Sounds of Street View by Amplifon
Journalism Press Kit

Developer

Google Street View is the go-to application for exploring the world digitally, but it has a missing ingredient which we take for granted day in, day out. It’s one of the most important human senses, which affects how we observe the world and how we interact, such as giving us an ultimate sense of direction or knowing when danger is upon us - Sound. Thousands of people every day experience the world digitally without this key sense, and it’s our wish at Amplifon to fill this void.

Our Experience

Sounds of Street View is a digital explorative sound experiment by Amplifon which gives users a 3-dimensional sound experience in a Street View environment. Utilising the Web Audio API platform, sounds are designated as though they were ordinary Google Maps markers, but instead of an image and information being assigned to the marker, a sound is instead.

Framework

The Sounds of Street View Framework gives developers with minimal coding experience, the opportunity to create bespoke street view soundscapes with ease.

The framework includes all of the calculations used to create the full 3-dimensional Sounds of Street View experience, as explained within the “How it’s created” area. This means that by simply downloading a small number of assets and adding their own sounds, developers have the power to craft life-like sound-scapes in a 3-dimensional environment, almost anywhere in the world.

• Standard Google Map API markers used
• Stereophonic sound created so that sounds on a users left are heard from the left and sounds from the right heard on the right.
• The Inverse Square Law of Sound is applied, meaning sound does not decay when further away in a linear fashion.
• Sound is processed through a low-pass filter if behind, to re-create how the shape of the human ear affects how sound is heard, brighter in front and duller behind.

Sounds of Street View Promotional Video

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