From the New York Times:

“Meijer, a research scientist in the Netherlands, has developed a technology called the vOICe, which allows you to represent visual information – to “see” – with sounds. The device is a tiny camera, a laptop and headphones. The camera is mounted on your head and the laptop takes the video input and converts it into auditory information, or soundscapes. The scene in front of you is scanned in stereo: you hear objects on your left through your left ear and objects on your right through your right ear. Brightness is translated as volume: bright things are louder. Pitch tells you what’s up and what’s down. The image refreshes once a second.”

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This is a wonderful application for 3D audio.

If you make it to Orlando, Florida, you will be able to experience a Disney attraction called Sounds Dangerous that relies heavily on 3D audio. Guests wear special earphones as they watch a short film starring comedian Drew Carey. At a point in the film, the screen goes dark while a 3D audio soundtrack immerses the guests in the ongoing story. It should be noted that this is not a generated effect but a binaural recording (see here).

The novel is called ‘The Death of Bunny Munro’, and you can find more info here: www.thedeathofbunnymunro.com

The explanation from the site for the audiobook goes as follows, “The audiobook uses a groundbraking 3D audio spatial mix, specifically designed for listening on headphones, creating a fully immersive experience for the listener”.

Have a listen here USING HEADPHONES! Notice that as the sounds behind Nick Cave’s voice are heard, they tend to move around your head. Listen carefully…

This is a great application of 3D audio as most audiobooks are destined for mp3 players and thus listened using headphones. It really takes listening to audiobooks to a new level, and according to the publishers is “unprecidented”.

The good news is that with the technology from the ‘listen with your own ears’ project you will be able to, in the not-too-distant future, have any audiobook that you may have on your mp3 player (that is not recorded in 3D audio) instantaneously converted to 3D audio and have the sound personalised according to the shape of your ears (see New York Times article on the project).