Farms: Perceptually Optimised Sound Zones research | University of Surrey

We recommend you wear headphones for this. Often, two people in a single room want to listen to different items of audio. It may be that one person is watching television whilst the other is listening to the radio, or even that one plays a computer game whilst the other reads in silence. The obvious solution to this would be for all individuals to wear headphones, however this dramatically increases isolation (not just in acoustic terms), is impractical if more than one person wants to listen to either source, and could be uncomfortable over an extended period. It would be great if we could create ‘zones’ of sound: areas within a room or other environment, where only one of the audio signals could be heard. In other words, reproducing sound in specific zones whilst minimising spill into other zones. An example is shown below of a living room containing two sound zones, A and B, with the remaining space being either a quiet area, or an area where the reproduced sound is relatively unimportant. Find out more: http://iosr.surrey.ac.uk/projects/POSZ/ Follow us on Twitter: @IoSR_Surrey