New Apple patent imagines virtual speakers that can simulate sound from anywhere in the room

Image: USPTO

Apple has just been granted a patent — concerning virtual positioning of audio — that could eventually lay the groundwork for new, more immersive audio applications. It builds on a previous patent Apple filed last month that enabled users to hear where people are physically located in a room through special headphone tech. Today’s patent does exactly the same thing, but with built-in MacBook speakers.

According to 9to5Mac, it’s a virtual acoustic system that works by using crosstalk canceling, which makes users feel like sound is coming from a different place than loudspeakers. (Crosstalk, here, refers to the overlapping sound waves that the ears receive from the left and right channels of a speaker.) The effect, as reported by Patently...

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