Holophonics, audio hologram

[odranoel]

holophonics is a technology my dad invented over 30 years ago. basicaly he discovered the human ear actually creates sound apart from hearing it, and its the interference of this created sound with another sound entering the ear that lets the brain localize a sound spacialy, in all three dimensions. this is currently not recognized by mainstream science.

i figured you guys might enjoy this as it really is quite extraordinary for people who haven't heard it. the microphone is in the shape of a human head much like a maniqin (called ringo), so you play the sounds around this head as if it was a person hearing it. when you then hearback the recording with headphones, you hear it full in 3D no just left and right stereo but literraly up down and behind you. the microphone generates this sound that the ear does so the sounds entering the mic get recorded with the interfeances depending on the angle that the sound enters the mic.

i know my explanation may not be the best, and really its something you have to hear in order to really understand. on the following holophonics website there are several sound bits demonstrating the tech. the effect is best achieve using headphones, but can also be achieved if you position you self perfectly centered between your stereo speakers. i ask that you listen to the hair cut sample with headphones with your eyes closed. 9 times out of ten people have to open their eyes to confirm that their really is no body cutting their hair. or better yet their on the main page just press play, and youll get the match boxes or shaker. pay attention to how it not only spins around your head in full 3 D but it also goes up and down!

http://www.acousticintegrity.com/acoust ... onics.html

*click audio samples at the top for more sounds, but the one their on the main page (the match box) is the most immediately impressive.*

im sure some of you will get a kick out of this ;), make sure to use head phones and close your eyes if you can!

edit:weird wording...

[aJaroOllie]

That's pretty awesome, I must admit it does give the feeling that there is someone around you. My uncle found a similar one a while back, which I think was a haircut, but it also involved having a bag placed over your head, which sort of muffled the sounds, which was kinda cool :)

[odranoel]

thanks :p, ya the paper bag part comes after the hair cut i believe, these are snippets from an hour long demo my dad made way back. also on the website if you look at the top you see a link that says audio samples. their you can find the hair cut and paper bag.

also keep in mind theres a lot of fakes on youtube. theres one that got rather popular, where they try to imitate the haircut scene, they talk like idiots and one calls him self luigi. we have no idea who made that recording but it deff isnt holophonics, it doesn't even have the same 3D feel. most likely they used a binaural mic to try and imitate it. binaural is nothing like holophonics, but alot of people think its that because the mic physically looks similar, but their internal workings and final effect are completely different.

[aJaroOllie]

That's really interesting man, even cooler that your dad made it! I'll give the other audio samples a go, this stuff is really interesting :) And yeah, that's possibly the one I heard, a few years ago now, so I reckon if I listened to both it'd be nothing compared to the one your dad made. Really awesome stuff.

[PureZaros]

I let my dad listen to the matchbox thing, and he amazed me. He said that he got a mental image of your dad's (I'm assuming your dad made all those clips.) arm all the way up to the shoulder, and he could even tell that your dad was slightly unbalanced physically. Something about anterior head carriage. Anyway, yeah. Amazing stuff. O_o

[odranoel]

haha yes my dad made all the clips. (except the tibet chant one, i believe those were actual tibet monks, my dad just brought the mic ther and had them chant)

thats the beauty about the tech, it captures all those super subtle details that we normally dont realize are their, so it gives you the impression that someones their cuz you can hear the slight footsteps, the movement of their cloths and even their breathing, all within realistic proximity. so your brain is hearing these sounds but cant see them, so your mind may play tricks on you to try and fill in this missing information. (hence the mental image of someone being their) it goes to show you how powerful sound is in helping us precive the world around us.

im glad you guys liked it :D

[Urian]

I've listened to these a few times over the years but this was the first time I've tried with a 7.1 headset. I'd still say it never feels like the sound is coming from in front of you but the directions otherwise are much clearer, especially on the y-axis.

[odranoel]

wow i didnt know they had 7.1 headset's xD but with that you have many diffrent drivers generating the same sound, that can cause alot of overtone and subtle distortions, that might be diminishing the effect a lil. think of it as throwing a hand full of pebbles into a pond, you get alot of overlapping ripples which is basicaly distortion.its originally designed to be just like the human ear, left and right.

7.1 works great when you have individual audio channels for all the drivers(speakers) cuz they never play the same thing together and gives a more directional feel. but with normal stereo it only has two channels so i assume all the drivers on one side play the left and the other, the right. that will generate alot of distortion cuz of all the diff sources of sound creating an expanding sphear of sound that will over lap with all the other spheres from each driver. (thats assuming that 7.1 handles stereo like i think it might, iv never had a surround system so iv never got to try it)

let me know if u guys have any questions, explaining it to you helps me understand it better my self! :p

[magikeh]

... WOw... WOW this ... this is fabulously stunning. I clicked the link and then i pressed the play button and instantly i thought that a bird had hit the window behind me (to the left) it took me a good 5 seconds to realize that the sound was in fact from the site. I must say that when i was listening to this i was shivering because of how creepy and realistic it sounded. Please inform your father that he has another huge fan of his work.

^_^/ Thanks a lot for the awesomeness!

[odranoel]

^_^/ Thanks a lot for the awesomeness!

no prob man, im glad you liked it :D


the reason its so real is because it its literally basically an artificial set of human ears!

[Rianaru]

To quote a really bad webcomic that I once saw about the nintendo franchise..."SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"

In all seriousness though, why isn't this everywhere? This makes surround sound seem like a child's plaything!

[odranoel]

why isn't this everywhere? This makes surround sound seem like a child's plaything!

that i think is one of the main reasons we have had difficulty in getting this out to the world, this was invented BEFORE surround sound existed. but by the time we got the attention of some big companies dolby surround was in the works. in the end i believe it was all a mater of money as it unfortunately is in this world. they would make a lot more money selling you 5-9 speakers to place all around your house instead of just 2 left and right ones.

but now we have the power of the internet! something we didnt have before! so we are trying to spread the word that this exists! and even a cople of people here said they had heard of it before at sometime in the past, so that shows me thats its even more popular then we realize, even tho people may not know about the technology it self, a lot have heard at least a recording at somepoint (the most common ones being the match boxes or the hair cut)

so we are still pushing forward to really get this to go mainstream. however speaking of mainstream, before i was born my dad had worked with a few big names, and their are some very popular albums out that have holophonics in them, but many people dont know about it. the biggest ones being.

1: The Final Cut, by Pink Floyd. (the majority of the sound effects and background voices in that album are recorded in holophonics )

2: Bad, by Micheal Jackson (this album also contains several holophonic elements)

3: The Pros & Cons of Hitch Hiking, by roger waters (solo album)


thos are the biggest ones i can think of at the top of my head, but im sure i am missing a few and many lesser known artists. how my dad got to work with these guys and not get the tech to go mainstream, is something i have never really been able to understand. but im convinced that dolby surround was a big factor in it being suppressed. oh if only i had been around when all of that happened!

[Rianaru]

If only the internet had been around when that happened. Now its much easier to distribute information and gather popular support, just like you said.