Turn people into bats

With the new echo-locating technology, people can now possess the different abilities of bats, opening up a breathtaking prospect from this application.

Bats, whales, and dolphins are among the echoing animals to create a map of the head about the surrounding environment. They use this map to move and find food. In the case of blind people, some people can practice extreme hearing ears, allowing them to possess that special ability. Now, researchers have demonstrated a computer algorithm that can soon equip people with similar capabilities, emit sounds and hear reflecting noises, thereby mapping the environment with sound. .

According to the PNAS report, the new technology can be used to create a more accurate sound experience in virtual space, tuning of architectural designs (especially in the case of reconstruction music), and reproduce the structure of the house with audio files to break the case. Gradually, the position of a person can even be revealed through the mobile phone locator application, localizing the room that this person is in, since each room has a negative signal. unique bar. It could be called a high frequency zone GPS .

New technology can help build concert halls - (Photo: Ivan Dokmanic)

The system works by analyzing echoes from a simple sound source, such as the sound of a speaker or a snap. These echoes enter the microphone and are processed by algorithms, thereby recreating the complex shape of the room in 3D geometry.'Algorithms based on echo models called source models' , BBC News quoted Ivan Dokmanic of Lausanne Polytechnic University (Switzerland). This expert explained that if you get a echo from a wall, you can model the echo from the source, like building a mirror of the source along the wall. In the experiment, scientists were able to build a complete three-dimensional image of a room thanks to the four recorded microphone sounds that bounced off the walls.

Dokmanic expert said the algorithm can classify received echoes and determine values. For example, due to the bouncing effect, some reverberation when entering the microphone is actually a 3rd or 4th echo, quite dispersed and less useful as a first-rate reverberation. , the algorithm can eliminate the echoes that arise and build the model from the first echo , 'Dokmanic explains. The echoes that originate help create a more accurate sound chart, and it is important in both the virtual world and the real world. Until a few years ago, Dokmanic said advances in virtual reality technology still focused primarily on perception of visual space, not space through headphones. However, the expert said the sound scene is just as important as when we see it because the false display of reverberation in the virtual world can easily disturb the brain, leading to mistaken conclusion .

To provide an accurate impression of cyberspace, expert Dokmanic stressed that it is very important to provide the right echo. In contrast, the algorithm can act as a sound forensic system to reproduce real space in case of a need to break the case.'You can imagine holding a piece of recorded sound in a particular room, and you need to rebuild that room,' Dokmanic explained, 'or you can imagine a speaker. phone conversation. From the phone signal or the sound recorded by the phone, you can recreate that room '. Another application is indoor positioning, where a person's location can be defined or tracked, by collecting traces that GPS leaves. For example, big companies, office buildings, shopping centers and supermarkets all want to know where customers go. Or museums also want to determine the location of a person inside the building and some intentions with the artwork on display.