judgmental may appreciate a new technology being developed by Australian engineers that promises to add a spatial dimension to in-game audio. Called the Immersive Communications Environment, this bit of code from the Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre maps voices and sounds from MMORPGs so that players can gauge their general direction using just headphones or stereo speakers, and even adjusts audio volume to reflect a sound source's virtual distance from the listener. Besides helping players communicate with teammates or figure out that they're getting shot in the back a little faster, the ICE software could also be employed in the business world, where it would give teleconference participants a more accurate sense of their remote colleagues' activities.[Thanks, Kaius]
