This article is from WeChat official account:Geekpark (ID: geekpark), original title, “” chasing you run voice, “let this technology headset off”, author: Shen Han know, Editor: Jingyu, title figure from: vision China
It’s late at night, and you turn up the volume and brush the vibrato, but your girlfriend doesn’t slap it. The reason is that only you can hear the sound, but she can’t hear it. Early the next morning, because you don’t want to disturb her, you still set the alarm to “only for you”. On the way to work together while driving, you hear turning prompts one after another from the navigation, and she concentrates on the video conference. Passing by a billboard on the street corner, you will hear the men’s clothing advertisement in your ears, and her or “Human Suona” Li Jiaqi “OMG, buy it!”
Science fiction. An Israeli technology company called Noveto Systems told us that even though this sounds a bit “cyberpunk”, we are approaching the future infinitely.
Noveto recently released a desktop device called SoundBeamer 1.0. Based on this device, Novelo’s sound beam (SoundBeaming) technology can be realized The sound is delivered directly to the ears of “designated” listeners without the need for headphones, and other people cannot hear it. This product will be available before Christmas 2021.
Noveto envisions that consumers can use its technology in two ways in the future, one is its own brand hardware, and the other is embedded solutions for third-party products. SoundBeamer 1.0 will be its first consumer product. However, there are media reports that Noveto had a similar idea as early as 2016-embed this technology in mobile phones, TVs, computers, game consoles, VR and various IoT devices, and let people experience them by the end of 2016 To. Four years have passed, and this great goal has not changed much, so let’s see how the technology is iterated.
The sound of chasing people
SoundBeamer 1.0 can be connected with any Bluetooth device, and it has built-in 3D sensor module and microphone for locating ear position, proprietary Noveto digital signal processing and chipset, customized dual transducer array, Novito Connect practical software.
A sound signal is converted into an ultrasonic signal capable of directional propagation through the DSP chip, and the speaker projects the ultrasonic directionally into the listener’s local space. The 3D sensor locates and tracks the position of the ear in advance, and forms a “sound pocket” (sound bubble) around the ear so that the audience can hear” stereo”.
The more amazing thing is that when the listener moves his head, the sound can also “walk”, but within a limited range, once the listener completely leaves the sound propagation path, the sound will not be heard. In other words, this technology guarantees an undamaged, immersive listening experience within a limited range. CEO Christophe Ramstein believes that this may be the biggest innovation in sound after the iPod, “You will have a sense of freedom with it, and thisThis feeling is really amazing. “
In fact, this is not a new technology. Its essence is directional sound technology, which uses the directivity characteristics of ultrasound to control the spatial distribution and route propagation of audible sound, while ensuring that the sound intensity does not significantly attenuate with distance.
Because the audible sound wave propagates in the air, it diverges, which affects the propagation effect. However, the ultrasonic wave has a short wavelength and poor diffraction ability, and it can propagate in a straight line in a uniform medium. Specifically, the audible sound is modulated into the ultrasonic frequency band and emitted into the air by the ultrasonic transducer. According to the propagation characteristics of the sound in the air, the high-frequency signal will be quickly filtered out, and the audible sound on the high-frequency signal The audio signal will be filtered out naturally to realize the directional propagation of sound.
At the moment when the product is not yet available, it is impossible to know if this is also a company that uses PPT to make products. But as early as 2016, mainstream media have already experienced it first.
“In my demo, I can only hear a very short audio, and only one person is talking at the time. How does this technology handle more complex audio such as music and video games, especially in low-frequency expressiveness , Remains to be seen.” Technology blog Ars Technica wrote.
A CNBC reporter said in an article in 2018, “I and Brian Wallace(the CEO at the time) sat and watchedFor a video, when I switch ordinary audio to Noveto technology, I seem to have my own private theater. Using the camera to track my head movement, the sound was directly transmitted to my ears. While listening to the audio, I was talking to Wallace, but he could only hear me, but not the sound from the speakers. “
“The coexistence of these two states is surreal. It makes me feel that this sound is coming from my own head.”
What are the practicalities
Noveto didn’t elaborate on the advanced version of directional sound technology, such as how to form a “sound pocket” around the ear. However, Novelo says that it is the first company to turn the sound beam (sound beaming) into a usable product, at least in the consumer-level field. . At CES 2018, Samsung C-Lab Innovation Lab brought a portable directional speaker S-Ray, and some media said that Sony had wanted to launch a similar product, but the price was too high.
High price is one aspect, whether it can achieve the experience effect in the imaging demo video is another matter. After all, among the many applications of this technology, it is considered that it should be combined with VR to bring more immersion Style entertainment experience.
In China, more commercial applications are used in noisy public environments such as shopping malls, banks, traffic reminders, museum explanations, etc. The application value of related directional sound technology is to make people in the area hear more clearly, but directional transmission The sound does not interfere with people around, and at the same time, this commercial-level scene does not require high sound quality. Noveto has signed an agreement with car companies to form an independent audio space in the car where the driver and passengers do not interfere with each other, but this still sounds “future”.
Novete was founded in 2011. In order to better commercialize its products, it once hired Brian Wallace as CEO. Wallace used to hold important market positions in many large companies, founded by the father of BlackBerry, Google, Samsung, and Android Essential, and Magic Leap, he once helped Magic Leap raise 1.4 billion US dollars. But I hope that Novete’s products will not bounce like Magic Leap.
After all, technical people are good at seeing the future, but seeing the future direction is only the first step.
This article is from WeChat official account:Geekpark (ID: geekpark), author: Shen Han know, Editor: Jingyu