Microsoft Applies for Patent on Augmented Reality, 3-D Audio

But now it looks like Microsoft may have a solution. In a recently published patent application, the company describes technology that could solve the “outside the sweet spot” conundrum, providing listeners with a polished 3-D audio experience no matter where they’re sitting, or even standing.

 Published Thursday, Microsoft’s patent application describes augmented-reality technology that tracks a user with a “depth camera system” and delivers content-accurate, 3-D audio to the listener, regardless of his or her position in a room. The system collects room and listener position data to deliver specific audio cues — instructions from virtual team mates, gunshots, chirping birds, whatever — inside a user’s unique (and often fluid) soundscape.

The patent application also describes a data-collection scenario in which the listener wears one or more microphones that capture the acoustic properties of a room. Self-calibrating surround-sound systems use a similar technology: A user places a microphone where he typically sits and the system adjusts audio output for that targeted area, delivering an optimal surround-sound experience.
Microsoft’s application also describes a data-collection scenario in which the listener wears sensors that help the system determine one’s position and rotation. The sensors could be fixed to a headset, or placed on another location of the user’s body.  By Roberto Baldwin


http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/microsoft-applies-for-augmented-reality-3d-audio-patent/