SRS Labs announced a new technology called SRS CS Headphone that should somehow enable “dormant,” theater-like surround sound in mobile video and streaming media applications.
And while I’m still having a hard time understanding how all this works, apparently CS Headphone takes the stereo or surround encoded 2-channel audio and first processes it using an ultra-low-power Circle Surround decoder to create 5.1 highly accurate channels. The audio is then fed into SRS’ Headphone 360 rendering technology, resulting in the accurate placement of 5.1 channels of natural sounding audio around the listeners head — through standard stereo earphones or headphones. No special hardware or headphone design required.
SRS Labs’ technology is already available for license to wireless service providers, streaming media providers and mobile device makers, and after trying it out at Mobile Focus last night, I’m really looking forward to see it implemented in mobile apps in the future… Full release is available from here.