[Too few stories about presence acknowledge and discuss the importance and dynamics of audio in presence experiences, and too few use the specific term presence; this story from VentureBeat does both. See the original version for two more images, including one of the “Cone of Experience.” –Matthew]
Spatial audio design is key to creating ‘presence’ in VR and AR
Amir Bozorgzadeh
November 18, 2018
George Lucas once received a hearty round of applause back in 2011 when he declared that “sound is half of the experience of a motion picture.” If that’s true, what happens to the equation in the setting of VR and AR, where the vicarious experience of a 2D cinematic transcends into experiential 3D immersion?
After all, immersive worlds are creative imitations of the real world, in which sound and the auditory function play far more of an operative role than we tend to realize.
“Sound is usually an afterthought. Sound is invisible; it is vibrations of molecules and we cannot hold it in our hands, it exists only in time, and is the sonic expression of an object in motion.” said Laura Sinnott, a sound designer and doctor of audiology, at the NYVR Expo I attended.
Indeed, it is important to acknowledge the fact that in the process of growing up in a modern world filled to the brim with jumbled layers of noise, our brains respond and adapt to the chaos by numbing and tuning out (synaptic pruning) much of the full spectrum, and all for the sake of streamlining our daily lives.
Triggering an auditory renaissance
Sinnott kindly educated me recently on how fundamental hearing is to our very existence; that it serves not only as a medium for communication, but is key to our emotional well-being, cognition, and, perhaps more relevant in the past than our present reality, but even to our survival. Hearing, she says, is one of the first senses to be developed in the uterus, primarily hooked to our instinctive center, and although it is an organ that we have lost significant sensitivity to, XR has the potential to help restore it.
“The sense of hearing is one of the most primitive senses; it likely evolved before vision, although after the balance system. It behooves sound designers, whether designing immersive audio for web or even traditional mono radio, to understand a little bit about just how powerful sound is.” Sinnott said.
Even if it is the case that this primary sense organ has somehow been relegated in our collective minds to playing the role of second fiddle, the panel last month at the NYVR Expo that was filled with experts in spatial audio made me a believer that XR can open the door to a kind of auditory renaissance in humanity’s appreciation for it. In the backdrop of the panel, the slides read: “Our eyes can only see what’s in front of us, our ears can take in the world all around us.”
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