Just as a new generation of
virtual reality goggles for video games are about to hit the market,
researchers at Microsoft have come up with what could be the perfect
accompaniment—a way for ordinary headphones to create a realistic illusion of
sound coming from specific locations in space.
In combination with a virtual
reality device like the Oculus Rift, the new system could be used to make
objects or characters in a virtual world sound as well as look like they are at
a specific point in space, even if that is outside a person’s field of view.
Researchers refer to the technology as 3D audio.
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