Researchers synthesized realistic collision sounds by simulating how objects deform on impact, rather than treating them as rigid. The method produces richer clanging sounds that closely match real recordings, solving the problem of recreating missing audio from video.
Dear fellow scholars, this is Two Minute Papers with so far we have seen excellent works on how to simulate the motion and the collision of bodies, but we have completely neglected some aspect of videos that is just as important as visuals. And that aspect is none other than sound. What if you have footage of objects colliding but no access to the sound of the encounter? You obviously have to recreate the situation that you see on the screen, and even for the easiest cases, you have to sit in the studio with a small hammer and a mug, which is difficult and often a very laborious process. If we can simulate the forces that arise when bodies collide, what if we could also simulate the sound of such encounters? If you would like a great solution for this, this is the work you should be looking at. Most techniques in the field take objects into consideration as rigid bodies. In this work, the authors extend the simulation to deformable bodies, therefore making it possible to create rich, clanging sound effects. Now the mandatory question arises. How do we evaluate such a technique? Evaluating means that we would like to find out how accurate it really is. And obviously the ideal case is if we compare the sounds created by the algorithm to what we would experience in the real world and see how close they are. Well, pretty damn close. I love these simulation software works the most when they are not only beautiful, but they somehow relate to reality. And this technique is a great example of that. It feels quite empowering that we have these really smart people who can solve problems that sound inconceivably difficult. Thank you so much for checking the series out. If you would like to be notified quickly when a new episode of Two Minute Papers pops up, consider following me on Twitter. I announce every upload right away. I've put a link for this in the description box. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.
