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[Thread] Mental Math
(mander.xyz)
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Our bodies n brains are so cool. Think about what goes into locating a sound in space.
Edit: there's more to it but at the most basic level your brain calculates the fraction of a second difference between when one ear picks up a sound and when the other does creating a reference point based on that.
I got into an argument with someone once about this, when they told me (paraphrasing) "it's safe to drive listening to music through headphones, because they let outside sound in".
Yes they indeed might, but - even ignoring delay introduced from digital electronics - you've now lost all sense of where that sound is coming from, because you're listening to the sound of one microphone being played through one speaker.
The human ear really is an incredible thing.
Counterpoint: echolocating with footsteps in csgo (entirely a joke, I agree that headphones while driving are unsafe)
Now you've got me picturing headphones hooked up to microphones outside of your car. I wonder if that would work well or not.
I have friends who refuse to play with headsets and then wonder why I'm so good at FPS compared to them. I've told them multiple times that it is solely the fact that I can locate enemies due to the headphones, yet they refuse to believe me, for some reason.