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Friday, 17^th December, 1999 – Sensaura Virtual Ear was unveiled today, with independent claims that it is set to revolutionise audio in games. This new technology allows individual gamers to ‘tweak’ the synthesised 3D hearing cues of gaming environments to be as close as possible to the natural 3D listening cues that are created by their own ears.

Initially previewed to leading industry figures at the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) in September of this year, Sensaura Virtual Ear Technology has already inspired a flurry of activity from competitors in efforts to design similar systems.

Said Dr Alastair Sibbald, Sensaura Principal Scientist, "There are considerable physiological variations in the sizes of our ears and heads. Sensaura Virtual Ear technology enables the listener to ‘tune’ the 3D signal-processing HRTFs precisely so as to match their own head and ear characteristics".

Sensaura will incorporate a user-friendly wizard for set-up purposes, together with both ‘quick’ and ‘advanced’ protocols. The quick option provides 25 pre-set HRTF types for the listener to choose from, while the advanced option provides total control of four different parameters, namely concha depth, concha openness, head size and ear size.

Virtual Ear adds to the existing Sensaura feature set which already includes full DirectSound3D (DS3D) enhancement, exclusive Sensaura features such as MultiDrive, MacroFX and ZoomFX, and support for Creative’s EAX 1.0 & 2.0 and Aureal’s A3D 1.0.

At the recent COMDEX event (Las Vegas, 15^th-19^th November), Voyetra Turtle Beach announced to industry figures that their eagerly anticipated soundcard, the Santa Cruz, is set to incorporate a chip solution offering the full Sensaura feature set including the new Virtual Ear technology.

"The progression of our technology to the next level is always our greatest priority. By making ‘Virtual Ear’ available at this early stage, we have again shown that we aim to set standards and not just follow them", commented David Monteith, Sensaura CEO.

Sensaura Virtual Ear technology will be available from selected vendors only. Additional licensing is presently being negotiated, with major announcements expected in the coming months.

The Sensaura Virtual Ear technology is presently the subject of international patent filings.

Ref: pr015l

Sensaura Ltd is at the forefront of audio research both in the PC and the consumer electronics market, presently holding technology licensing agreements with vendors that supply over 70% of the PC audio chip market world-wide, including ESS Technology, Crystal Cirrus Logic and Yamaha Corporation. Sensaura technology is found on a wide range of hardware products from manufacturers such as Diamond, Guillemot, Intel, IBM and NEC. The Sensaura portfolio of intellectual property at present has 42 worldwide patent filings. It is with these patents that the many Sensaura extensions and proprietary effects such as MultiDrive, MacroFX, ZoomFX and EnvironmentFX are protected. Although now an independent organisation, Sensaura Ltd retains strong links with Central Research Laboratories, EMI's former research centre, of which it was previously a business unit. Sensaura Limited is a Scipher company. Scipher Plc is based in the United Kingdom. More information on Scipher and its companies is available at www.scipher.com.