amplifon introduces digital exploration sounds to google street view

amplifon introduces digital exploration sounds to google street view
images courtesy of amplifon UK

amplifon seeks to enhance google street view by enabling users to navigate with their hearing senses for the first time. the UK company has launched the project ‘sounds of street view’ by adding noises to three popular destinations; place du palais (france), hapuna beach (hawaii) and balboa park (san diego). the technology platform also allows themselves and others to craft life-like sound-scapes in 3-dimensional environments, almost anywhere in the world. they aim to form a huge gallery of these street views as our hearing sense is extremely important to everyday life.

they believe that sound makes up half an experience and therefore could change the way people interact and use google street view in the future. the technology uses latitude and longitude to ‘place’ visible API markers in order for the user to see and hear how far away objects and people are. the tones are listened to realistically due to stereophonic channeling employed so that sounds on the left are heard on left,  and vice-versa for the right. it is also processed through a low-pass filter to re-create how noises behind you would be heard due to the shape of our ears.

amplifon introduced the project to three popular street view destinations from around the globe

people can place their own sounds by downloading the SOSV framework that amplifon set up, and following the necessary steps. with sourcing or producing your own music, vibrations and voices can be placed in selected locations around the world in order to add to the digital sound exploration experiment. you can download your own ‘sounds of street view’ here.

noise becomes louder as the user gets closer to the marker