[vorbis-dev] Multichannel Encoding

[Borgerding, Mark A.]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-vorbis-dev at xiph.org [mailto:owner-vorbis-dev at xiph.org]On
> Behalf Of Gerry
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 12:41 PM
> To: vorbis-dev at xiph.org
> Subject: Re: [vorbis-dev] Multichannel Encoding
> 
> 
...
> 
> Now, here's the thought: Considering all of this, it should, 
> in theory, be
> possible to create perfect surround sound in just two 
> channels, one for each

Yes, that is correct.  There has been a good bit of work done on directional
audio.  A few years ago I interviewed for a job on a project which was
designed to make use of the "cocktail party effect" in noisy environments.
At a cocktail party, there is a lot of distracting noise.  Our brains have
sound localization built into them, which makes it possible to concentrate
on a particular speaker's voice.

The project was for an aircraft pilot's headset. A pilot can have many
people speaking to him at once.  By using directional audio, each speaker
would get their own direction.  So the pilot would be able to hear his
copilot from ahead and to the right, ground control from behind and to the
left, etc.  This would better enable the listener to focus in on the audio.
The biggest difficulties lay in the modelling of the ear and the sensing of
the headphones' axes, so that when the listener, turned his head, the sound
stayed in the same place.

But I digress.
I must admit I am not terribly familiar with the concepts as I did not end
up taking a job with that company.  But I may be able to help point in the
right direction, if you are interested in delving deeper.

You may find some data if you search on 
"cocktail party effect"
"binaural hearing"
"directional audio"

Mark Borgerding

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