Awesomely-named grant funds awesome project: 3D Sound

The grant is called Project X. The project in question? MAE professor Edgar Choueiri's "Pure Stereo" filter, which promises sound like you've never heard it before.Project X funds unconventional research projects, and "3D sound" definitely qualifies. Unlike other recordings, Choueiri's attempt to capture the location of the sound, so that you can, among other things, realistically hear a fly buzz around your head. It's a little like that cool effect in movie theaters where the sound seems to come from behind you.Hal Espen of The Atlantic visited Princeton recently to check it out. His descriptions read like a Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory of sound:

Choueiri leaves. A few seconds later, the sound of flowing water fades in and rises in both volume and presence. I have the uncanny sensation of standing neck-deep in a river, with its plashing surface spreading around me. Next, a buzzing fly circles my head. Then an aural nightscape of crickets and the loud croaks of a frog, precisely over there. An excited crowd, children shouting. A train chugs in from the right and comes to a halt across the platform.Musical selections follow—an a cappella choir in some vast reverberant space, a New Orleans street band, a quartet of classical guitars—featuring shockingly expansive soundstaging, exact source positioning, and vivid ambience. Then Choueiri’s virtual voice is speaking in my left ear, my right ear, behind my head, and lastly he’s simulating giving me a haircut, with scissors snipping sides, top, and back.Choueiri reappears at the door. “That was absolutely fantastic,” I tell him.

Here's a video from the Star-Ledger explaining how it works.