For those of you who follow the industry closely. Is this a prelude to Apple’s VR glasses?
> Using the gyroscope and accelerometer in AirPods Max and iPhone or iPad, spatial audio tracks the motion of a user’s head as well as the device, compares the motion data, then remaps the sound field so it stays anchored to the device, even as the user’s head moves.
Ding Ding Ding, we have the correct answer. These headphones are way over-engineered even by Apple standards. There is no reason for headphones to have a gyroscope/accelerator combination except to enable VR or AR audio in conjunction with their existing ARKit.
From my reading of the quoted paragraph, it appears these headphones will play system sounds (alerts, siri, etc) in such a way that they appear to emanate from the paired device - a very neat trick. If the headphones can do that then it is a short jump to making sounds appear to come from ARKit objects moving in real space.
It seems like it, at least as a trial run if the audio features. You don’t need the gyroscope and accelerometer to do HRTF (e.g. like the PS5 does, for example). Indeed it actually doesn’t make much sense to me for a static screen like watching a movie on an iPad or TV. I don’t want the audio to shift every time I slightly move my head or body into a more comfortable position.
Those features do make sense for hypothetical AR glasses where you move around a space with objects emitting sounds.
Nah. At least on the AirPods Pro, there appears to be no real positional tracking.
Try this. Watch something on, say, an iPad with spatial audio enabled. Turning your head left and right moves the audio so it appears to be coming from the iPad. Works great. Then turn your head, and keep it turned for a few seconds. The audio will gradually slide to where your nose is pointing, and will not stay anchored to the device for long.
It seems to me it's assuming that if your head is still, you must be looking directly at the screen, and recalibrates. The position estimates seem to be computed using accelerometers and not absolute positional tracking. Alternatively, it is actually tracking absolute positions but assumes that you want a "centered" audio experience even though the iPad is to your side. I think the former explanation is more plausible.
Also, try moving laterally to the iPad, so that you are no longer looking directly at the iPad. It will still keep your audio entered.
> Using the gyroscope and accelerometer in AirPods Max and iPhone or iPad, spatial audio tracks the motion of a user’s head as well as the device, compares the motion data, then remaps the sound field so it stays anchored to the device, even as the user’s head moves.