In the hip world of design, ergonomics is king. We see ergonomic design in computer mice made to fit your hand or chairs made to conform to your supple rump, but a new audio technology from NTT DoCoMo promises to bring ergonomic audio to the mobile space. NTT DoCoMo’s new “spatial audio transmission technology” allows the mobile user to arrange multiple callers in a virtual audio field – so you hear your conference-calling co-worker as if he were sitting next to you, with your boss’s voice seemingly coming to you from across the table.
Ergonomic hearing technology just makes sense. We routinely distinguish between multiple voices in a crowded room just by listening to their apparent position, but phone calls have been slow to key in on this natural human ability. NTT DoCoMo’s breakthrough takes fits the way we hear multiple sound sources, just as that expensive mesh-chair fits the way your body sits.
The spatial audio tech requires that the user wear headphones in order to “hear each speaker’s voice as if it were coming from a unique direction, creating a virtual face-to-face communication environment.” The technology reduces processing overhead by combining the encoding/decoding and spatial processing of the audio sources. Future mobile phones and network servers will work hand-in-hand to deliver audio encoded with NTT DoCoMo’s spatial audio information.
Conference calls have the most to benefit from NTT DoCoMo’s breakthrough, but applications in tele-education and online gaming are intriguing possibilities for this audio technology. The tech will debut during the Wireless Technology Park 2009 at Pacifico Yokohama on May 12 and 13.