Healthcare

Executive Summary

Soundscape modeling accurately reproduces sounds from real-world environments and gives listeners an immersive auditory experience indistinguishable from reality. This technology — pioneered by Spatial Sound Dynamics Lab (SSDL) — adds immense value across a wide variety of industries, and will be instrumental to the success of the spatial computing era.

Technical Overview

The goal of soundscape modeling is to create a detailed sonic representation of a three-dimensional physical space by replicating its real-world acoustic phenomena, spatial sound dynamics, and doppler effects. This is accomplished by meticulously capturing and reconstructing a wide variety of obvious and subtle auditory cues (including, but not limited to, the width, depth, and height of directional sounds and their reverberations). Auditory cues enable listeners to intuit the direction and distance of noises, and in turn the cause and effect of events, in a given environment. When done well, spatial soundscapes greatly enhance the listener’s sense of presence and perception of realism (when done poorly, they contribute to the “uncanny valley” effect).

There are three critical components to soundscape modeling: capturing, post-processing, and reproducing. All must be implemented at a sufficiently high enough fidelity in order to make a virtual environment sound and feel like reality.

Soundscape Capture

Requires: Expertise, Hardware, & Software

To accurately capture the soundscape of a real-world environment, a specialized audio engineer simultaneously uses several advanced audio recording techniques. These techniques include spherical recording, binaural recording, point source recording, modeled sound dynamics, and sound field synthesis. It’s a time-consuming and labor-intensive artisanal process which requires an expert-level ability to hear, comprehend, and capture all the obvious and subtle sounds that make up the dimensionality in both space and time of an environment’s soundscape. 

​

The details of how these techniques are used and the methods in which they are combined are proprietary to SSDL, but the following high-level information can be shared: 

• Spherical recording utilizes bespoke spherical and multi-dimensional microphone arrays, bundled with object/point source systems, to capture sound from all directions as well as from the focal points within the capture field. 

• Fixed-perspective binaural recording mimics the human ear's perception of sound by using modeled-microphones placed in the canals of modeled-ears.

• Sound field synthesis techniques recreate the complex and intricate nature of real-world acoustic environments by combining multiple audio sources.

Post-Processing Soundscapes

Requires: Expertise, Software, & Hardware

Post-processing soundscapes is another time-consuming and labor-intensive artisanal process that requires both an expertise in audio engineering as well a deep knowledge of the environment to be reproduced. The details are proprietary to SSDL, but at a high-level each soundscape must be optimized for the specific technology through which it will be reproduced (over-the-ear headphones, in-ear headphones, or bespoke speaker/audio systems). Depending on the technology used, a soundscape may have a higher or lower resolution.  

Reproducing Soundscapes

Requires: Technology & Hardware (Sometimes Configured Via Software)

Cutting-edge sound reproduction technologies and hardware play a crucial role in experiencing the immersive potential of soundscapes. In other words, a person must listen through specialized spatial audio hardware powered by a specialized spatial audio technology.

​

Technologies capable of full spherical audio reproduction through speaker systems or over-the-ear headphones will offer the best results.

Market Potential

Entertainment Industries

The market potential of soundscapes in the entertainment industry is arguably the most obvious and immediate. Films, online gaming, augmented reality, and virtual reality either incorporate dimensionality or are presented as 3D environments. As time goes on, and the fidelity of those experiences increases, there will be even greater need for increasingly realistic non-visual sensory data (like soundscapes). SSDL’s parent company, Vaudeville Sound Group, is currently collaborating on spatial audio technologies and standards with a number of industry leaders.

Non-Entertainment Industries

Engaging all the senses not only helps people better remember past experiences and relax in the present, it also helps them learn faster and form stronger bonds. The more senses that are involved, the more people’s brains register curiosity, enjoyment, and significance — so they learn and remember information better. Sensory stimulation has a long list of potential benefits (for the neurotypical as well as the neurodivergent) including improving cognitive processing and function, supporting better verbal and non-verbal communication, and encouraging participation and comfort in social situations. Ultimately, people’s communication and behavior are enormously influenced by their sensory inputs.

For these reasons, soundscapes have enormous potential in a variety of non-entertainment industries. In the short- to mid-term, SSDL is prioritizing trials in Healthcare — specifically sound therapy in mental health.

Mental Health

Over 50% of Canadians say their mental health has deteriorated since COVID, while 25% of Canadian Youth are affected by a mental health challenge. By age 40, 50% of the population will have experienced mental illness. Meanwhile, significant evidence points to the benefits of music therapy for treatment of anxiety, pain, fatigue, and depression. More recent evidence is now pointing to similar benefits of the broader category of sound therapy. Beyond the benefits of music, this allows for natural environments (like soundscapes of forests, beaches, and rain) to be brought into spaces where access to the outdoors is otherwise not possible.