Sat 14 November 2020:
Many called it ‘a listening sensation straight out of a sci-fi movie’ with 3D sound that feels like ‘it’s inside your ears while also in front, above and behind them’.
An Israeli technology firm has debuted a new desktop device that beams sound directly to a listener without the need for headphones, like a personal sound bubble.
Called SoundBeamer 1.0, this device offers a 3D sound experience that fills the auditory senses wholly: front, sides, behind…you name it. According to the company, a major factor behind this device’s creation is productivity and convenience, citing that office workers will be able to listen to their favorite music tracks, podcasts, and more without interrupting colleagues and let anyone play a game, film or music minus headphones without it being heard by anyone else in the vicinity.
The desktop device, which can be paired to a device via Bluetooth, will be ready for consumers to buy in time for Christmas next year.
To make them audible for the user but not anyone else, a 3D sensing module built into the hardware locates and tracks the position of the user’s ears in real time.
SoundBeamer beams music and sound straight into the ear without the need for headphones. The technology uses a 3D sensing module and locates and tracks the ear position sending audio via ultrasonic waves to create sound pockets by the user’s ears.
At this point, the ultrasonic waves converge into small pockets of sound just outside the ears.
Here, the sound can be heard again as normal acoustic waves without disturbing others in the vicinity and freeing the user of annoying headphones.
‘Move your head in any direction and the two sound pockets will magically follow,’ Noveto says.
In a Noveto demonstration conducted via Zoom from Tel Aviv, Noveto product manager Ayana Wallwater was unable to hear the sound of gunshots on a gaming demo while hearing the reactions of people trying the tech for the first time.
‘Most people just say, “wow, I really don´t believe it”,’ she said.
‘You don’t believe it because it sounds like a speaker, but no one else can hear it… it’s supporting you and you’re in the middle of everything. It’s happening around you.’
It’s also possible for users to move out of the beam’s path and hear nothing at all, which creates a ‘surreal experience’, according to Associated Press.
‘You don’t need to tell the device where you are – it’s not streaming to one exact place,’ Wallwater said.
‘It follows you wherever you go so it’s personally for you – follows you, plays what you want inside your head.
‘This is what we dream of – a world where we get the sound you want.
Noveto CEO Christophe Ramstein said a ‘smaller, sexier’ version of the prototype will be ready for consumer release in time for Christmas 2021.
‘You know, I was trying to think how we compare sound beaming with any other inventions in history,’ he said.
‘And I think the only one that came to mind is the first time I tried the iPod I was like, “Oh, my God. What’s that?”,’ said Ramstein.
‘I think sound beaming is something that is as disruptive as that – there´s something to be said about it doesn’t exist before.’
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