A pioneering audio system featured at the Australian Open seeks to translate live ball position data from tennis matches into spatial sound effects to make it easier for blind and low-vision fans to follow the action.
What is the audio system called and who is behind this technology?
The system is called Action Audio, and it was developed through a partnership between digital agency AKQA, Tennis Australia and Monash University in Melbourne.
How does Action Audio work?
The system translates the action of the matches into 3D audio effects.
It uses real-time information to recreate three-dimensional sound to give listeners a sense of the speed and trajectory of the ball, its proximity to the line and shot types of different players.
“The great thing about this tech approach is it’s super scalable,” AKQA executive creative director Tim Devine said. “This is a confluence of two very established technologies: Binaural/3D Audio through VR/AR and electronic line calling tech.”
Has this system been used before?
The creators of the system claim it’s the first of its kind to be implemented for a major sporting event and they hope to expand it to other tennis tournaments in the future. They also plan to work with the blind and low-vision community to determine other sports where it might be useful.
What was the inspiration behind the Audio System?
Devine said the team was originally inspired by a 2015 TED talk from neuroscientist David Eagleman on the concept of sensory substitution, in which a sense like vision or hearing is essentially recreated through another sense. That led to the idea of turning data from the tennis officiating tech now used to track balls and call close plays into audio effects.
“This is something that we know BLV (blind low vision) community people are great at but in tennis there is little information for them to do it,” Devine said. “The ball doesn’t make a sound as it moves through the air. And every shot and bounce effectively sounds the same. So it was an easy space to augment.”
They took the idea to Tennis Australia, which pointed them in the direction of a Monash University research team that was already working on similar tech. Devine said the project has now been in the works for about two years and has undergone around six months of testing with members of the blind and low vision community.
“For the first time, thousands of blind and visually impaired fans will be able to follow the on-court action in real time, enabled by this ground breaking new use of technology,” Tennis Australia head of innovation Machar Reid said in a statement.
