eli5 – How does Dolby atmos work and make your brain think sound is coming from an area with no speakers?
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In general, how stereo tech like atmos get 3D soundscape out of just two speakers? They play tricks with how sound is received by your ears.
The majority of sound that your ears pick up comes via soundwaves in air, hitting the eardrum and the pressure vibrations are picked up by the cilia in your inner ear. To make stereo sound, its easy – simply delay the audio signals travelling to one side of your head vs. the other – your brain is smart enough to figure out “oh, I heard that sound first on the left, then the right. Sound must be coming from my left.”
The little hairs inside your ear can also pick up sound vibrations that travel _through_ your body as well. By taking advantage of how we know sound is attenuated or muffled by the human body we can fake the sounds that we shove into the ear to mimic that. We’re sending those through your ear, but to the hairs inside your ear and your brain that is interpreting them, the end result is the same as though the sounds had travelled through your body. Thus we can mimic 3d soundscapes.
Atmos does the same type of thing, just adds a vertical dimension.
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