Thunderspace
We often forget how important it is to unwind after a stressful workday, which got us thinking: Can we make an interesting relaxation app? One that is different? One that gives you a new experience? A new way to use your iPhone?
Under the hood, well... You know these unremarkable old cars that look slow? And then the driver hits the gas pedal and you're not sure which one would be faster: That car or a Lambo! “Project Thunderstorm” was like that. It didn’t play some random thunderstorm sounds as most people would expect. It played a thunderstorm recorded in stereoscopic 3D, using a state-of-the-art microphone that had ears and captured the sound exactly the way humans hear — with interaural time and level differences.
Stereoscopic 3D audio for headphones is like 3D video for 3D glasses. You have two ears for the same reason that you have two eyes. So you can see and hear in 3D.
The lightning flashes were the icing on the cake, and boost the immersive effect even further by acting as another cue to the brain that the thunderstorm is real. If you go outside in the evening and relax with Thunderspace, it'll get even more realistic.
The combination with lightning flashes introduced some interesting challenges. How do you define when a lightning flash should occur, and how strong? Since light is a lot faster than sound, it was clear that the flashes had to happen before the thunder. The delay between a lightning flash and the audible thunder sound depends on a lot of factors. Since we had just audio recordings but no video, we had to recreate them on our own, solely based on the audio track. We looked at the energy in the lower frequency spectrum to determine how close and strong a thunder was, and combined that with some imagination to nail each and every lightning flash.
Another challenge was repetition. When you listen to the same recording over and over again, your brain begins to identify repetitive patterns. We took some measures to reduce repetition based on psychoacoustic sound evaluation principles. But of course nothing beats length! Therefore, our thunderstorms are up to 26 minutes long and seamlessly looped.
In a nutshell, we believe we've crafted a novel relaxation app we can be proud of, and which will put a smile on your face after a stressful day.
We often forget how important it is to unwind after a stressful workday, which got us thinking: Can we make an interesting relaxation app? One that is different? One that gives you a new experience? A new way to use your iPhone?
Under the hood, well... You know these unremarkable old cars that look slow? And then the driver hits the gas pedal and you're not sure which one would be faster: That car or a Lambo! “Project Thunderstorm” was like that. It didn’t play some random thunderstorm sounds as most people would expect. It played a thunderstorm recorded in stereoscopic 3D, using a state-of-the-art microphone that had ears and captured the sound exactly the way humans hear — with interaural time and level differences.
Stereoscopic 3D audio for headphones is like 3D video for 3D glasses. You have two ears for the same reason that you have two eyes. So you can see and hear in 3D.
The lightning flashes were the icing on the cake, and boost the immersive effect even further by acting as another cue to the brain that the thunderstorm is real. If you go outside in the evening and relax with Thunderspace, it'll get even more realistic.
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| 8 soundscapes available |
The combination with lightning flashes introduced some interesting challenges. How do you define when a lightning flash should occur, and how strong? Since light is a lot faster than sound, it was clear that the flashes had to happen before the thunder. The delay between a lightning flash and the audible thunder sound depends on a lot of factors. Since we had just audio recordings but no video, we had to recreate them on our own, solely based on the audio track. We looked at the energy in the lower frequency spectrum to determine how close and strong a thunder was, and combined that with some imagination to nail each and every lightning flash.
Another challenge was repetition. When you listen to the same recording over and over again, your brain begins to identify repetitive patterns. We took some measures to reduce repetition based on psychoacoustic sound evaluation principles. But of course nothing beats length! Therefore, our thunderstorms are up to 26 minutes long and seamlessly looped.
In a nutshell, we believe we've crafted a novel relaxation app we can be proud of, and which will put a smile on your face after a stressful day.
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