Apple’s personalized spatial audio trick is really a Sony idea - The Verge

A new feature of iOS 16, personalized spatial audio, can analyze your ears to optimize the 3D effect of spatial audio. But it’s a concept that Sony has already been exploring for years.

One of the new features of iOS 16, and something that was again highlighted during Apple’s event on Wednesday, is personalized spatial audio. Once you’ve installed the latest iOS release on your iPhone beginning September 12th, you’ll be able to create a custom sound profile that should improve the sense of immersion and overall spatial audio experience you get from AirPods.

To produce this personalized tuning, Apple uses the iPhone’s front-facing TrueDepth camera to scan your ears. The process, which involves holding your iPhone about 10 to 20 centimeters from the side of your head, takes under a minute, and the resulting data is then used to optimize spatial audio for your unique ear shape. “The way we all perceive sound is unique, based on the size and shape of our head and ears,” Apple’s Mary-Ann Rau said during the keynote. “Personalized spatial audio will deliver the most immersive listening experience by precisely placing sounds in space that are tuned just for you.”

But Apple isn’t the first company to go down this path. Sony has offered “personalized 360 Reality Audio” since 2019 for supported music services like Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Nugs.net. Conceptually, it’s very similar: both Sony and Apple are trying to determine your ear structure and adjust spatial audio processing to account for the unique folds and contours of your ears. The goal is to maintain that 3D audio experience and eliminate any audio quirks that lessen the sensation.

Here’s how Sony explained the benefits to me back in June, courtesy of Kaz Makiyama, vice president of video and sound at Sony Electronics:

Humans are able to recognize spatial sound sources by the subtle shifts in the intensity and time of sound entering the left and right ears from the sound source. Plus, the sound may depend on our head and ear shape. So, by analyzing and reproducing the characteristics of both ears by taking pictures of the ears, this technology enables reproduction of the sound field while using headphones.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/9/23344694/apple-airpods-personalized-spatial-audio-sony-ear-scanning


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