E2 design and Sound quality system analysis by JingDong Cheng, was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent.

Jingdong Chen

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, will be celebrated Tuesday, Feb. 1, as a time to celebrate and attract fortune and happiness.

To prepare for the holiday and its new beginnings, it is tradition to put up decorations and wish good fortune to those around you. This year is the Year of the Tiger and is inspiring celebrations including festivals,May this year of the Tiger bring you the strength to face and win every difficulty that comes in your way. Happy Chinese new year.

Greg Kumparak@grg / 7:05 AM GMT+8•January 8, 2022

It has somehow, inexplicably, impossibly been almost 10 years since the original Oculus Rift hit Kickstarter.

A decade of development later, VR headsets have gotten better and better — but it’s safe to say, at this point, that VR’s adoption will be … gradual. If we’re all destined to end up with headsets (be they VR, AR or some mix of the two) strapped to our faces, it’ll be less about one-big-thing* and more the result of a thousand tiny steps. A Beat Saber here; a Supernatural there. Incrementally better/lighter/faster headsets. Maybe folks get used to using headsets for training purposes at work. Maybe everyone suddenly agrees on what a metaverse is.

This bit-by-bit advancement held true this year at CES. There was plenty of VR/AR news, none of it earth shattering — but each another step in the progression.

(* the one potential meteor strike, of course, being if Apple does what it loves to do and swoops in late, drops its version and turns the category on its head. That’s been the rumor for a while now.)

Let’s recap the biggest VR/AR bits from the show.

We’ve known for a while now that Sony has been working on a next-gen headset for the PlayStation 5, following up on the PS VR headset it released in 2016. But beyond a kind of light “We’re working on it!” announcement back in early 2021 and some details about the controllers a few months later, they hadn’t shared many specifics.

They’re still keeping some cards close, but they shared a few more details on what’s now officially known as the PS VR2. Such as:

• It’ll have a resolution of 2000×2040 per eye.
• It’ll have a wider field of view than the first-gen headset, at 110 degrees versus 96.
• It’ll have a refresh rate of 90/120 Hz.
• It’ll be able to track the motion of your eyes, potentially allowing you to do stuff like highlight interface elements just by looking at them.
• It’ll support foveated rendering, which is a fancy way of saying it can use processing power more efficiently by prioritizing the rendering of whatever’s in the center of your vision.
• They’re building new controllers for it (pictured below) with finger detection and the PS5’s mind-bending adaptive triggers.
• What’ll the headset look like? Unknown! When will it actually ship? TBD! But with the PS VR being one of the few headsets to even kind of rival the Oculus Meta Quest in terms of ease of use, it’s nice to see Sony continuing to build here.

• HTC Vive wrist tracker

• 

• What’s the best way to handle input in VR? Most of the popular headsets have settled on some sort of controller in each hand. What if you just make your hand the controller, instead?

  Hand tracking isn’t a brand new idea, of course. Companies have come and gone with hand tracking as their primary focus.

  But HTC’s approach here is a bit different. Instead of relying entirely on cameras, they’re hoping you’ll strap sensor-packed bands to each wrist to help the system track what the cameras can’t see — like when one hand is obscuring the other, or you’ve got your arm back behind you for a golf swing. The company also demonstrated the sensors working while attached to other objects, like ping pong paddles and a NERF gun.

  The company says the sensors should start shipping later this year for $129. One catch? For now, at least, it’ll only work with HTC’s Vive Focus 3 headset.

• Shiftall MeganeX

• 

• VR headsets have gotten a whole lot sleeker over the years, but they’re still pretty beefy. How much smaller can they really get, though?

  Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall has been working on an “ultra-lightweight, ultra-high-resolution” headset called the Meganex. With speakers built into the frames and a 1.3″ (2560×2560) display for each eye, they end up looking more like a massive pair of steampunk sunglasses than a headset. While designed to be lightweight and foldable, don’t expect to move around too much in these ones — you’ll need to attach them to computer via USB-C to do the heavy graphical lifting.

  Shiftall says these should ship this year for “less than $900.”

• Microsoft partners with Qualcomm for AR chips

  

• Microsoft already uses Qualcomm chips for their HoloLens headsets, but the companies made things a bit more official this week. At Qualcomm’s keynote it was announced that the two will work together to develop chips built specifically for use in AR headsets, with said chips supporting each of their augmented reality development platforms (Microsoft Mesh and Snapdragon Spaces.)

• Nvidia Omniverse

• 

• It’s not flashy hardware, but it’s potentially important on the software side of things: Nvidia this week opened up Omniverse, its collection of tools for helping 3D content creators work together in real time.

  Writes Frederic Lardinois in his post on the news:

  Omniverse is Nvidia’s platform for allowing creators, designers and engineers to collaboratively build virtual worlds. It’s the company’s platform that brings together design tools and assets from first- and third-party applications into a single hardware and software ecosystem. Until now, Omniverse and the various Nvidia tools that support it were in beta, but at CES today, the company took off the beta label and made Omniverse generally available to creators.

