Immersive spatial sound for mobile multimedia

While mobile technology precludes large electronic displays for visual immersion, sound heard over headphones - a widely accepted technology - is ideally suited for mobile applications. In this paper, we report on a newly developed immersive headphone-based approach that opens new opportunities for mobile multimedia. This new motion-tracked binaural sound technology (abbreviated as MTB) provides and exploits the strong perceptual cues that are created by the voluntary motions of the listener's head. A head-tracker is used to modify dynamically the sound heard by the listener, recreating the natural experience. After presenting an overview of the key concepts and of the challenges of the implementation of MTB, we describe examples of MTB spatial sound applications. Finally, we outline new mobile multimedia applications that would combine immersive spatial sound, head-tracking, and small visual displays.