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Neoh 3D headphones begin Kickstarter Campaign
It seems that everyone has wants to get into the virtual reality business. Though we might be far from plugging into the Matrix Neo style, virtual reality is making constant strides and has been slowly becoming more main stream. Behemoth companies like Google and Samsung have both made their own versions, one with slightly more hardware than the other. However, both models focus mainly on viewing angles and forget about audio. That’s where the Neoh smart 3D headphones by California based 3D Sound Labs come in. With a new Kickstarter campaign they claim to have made headphones that bring a 360 degree, fully immersive cinematic experience to mobile movies, music, and gaming.
The headphones can detect movements made by your head and orient the audio accordingly. It does this using built-in gyroscopes, accelerometers, and magnetometers to pinpoint which direction you are looking. The information is then sent to an app on your iOS device (other platforms coming soon) which coordinates where the sound should be coming from relative to your head. For example, if you are sitting watching a movie on your iPad and suddenly look to your left you will hear most of the audio coming through the right ear cup since that is where the screen is relative to your head. This is the headphone equivalent of 5.1 surround sound.
Watching movies on your phone with surround sound would be great, and I’m sure music would sound fantastic, but the real advantage comes when gaming. Being able to hear the direction a sound came from is crucial in first-person shooters and these headphones could potentially be a gamers best friend. They have a bunch of early-bird specials so if you’re interested definitely back the project. At the time of writing this they have not yet reached the halfway point of their $80,000 goal, but there is still 27 days left so anything can happen. The pre-order can be found right now on their Kickstarter page for $199.99, so if you want a pair grab yours before they runs out. While you’re there watch the promo video 3D Sound Labs made for the Neoh as it’s one of the more entertaining ones I’ve seen. Shipping is estimated to begin in June of this year.