Room Acoustics Activity 4/26

In this activity, you will be exploring a virtual room where you can visualize the sound mapping of different 3D audio sources. The visualizations include:

• A transparent sphere that indicates the area of effect of the sound (if you step outside of the sphere, you won't be able to hear it at all)

• A heatmap on the ground that indicates the relative amplitude of that sound source (where red = very loud and blue = silent)

Controls

• Movement using thumbstick

  • (note that although you can rotate using the right thumbstick, I get really motion sick personally when I use this--discretion is advised)

• Change the radius of each sound source by hovering and pressing A or B

• Grab objects by hovering and pressing grab

Tasks

1. First, try out Unity's spatial audio! Pick up one of the sound sources and physically move it around your head -- do you hear a difference? 

• Take a screenshot of you holding on to one of the sound sources.

2. Next, play around with the A/B buttons to adjust the radii of different sound sources.

3. Once you have familiarized  yourself with the controls, work with other folks in the room to re-arrange the sound sources, trying to satisfy the following conditions:

• Each sound source has a different radius

• Each sound source overlaps with every other sound source

• Take a screenshot of you standing within that intersection region!