What is Headset Virtualization and how does it work?

Introduction:

headset virtualization is a sound transmission technology in which conventional stereo headphones deliver a surround sound experience via chips or sound cards based on integrated digital signal processing (DSP). Activation is done via the operating system or the sound card firmware / drivers.

A listener can experience virtual speaker sound through headphones with a realism that is hard to distinguish from the real speaker experience. PRIRs (Personalized Room Impulse Response) sets records for speaker sound sources with a limited number of headphone positions. Using PRIRs to convert a speaker’s audio signal into a virtualized headphone output. By using the conversion on the listener’s head, the system can regulate the change so that the virtual chatterers don’t appear to move when the listener moves their head.

Explanation

With headset virtualization, two-channel earphones can provide Dolby 5.1 or better audio performance. It is based on the principles of Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTF) technology, which uses the structural design of a human head to transmit various sound signals.

Unlike traditional headphones that send sound directly into your ears, headset virtualization of headphones transmits sound outside or around your head. A user can easily distinguish the noises occurring from left to right, right to left or center to bottom and so on.

Virtual surround sound and audio signals

Most people have had the experience of sitting in a quiet room similar a classroom during a test and seeing the silence broken by an unexpected noise, like coins falling out of someone else’s pocket. ‘one. Usually people immediately turn to the sound source. Switching to sound seems almost instinctive: your brain determines the location of the sound in the blink of an eye. This is often the case even if you can only hear with one ear.

A person can localize sound based on the brain’s analysis of sound quality. One quality has to do with the difference between the sound the right ear hears and the sound the left ear hears. Another reason relates to the interactions between sound waves and the head and body. Together, these are the acoustic signals with which the brain recognizes where a sound is coming from.

Headset Virtualization:

Differences in time and level give your brain an idea of whether a sound is coming from the left or from the right. However, these differences contain less information as to whether the sound is coming from above or below. This is because changing the level of a sound affects the path it takes to reach the ear, but not the difference between what is heard in the left and right ear.

It’s hard to tell if a sound is coming in front of you or behind you just based on time and level differences. In fact, in some cases, these noises can produce identical ILD and ITD. Even if the sounds are coming from a different location, the differences in what your ears hear are always the same. ILD and ITD are cone-shaped areas that extend outward from the ear and are known as cones of confusion.

PIL and DTI require people to be able to hear in both ears. But even people who cannot help with one ear can often determine the source of the sound. Because the brain uses the reflection of sound on the surface of the ear to locate the start of sound.

When a sound wave hits a person’s body, it reflects on the person’s head and shoulders. It is reflected on the curved surface of the person’s outer ear. Each of these reflections causes subtle changes in the sound wave. Reflective waves interfere with each other, making parts of the wave larger or smaller and changing the volume. These variations are known as head-related transfer functions (HRTF).

Also Read: The Evolution of Headphone (complete history)

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