When thinking about the future of sound, how to make it better, it has little to do with just making sure the songs on your iPhone sound better. Smart audio such as Car DVD Player, according to Harman, is improving multiple aspects of life with sound.
When thinking about the future of sound, how to make it better, it has little to do with just making sure the songs on your iPhone sound better. Smart audio such as Car DVD Player, according to Harman, is improving multiple aspects of life with sound.
Speaking at IFA Berlin 2015, Harman President, Chairman and CEO Dinesh Paliwal said his company is using smart audio to connect, personalize and adapt sound to improve the lives of others. This can be through making noise pollution less in cars, improving sonograms so doctors deliver a clearer diagnosis and much more.
“Audio influence is growing across our life. In all areas,” Paliwal said.
Harman’s patents, all 5,700 of them, are proof of that. For example, Paliwal said Harman is hoping to make audio better in cars because cars cannot every truly become autonomous without clear audio so you can connect and communicate with your car.
The company is testing how sound frequencies can make people sleepy or more energized Paliwal said this technology could be useful for pilots and drivers traveling long distances. Better, or the right sound frequencies could mean more alert pilots and safer trips.
Sound frequency testing is also being done in the operating room. Harman is studying how sounds played during a procedure and during recovery could impact how a patient reacts and how quickly they can heal. Paliwal said this is what smart audio is all about; adapting and making lives better.
“Smart audio is not just what you get (in the final product) but from the first note recorded,” he said. “My definition of smart audio, is connected, personalized and adaptive. One size doesn’t fits all. Even what we wear… you customize yourself for everything.”
Sound, Paliwal said, shouldn’t be any different.
Other areas Harman touched on at IFA 2015 were its individual audio zones in cars and person-specific headphone. The audio zones in cars work by allowing every seat in the car to listen to whatever he or she desires without having to hear what anyone else is listening to. This technology, however, doesn’t isolate it users, Paliwal said they have patented technology that allows people to still be able to communicate with other people in the car while the music still plays with a car DVD.
Paliwal said when an artist produces a track what you end up hearing through most mp3 files is just 10 percent of the true sound from when it was recorded. Harman is focusing on delivering a HiFi device where music can be heard closer to its original form. The trick now is to get this very expensive technology into the hands of as many people as possible
“Moving from digital to connectivity to intelligent, that’s the key,” Paliwal said. “I don’t think there is anything else because intelligence is it in Android car stereo.”
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