You may soon be able to hear sounds from all over the room from, no, not your HomePod or any other virtualisation audio system, but from your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.
Patent
According to TechRadar, Apple filed a new patent for audio processing. It employs intelligent audio processing that uses “Crosstalk Cancelling” which gives users the feeling that sound is coming from a different location than it actually is. What is meant with “Crosstalk Canceling” is the overlap of sound waves from the left and right speakers, that is heard by a person’s ears.
How it will work
Apple will create virtual acoustics by redirecting sound. You will feel captivated when watching movies or sports games.
The software will direct the sound in different directions to distinct parts of the room and bounce the sound off elements in the room. These elements include the walls, ornaments and anything else sound can bounce off of. This will create an illusion that the sound is originating from where it bounced rather than from the speaker.
If this patent is installed in any new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, it will likely use the same algorithms and have the same sound effect as the Apple HomePod.
Up until now, it looks like the patent is designed for speakers and not headphones. Let’s see whether Apple modifies this patent to work on headphones as well.
Will it happen?
Lately, Apple is focussed on sound quality. It is apparent with the “superb” sound of their MacBook range as well as with sound improvements done to the newly released AirPods Pro. This gives us an indication that Apple does give attention to sound quality, but is it enough to implement this patent?
Full Report
If you are interested in reading a more extensive description of the patent, have a look at this article on Patently Apple’s site.
For those who want more scientific information, have a look at the patent on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s site or download the PDF here.
Closing
Patents are filed all the time, but it doesn’t mean all of them are going to see the light of day. Let’s hope this one gets to the factories to give us a captivating sound experience.
