From: pepke@SCRI1.SCRI.FSU.EDU (Eric Pepke)
Subject: Re: "Virtual Sound"?
Date: 19 Feb 91 20:21:57 GMT
Organization: Florida State University, but I don't speak for them



In article <810.27bc8714@venus.ycc.yale.edu> ap207nra@venus.ycc.yale.edu 
writes:
> I am curious as to whether any VR systems currently make use of sound cues 
> along with the 3D visual image?  Specifically, I am interested in the
> current research being done on 3-dimensional sound production (virtual sound?)
> When I say 3-D sound, I mean sound that can be localized in 3-D from signals
> coming from stereo headphones.  A friend of mine said that this is difficult
> to achieve because of the variance of the pinnae from one person to another,
> which influences our sound localization.

VPL has a system that emulates binaural sound.  It handles both the phase 
and volume information and the frequency information.  If you want, you 
can stick electret microphones in your earholes and calibrate it for your 
head and pinnae.  (I wonder what Jaron Lanier's frequency parameters look 
like?  How many sabins does a dreadlock have?)

The result sounds pretty good.  It's not perfect, of course, but it's a 
better emulation of hearing than the eyephones are of sight.

I don't think the pinnae variation is all that big a deal.  Ordinary 
binaural recordings work fine for most people.  If you ever get a chance, 
go to Disney/MGM studios in Orlando, FL.  There is a binaural show there 
which produces amazing results with cheesy on-the-ear headphones.

Eric Pepke                                    INTERNET: pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET:   pepke@fsu
Florida State University                      SPAN:     scri::pepke
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052                    BITNET:   pepke@fsu

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