Inventor touts true 3-D stereo

>>Mon, Oct 29, 2001
>>
>>By Bill Redekop
>>
>>-- Imagine this stereo system: You can hear the orchestra's string
>>section and point exactly to where the players are seated; you can follow the
>>conductor's footsteps walk past you and know where he stops to conduct;
>>you can locate exactly -- two rows back and to your right -- the cell
>>phone going
>>off in mid-concert.
>>
>>Precision stereo. It's unlike any stereo you have ever experienced.
>>"Every sound is in its place in relationship to you, and in relation to
>>every other sound," explains inventor Ray Wehner.
>>
>>Wehner's precision microphone records sound exactly in the location where
>>it occurs. When played back, it seems to throw the sound, like a ventriloquist,
>>back into the location it came from.
>>
>>For full effect, it must be listened to with headphones. The sound is so
>>lush and real it's almost spooky. You may think someone is behind you or
>>standing
>>in front of you.
>>
>>"Stereo sound," explained Wehner, 71, a retired psychiatrist who has
>>worked on his invention 26 years, "is spatial. My microphone is spatial
>>and precise."
>>
>>Now, Wehner's ready to go to market. His first target is helping people
>>who require hearing aids.
>>
>>"I've had people with hearing problems try it and want to know where they
>>can buy it," said Wehner. "People's experiences with present hearing devices,
>>even very expensive ones, have not been very satisfactory. And there has
>>been no improvement for years."
>>
>>His invention is currently in the hands of the Prairie Centre for
>>Business Intelligence, a division of the National Research Council. The
>>manager for the
>>project refused to be interviewed because of the highly secretive and
>>competitive nature of inventions.
>>
>>"He's on to something," said Vancouver record producer Ed Henderson, who
>>produced a CD for a friend using Wehner's precision microphone.
>>
>>Henderson said while there are some "acoustic imaging" microphones
>>available, he has never heard one that "holds its geometry in space" like
>>Wehner's.
>>
>>The best musical application for Wehner's microphone might be live
>>recordings, said retired jazz drummer Earl Waters of Gimli.
>>
>>"It's just amazing. There's nothing like this."
>>
>>Wehner has even given a demonstration to the Dalai Lama in India -- it's
>>akin to getting an audience with the Pope.
>>
>>"The Dalai Lama said, 'Why isn't this used? This should be used.'"
>>
>>Few people fully understand how Wehner's invention works, even after his
>>explanation, but it involves both a medical approach to the ear, and use
>>of a Buckminster
>>Fuller concept.
>>
>>In medical school in the 1950s, Wehner became intrigued with the human
>>ear. It puzzled him that the outer eardrum is not perfectly round but
>>rather oval-shaped,
>>and no one could explain why. He also expected the eardrums to be
>>parallel to each other in the human skull. Instead, he found that they
>>slant forward
>>-- toward your nose -- and down.
>>
>>Wehner set out to duplicate the human ear, practising with dummy heads
>>and microphones.
>>
>>What researchers have failed to understand, he says, is that we likely
>>hear like we see. That is, the image transmitted by our eyes to our brain
>>is really
>>an upside-down image that is then corrected by the brain.
>>
>>This is called "counter-intuitive" to what we would suspect. Wehner
>>believes the way we hear is also counter-intuitive, but no one has yet
>>been able to
>>figure out quite how.
>>
>>Wehner believes he is finally getting close to marketing his product.
>>
>>"We're on the edge of it. We're on the threshold."


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