TubeNet

I was expecting this
http://www.aboutleela.ru/wallpapers/sma ... ophone.jpg
so, I was more confused than amazed... what is it?

Theres an old recording technique called binaural where microphones are placed in the ears of a person or a dummy head. Reproduced on headphones, it is nearly impossible to tell that the sound is not real, except that when you move your head the entire sonic world rotates with it. Recently some companies have figured out how to encode conventionally recorded sounds with binaural cues. It is possible to reproduce the sounds with regular speakers using crosstalk cancellation where sounds are added to each speaker that cancel the sounds from the opposite speaker (almost like red and blue 3D images) so that each ear gets a different signal. The old Carver sonic holography preamp had this built in and worked quite well from what I understand.

-Eric

except that when you move your head the entire sonic world rotates with it.

I read a little while ago about military technology that was being developed to help fighter pilots keep track of enemy aircraft using aural cues. It combined this binaural sound with a motion sensor on the pilot's head (hooked up to some kind of processor), so that when the pilot moved his head, the sound field would stay in the right position. It would be as if the pilot could actually hear the aircraft around him, even if this was not physically possible.