Navigating in Spatial Audio with the Mach1 Spatial SDK and HERE

HERE services can now generate Spatial Audio cues for enhanced orientation and guidance to be consumed in vehicles and on mobile.

The new feature does not require sophisticated equipment, rather it can be experienced with normal stereo earbuds and car audio reducing the boundaries of integration in other products. HERE fuses spatial information with a rendering layer enabled by the Mach1 Spatial framework. This transparent and simple framework is the foundation for all spatial audio related processing concepts; whether for spatializing navigation and warning cues to playing back creative content safely and easily to expand upon the growing immersive audio mediums.

Mach1 supplies the Mach1 Spatial SDK which introduces a simple and transparent framework a “universal delivery format” for unifying spatial and multichannel audio for both creators & developers.

What is Spatial Audio and how does it relate to HERE

Spatial Audio is a type of sound rendering which creates more immersion by leveraging how we perceive sound naturally. As humans, we listen to Spatial Audio the whole time: reality happens around us at 360 degrees, and so does sound. Our ability to hear sounds at 360 degrees is an element we naturally rely on for orientation and navigation. It is such an important element of our spatial perception that we can’t even turn it off by simply “closing our ears”.

But while the presence of sounds around us is a natural thing in real life, almost all audio information delivered by media and navigation applications gets squeezed into formats that sacrifice the spatial dimension of sound. Bringing spatial audio into navigation is like removing blinders from our eyes. It is a leap forward in terms of orientation and situational awareness. The use cases are plenty, from navigation guidance to search, from hands-free operations to Hazard Warnings, and of course entertainment.

For more information, get in touch with our team.

Want to see navigation with Spatial Audio action?

Experience Spatial Audio Guidance today on HERE WeGo and share your feedback with our HERE WeGo team at appsupport@here.com