Spatial Audio for Managing Mental Illness (SAMMI)

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The human auditory system is amazing. Without thinking we know where sounds are coming from, and we can selectively listen to one voice in the presence of another.Standard microphones, such as the ones found in your phone or laptop, cannot do this. Instead, they reduce the world to a single channel. Confusion reigns, as the brain works overtime to isolate sounds based on subtle temporal and contextual clues.The project will be undertaken by Dr David Nugent, coinventor of Quaudio, a technology that hears the world as we do. David has also worked with neuroscientists on the diagnosis of cognitive decline using speech and audio analysis.Quaudio performs Blind Source Separation: the detection, tracking and isolation of sound sources with no prior knowledge of their presence, number or location. We do this using a compact array of four microphones. That is where Quaudio gets its name from.SAMMI will be undertaken in two Streams.In Stream 1, an ambisonic (four channel) microphone will capture and digitize spatial sounds, these will then be processed and rendered by code written into a Windows App. The result will be a program ready for trialing by mental health professionals, patients and caregivers alike.In parallel, Stream 2 will see the incorporation of Quaudio hardware into immersive devices such as mixed reality glasses. Code developed in Strand 1 will be applied, and the ability to track and isolate sound sources tested. The result will be a blueprint for how spatial audio can be captured, manipulated and presented in virtual and mixed reality headsets.There is a growing body of evidence the spatial audio plays a crucial role in the diagnosis, treatment and management of mental illness. We will examine three:1: Generalised anxiety disorder: How can the capture and control of spatial audio and its presentation via binaural headphones reduce anxiety?2: Auditory hypersensitivity in autism: Applying machine learning to automatically attenuate loud sound sources without attenuating everything or compromising acoustic clarity.3: Dementia: Declutter the acoustic scene by automatically organizing sound sources into evenly spaced directions for presentation via binaural rendering and headphones.In all three cases we will present and discuss our work with mental health professionals and leading charities. Their feedback will be included in our report.