Spatialization

The process of rendering a sound so that it appears to originate from a specific location in three-dimensional space around the listener. Spatialization typically combines head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) to model how ears filter sound by direction, binaural or ambisonic processing for stereo headphones, and room acoustics modeling - reflections, reverberation, occlusion - to make a sound feel anchored in a physical scene. In accessibility practice, spatialisation is central to audio augmented reality navigation, non-visual wayfinding apps such as Microsoft Soundscape, and assistive listening tools because it offers blind and low-vision users a 360-degree positional channel that does not compete with visual attention.