Journey Started on Spatial Audio

I have been playing with the first audio sunglasses from Bose, Bose Frames. With two speakers integrated separately into the temples sitting in front of the ears, Bose Frames beam music right into your ears and provide open-air audio experience with nothing in or on the ears. One of the reasons I wanted to play with Bose Frames is that this device has its potentials in AR.

This sunglasses are one of the Bose AR family since it has motion sensors which can detect head orientation and body movement. People might feel confused about it having the name “AR”, because the first impression when hearing the word AR would connect it to augmented vision. However, Bose AR is an audio-first approach to augmented reality and goes beyond vision. It does not provide display or projection in any kand, but it only adds to what people can experience in audio, and the spatial audio can help users stay engaged to the digital world and physical world at the same time.

An embedded IMU can track head movement with 6DOF or 9DOF. The head movement tracking helps speakers to adjust audio played separately towards each of the ears so that the user will make sense of this audio to determine where the sound is positioned.