This is the best summary I could come up with:
It placed the call over a cellular network using the 3GPP Immersive Video and Audio Services (IVAS) codec, allowing callers to hear “sound spatially in real-time.”
The IVAS codec is part of 5G Advanced, an upcoming upgrade to 5G networks that could offer faster speeds, improved energy efficiency, more accurate cellular-based positioning, and more.
Currently, all phone calls made over a cellular network are monophonic, meaning audio is compressed into a single channel.
Spatial audio, on the other hand, makes it seem like sounds are coming from different directions as they’re delivered through multiple channels.
The IVAS codec could enable spatial audio in a “vast majority” of smartphones with at least two microphones, Nokia tells Reuters.
But, as pointed out by Reuters, we likely won’t see the more immersive audio and video calls on our cellular networks for a few more years.
The original article contains 228 words, the summary contains 142 words. Saved 38%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Useless.
Incorrect. This will better train LLMs since they can detect distinct speakers/sounds more easily and thus applying the proper metadata tags and profile information at a more accurate clip.
All so they can deliver more ads!
oh look, a feature literally no one asked for or needs.
90% of the features in your daily life started as something no one asked for or needed. I remember people saying this about touch screens.
In some applications, people still say that about touch screens and they are not wrong.
Spatial Audio can be cool. In this application? I’m unconvinced.
Was anyone asking for the telegraph before it was invented? Or the telephone? Or the Internet? Or smartphones? Or social media?
I don’t necessarily endorse the viewpoint of Noel Gallagher but it is pretty funny.
I don’t care about Spatial Audio for phone calls, but for songs and podcasts it’s AMAZING. It’s a gimmick, sure, but it’s really fucking neat.
I agree with you fully, but Spatial Audio is waaaay cooler than 3D TVs, and yes I did watch Avatar on a 3D TV on acid
But I really really have fun with audio. Also it’s not horridly expensive. While I’m working, I’m constantly looking around and hearing how different things are. When I had my partner try, they were like “wait can you hear this?” because it sounds like such a realistic concert performance. Artists I’ve never listened to are fascinating to me.
Nokia implemented stereo sound? Wow, welcome to 1881.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of people making calls are still going to have only one speaker, so it’ll still get downmixed to mono. Even if your phone has two, and you’re not holding it next to one ear, they’re still going to be so close together as to effectively be one point source.
This was true for TVs until it wasn’t.
Edit: apparently some young whippersnappers don’t know TVs used to be mono before they were stereo, and now some TVs even have spatial sound.
i mean, people have innovated in the areas they care already.
no one really cares that much about audio on phone calls. as long as they’re understandable.
people added video because it adds to the communication. spatial audio will not. it will only become common if one or two of these mega corps decide to shoehorn it into ever device. not because people actually want it or care.
might be a lucrative patent if we ever get holograms though
i mean, people have innovated in the areas they care already
so you are saying that all the innovation and research should be stopped, because if we care about any specific problem, it is already solved, and if it isn’t, it is proof we don’t care? 😆
that… is not how it works.
… You realize this has been innovated because someone cares, right?
Like this is such a silly argument. “Why would we make cars not use steam? If people cared about it we would have already innovated!”
Meanwhile, the vast majority of people making calls are still going to have only one speaker, so it’ll still get downmixed to mono. Even if your phone has two, and you’re not holding it next to one ear, they’re still going to be so close together as to effectively be one point source.
No, lots of (probably most) phones and other devices has stereo speakers.
Either way headphones are most often used for this (you know like the thumbnail)
Can’t wait to experience the tech support call center scams in Dolby Atmos.