  TCL’s AR Glasses

  This one seems mostly like a concept for now, so … well, don’t fall in love just yet. But TV/phone/air conditioner maker TCL is dabbling in the AR glasses space, pitching something akin to Google Glass in a package that looks much more like a standard pair of specs. “Holographic optical waveguide technology” pushes visuals onto the lens and into your field of view, and their concept video above promises touch-based controls built into the frames.

HEADPHONE technology has improved massively in recent years and it is trend that is set to continue for the foreseeable future.

According to market analysis conducted by Research N Reports, the global earphones and headphones industry was worth more than $10.5 billion in 2018.

Improved audio experiences and a shift towards mobile devices amongst consumers are expected to drive a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 5% between now and 2025.

The emergence of notched smartphones, increased demand for fashionable designs and improvements in noise cancellation are other factors predicted to power the growth.

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to have the highest CAGR during the forecast period, although the revenue rise is likely to impact countries across the world. Read on as we look at the future of headphone technology.

Human Headphones set to change the game

Seattle-based electronics manufacturer, Human Inc., is set to change the game after launching the first true wireless over-ear smart headphones.

Human Headphones feature a 3-in-1 design that delivers over-the-ear quality, ear-bud convenience and a powerful Bluetooth speaker.

The provide excellent sound quality, capacitive touch controls, on-the-move communication, all-day connectivity and more, making them one of the most innovative products to hit the market.

Ben Willis, Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Human Inc., said: “We founded Human to completely redesign both the form and function of modern headphones.

“Our goal was to create all-in-one headphones that are compatible with every aspect of a user’s day, whether they’re at home, commuting, or in the office.

“We’re excited to launch Human Headphones and bring customers a one-of-a-kind device equipped with the latest technology to deliver a seamless listening experience from morning to night.”

The headphones adapt to the physical structure of the ear rather than going into or over them. Their unique shape creates an audio experience unlike any other wireless product to date.

“No other headphones adapt to your life the way Human Headphones do,” Willis added. “As such, these devices are poised to change how we interact with and use technology throughout our day on a massive scale.

“We could not just adopt the traditional headphone or in-ear designs because in doing so, you also adopt their fundamental legacy issues and limitations, with product comfort being one of the largest problems for both.

“By going back to the drawing board, we were able to both construct an entirely new form that is really driven by the anatomy of all human ears to set a new bar for comfort.

“Additionally, we have opened up device real estate for the technology needed in delivering a very powerful hardware and software platform. Our platform is not only powerful enough for today, but also will support integration of future voice experiences.”

Turtle Beach amplifying its reach

Turtle Beach continues to make some of the best headphones in the industry and their Elite Pro 2 plus SuperAmp bundle has taken things to another level.

The Elite SuperAmp is an innovative audio controller that allows gamers to connect, amplify and control their audio settings via Bluetooth.

Available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the device can connect any wired gaming headset to a mobile app-based control centre.

Users can tweak their audio settings to receive powerful and immersive amplified surround sound that moves gaming into a different stratosphere.

When connected to the app, players can instantly control features like Game and Chat Audio Mix, Dynamic Chat Boost, Superhuman Hearing and more.

There are other controls for the SuperAmp’s LED colour and lighting mode, along with streaming-specific audio settings.

“The Elite SuperAmp is perfect for gamers looking to significantly step-up their audio experience while using their existing headset,” said Juergen Stark, CEO, Turtle Beach.

“The SuperAmp’s standard 3.5mm jack is compatible with nearly all wired gaming headsets, while the intuitive mobile app makes it easy to quickly adjust and customise your settings from your phone or tablet before jumping into a game.”

Debussy offers a Prelude to the future

Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Debussy’s Prelude headphones could be the next big thing to transform a rapidly developing industry.

Prelude was promoted at CES 2019 as the ‘premium, always connected music app streaming headphones engineered for audiophiles and music lovers’ alike.

Featuring a built-in high-fidelity audio chain, Prelude provides true lossless sound that is guaranteed to keep you listening for hours on end.

Debussy’s ‘Adaptive Rendering’ decodes audio and tunes as you switch musical genres, ensuring a perfect listening experience time after time.

The headphones use 4G LTE services to stream your favorite music services and can be paired to any device via Bluetooth or USB-C.

A digital touchscreen enables interactive gesture controls, voice assistant commands, standalone music search and custom album art display.

Prelude features 32GB storage for audio files, meaning users could store more than 10,000 MP3 tracks within the headphones.

Debussy CEO and Founder, Arnaud Perret, has worked with a plethora of star names on the project and believes the Prelude will change headphone technology forever.

“All the manufacturers will copy, for sure,” said Perret. “But all we’re building, with all the artists and branding, that experience we’re creating – that cannot be mimicked.”