Interactive Headphones for a Cloud 3D Audio Application

Spatial dimensionality is one of the main features of the physical environment in which humans live. When we think about 3D, we usually refer to 3D video, even if it is not the only existing channel of natural interaction. In this paper, we present an interaction system based on spatialized sounds. We developed an innovative cloud application in the cultural heritage context, a personal guide, in 3D sound, attracting the tourists' attention toward monuments or buildings, offering sounds capes of augmented reality. The designed system interacts with smart headphones that remotely takes the orientation of the listener's head and properly generates an audio output, which also takes into account the listener's position and orientation in the environment. Thus, an innovative headphones using an inertial measurement unit for determining the orientation of a user's head have been designed and developed in open-ear mode, in order to locate the user in the real context.