dottocomu

Stereo sound for directional cellphones

As reported recently by Engadget, DoCoMo is working on cellphones that use GPS to give a sense of the location of the person you're talking to. Dovetailing neatly with that story is one from the Nikkei Shimbun today, which reports that semiconductor firm Fuetrek has partnered with Matsushita Electric Industrial to produce a 3D sound chip that controls a cellphone's speaker, resulting in stereo sound and simulation of depth and distance.

The applications the article mentions are all game-related, so it sounds fair to suppose that this isn't something that's going to work with a phone held to your ear. It obviously would work with videophone calls, though should it became widespread the streets of Tokyo will be full of people twirling around on the spot to try and "face" their interlocutor.

[Fuetrec press release in slightly variable English; via the Nikkei Shimbun (Japanese)]