AURORA: Controlling sound like we do with light

Current sound design does not have a spatial component: architects design buildings or public spaces so that the same sound is either everywhere or nowhere. We count on headphones for getting personal, high quality soundscapes, even in augmented/virtual/mixed reality applications.

Our society, however, manages light differently: a theatre director can populate a scene with focused or diffused light, a spotlight that follows a character, alternation of light and shadows. This is possible because centuries of optical science have given us tools that can shape light beams: we call the simplest lenses, but these can be assembled to form telescopes, microscopes etc. Adding a 3D holographic image of a crown on a £5 note is now as easy as getting good fish and chips in Brighton.

The difference between sound and light design is even more apparent in television/computer displays: we use special materials (liquid crystals) to compose lights of different nature, shaping them in what we perceive as 3D landscapes, even one for each observer. Conversely, there is no such a thing as a 3D display for acoustics, and this is probably the main reason why immersive experiences and videogames are mainly designed for visual feedback. Medical and industrial applications, which are based on transducer arrays, often require costly and bulky electronics and are difficult to scale up. Designers simply don't have the right tools.

In this fellowship, I will exploit my research on meta-materials (i.e., materials designed and engineered to have acoustic properties not present in nature) to create these tools. If my research is successful, at the end of the 3 years we will have very thin DIY acoustic lenses that can be assembled in acoustic "telescopes" and "microscope" objectives, but also speakers that deliver personalised messages to passing users (like in the movie "Minority Report"). We will have windows that let the air through, but not the noise of the air-conditioning unit. We will have a new type of VR/AR environments, incorporating localised music and long-range haptics (like in "Iron Man"), available to the UK creative industries for early adoption. We will have diagnostic and therapeutic applications based on ultrasound with a simple 3D printer.

To achieve this result, I will partner with selected industrial stakeholders (in UK and abroad), through workshops and short feasibility studies, to explore what lies beyond our everyday acoustics and how this can be applied to the benefit of UK companies. I will even build devices that have no optical counterpart, but that can manipulate sound with a precision beyond our perception. And you will able to see them in action, because I will be active in public engagement to facilitate their uptake.
At the end of the three years, we will have a new way of designing, thinking and experience sound. We will have on sound the same control we now have on light.

AURORA will enable a multi-platform technology, which will change the way we manage sound/noise across all frequencies and, potentially, all applications. This will be demonstrated producing 5 key tools (D1-D5), each with a an increasing level of complexity, which will be tested in VR/AR environments through dedicated experiments.

The path to impact comes from Metasonics, a start-up company that I have recently co-founded. Almost 1 day/week how my time will be dedicated in exploring new leads for the company and ways to increase its IP portfolio. A successful AURORA will therefore strengthen Metasonics, allowing recruitment of new staff and a leadership story for the UK.

Economic impact will be primarily seeded in UK industries using digital technologies (e.g. human computer interaction, augmented and virtual reality) or in the creative sector (cinema, television, concert halls, architecture), as these are the sectors where meta-materials may have a short-term impact. . In particular, the AURORA team will reach these stakeholders through the research residency at the FuseBox in Brighton, through the workshops organised in collaboration with Wired Sussex and the Knowledge Transfer Network and through public engagement. Contact with these companies will enhance the significance of the end-user tests, thus facilitating the uptake of meta-material based solutions for delivering localised, targeted, immersive sound into VR/AR environments.

After an initial contact AURORA will then deliver 9 "technology vouchers": 5-days long one-to-one interactions with the most promising companies, giving game designers, television studios, safety engineers and architects the possibility of testing our technologies on their own projects. Within the limitations imposed by confidentiality, these "case studies" will potentially seed long-term relationships and generate IP, that may be better exploited directly through these companies.

In AURORA, however, we will also explore medium-term impact on noise management and healthcare, running a couple of targeted demonstrations linked to the main deliverables (i.e. the "tools") and seeding future collaborations.

Academic impact will be achieved by high-quality publications and early-stage interactions with other groups working in the field of acoustic meta-materials.

Public engagement in science festivals and trade shows will be a way to facilitate the uptake of a new way of thinking, designing and experiencing sound. The Fellow is extremely active in this field and this aspect will remain in AURORA.