Category: Dirac Research

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Dirac to Debut Its Latest 3D Audio Solution at MWC 2019 Next Week

Dirac Research, the Sweden-based company specializing in digital sound optimization solutions, today announced they’re showing off the latest version of its Dirac 3D Audio at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week.

With its high-end 3D audio solution the company is admittedly appealing primarily to discerning mobile manufacturers in a rapidly approaching reality of 5G ahead of us, although Dirac 3D Audio is also targeting PC headphone makers and VR/AR headset manufacturers too.

In virtual reality, audio oftentimes takes a backseat to immersive visuals, however Dirac is working to create more articulated audio with its newest 3D Audio solution, which is said to bring positional audio reproduction “with one degree of resolution in all three dimensions.”

Based on the company’s patent-pending Dynamic HRTFs (head-related transfer functions)—something created to account for movements of the head in relation to the human torso—Dirac 3D Audio aims to bring positional audio to users with a high degree of realism, minimum distortion, and errors.

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Dirac has previously worked with leading mobile device manufacturers including Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus and Motorola. The technology has also been recently adopted by Tritton’s Kunai Pro gaming headphones for PC.

The newest Dirac 3D Audio solution will be showcased at MWC 2019 in Barcelona, Spain next week, and will be demoed using a VR headset and a smartphone.

We’ll have feet on the ground in Barcelona next week to see just how it stacks up to integrated methods created by platform holders such as Valve and Oculus.

The post Dirac to Debut Its Latest 3D Audio Solution at MWC 2019 Next Week appeared first on Road to VR.

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Audio Solutions Specialist Dirac Research Closes £13.2m Investment Round

Whether it’s on a phone, tablet, in a car or immersed in virtual reality (VR), audio is a highly important part of most peoples lives, providing entertainment, or information about the world around them. One company continually striving to improve audio technology is Swedish digital sound solution specialist Dirac Research, which has just announced the closure of a £13.2 million investment round.

Dirac_VR_1

Thanks to the investment Dirac Research will be able to finalise development of its Intelligent Audio solutions that blend audio digital signal processing with AI, machine learning, cloud computing and more. In turn, this will help tech companies create suitable audio platforms for emerging technologies such as AR/ VR headsets, 5G-enabled smartphones, autonomous vehicles, smart homes and more.

“As consumer devices become increasingly small, digital signal processing is the key to unlocking their full audio potential and creating premium sound experiences,” stated Dirac CEO Mathias Johansson in a statement. “With this new funding, we can take our approach to digitizing sound systems even further – creating more intelligent and adaptive audio processing solutions that establish new standards in both audio playback and capture across a variety of applications.”

Continued Johansson, “In doing so, we establish ourselves as the industry’s leading one-stop source for an entire premium digital audio chain and provide customers with the best possible sound experience for every use case.”

Dirac Panorama Sound

To help manage all of its future initiatives the company has appointed former Harman International Senior Vice President of Research & Development Armin Prommersberger as Chief Technology Officer and opened a Copenhagen Research & Development Center.

“With this new round of funding, combined with Armin’s appointment and the opening of the Copenhagen R&D Center, Dirac is firmly positioned to lead in the development of end-to-end digital signal processing technologies that will power the devices of today and tomorrow,” concluded Johansson

Dirac Research has spent many years perfecting its audio solutions, building a customer base that includes Bentley, Rolls Royce, BMW, Volvo, Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi, Motorola and Harman. VRFocus first came across the company during CES 2017 when it announced the Dirac VR platform. As Dirac Research continues to make further audio advancements, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Dirac Research’s Second-Generation ‘Dirac VR’ Audio Solution to Debut at MWC 2018

Swedish digital sound solution specialist Dirac Research has been working on improving 3D audio processing for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)for sometime now, and later this month the company will be showcasing its latest advancements. During the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona, Spain, Dirac Research will be debuting its second-generation Dirac VR solution to attendees.

Dirac Research

With this new version of Dirac VR, Dirac Research aims to deliver an upgraded 3D audio engine, increased power and processing efficiency, and a Unity plugin to manufacturers, Unity content developers, and end-users, alike.

The upgraded 3D audio engine produces improved audio performance, smoother sound renderings, and more accurate positioning of sound in the virtual plane. While the first generation solution allowed for the fixed positioning of individual sound sources on the horizontal plane, alone, Dirac VR now allows for dynamic positioning on both the horizontal and vertical planes – generating a 360-degree ‘audio sphere’ around each end-user, where sound moves freely in all directions.

“By fixing sound sources in the horizontal plane, virtual environments such as movie theaters can be recreated with pinpoint accuracy – as both the end-user and the audio sources remain in static locations,” stated Lars Isaksson, Dirac General Manager & Business Director of AR/ VR. “Our second-generation Dirac VR, however, places each user at the center of an ‘audio sphere’, thereby allowing users to experience, for example, the sound of wind whipping as it swirls around one’s head or an airplane arriving and departing on a tarmac.”

Dirac VR 1

“Producing realistic audio experiences in virtual environments is one of the most challenging projects to be tackled by our industry; yet we, as both an industry and company, understand the enormous opportunity presented by effective and immersive VR experiences – for which a perfected 3D audio solution is required,” said Mathias Johansson, Dirac Research’s Co-Founder & CEO in a statement. “With the second-generation Dirac VR solution, we proudly deliver to our industry the next critically-important tool to bringing our virtual dreams to life.”

Dirac VR will be available for demo at MWC 2018, from 26th February through 1st March 2018. For any further updates keep reading VRFocus.