Binaural means "involving both ears". Binaural topics include binaural recording, binaural playback, binaural synthesis and binaural auditory illusions.
Binaural recording
Binaural recordings are made such that the listener, wearing headphones, will hear the sound with the same spatialization as if the listener were in the same environment and position relative to the sound source(s) as the recording device was. In order to make convincing binaural recordings it is therefore necessary to record a sound from two locations, preferably from microphones placed inside of the ears of a dummy head that can simulated the filtering effects of the human torso, head and pinna (external ear).
Please see binaural recording.
Binaural playback
Binaural audio must be reproduced using headphones for the spatialization information to be maintained.
Please see binaural recording.
Binaural synthesis
Binaural synthesis is the synthesis of a 3-dimensional environment to be reproduced using headphones
Monoaural sounds, containing no spatialization information, can be transformed into a simulated 3D auditory space using head-related transfer functions, a method that is increasingly common in virtual environmentss such as the first person shooter. Similarly, HRTFs have also been used in military applications to provide spatialization information for pilots.
Binaural auditory illusions
Auditory illusions are a popular subject in psychoacoustics because they illuminate the hidden mechanisms of the human perception of sound. This information is particularly valuable in audio coding, where binaural information is eliminated where perceptually irrelevant.