Tag Archives: Perplexity

Personalized Spatial Audio

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I developed an appreciation for good audio headphones during my time at KBOA back in the ’70s. Not so much for the music as much as wanting/needing to hear my voice as the listener was hearing it. Too close to the microphone? Too far away? Popping my “P’s?” I’ve purchased a lot of headphones over the years, always searching for the perfect set.

I used Apple’s wired earbuds during the iPod days and thought the music sounded fine. I never purchased another set of “cans.” I purchased my first set of Apple AirPods in 2016 and have been using them ever since. They fit my ears perfectly. So well, in fact, that I forget I have them in. Unfortunately, that means I don’t notice if one falls out which happened last week. The Find My app on my phone told me where I last had the AirPod but I never found it.

When I got my new AirPods my buddy George asked if i had configured them to take advantage of Personalized Spatial Audio. I vaguely recalled reading about this feature but don’t think I ever used it. As good as I thought the AirPods were before, this bit of tech magic was impressive.

(Perplexity) It uses the TrueDepth camera on newer iPhones to scan your face and ears. This captures data about the geometry and contours of your head and ear position. This personalized profile is then used to optimize how spatial audio is rendered through your AirPods or Beats headphones. It adjusts the sound to account for your ear shape and head size, providing a more immersive 3D audio experience tailored specifically to your anatomy.

Songs I’ve listened to a thousand times sound fresh and new. So, yeah, I’ve become one of those people walking around with tiny white things in my ears. More and more I’m using Siri to schedule reminders, send messages, check the weather, jot down a note… you get the idea. My phone stays in my bag more these days and when at home, I leave it on the table and interact via AirPods (as long as phone and pods are on same wifi network.

This will get even more interesting this fall when I take the Apple Watch (with cellular) plunge.

Perplexity says (using British accent) she has no voice

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As good as I’ve found ChatGPT to be, it appears Perplexity (another AI tool) might be even better. One of my favorite features of ChatGPT is ability to “converse” with one of several human-like voices. I posted an example of this a few months back. Others nitpick but I find the voice amazingly human-like. Now that I have a Perplexity account I wondered if it has the same feature.

Does not have a voice feature? Sooo, what are we listening to here. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for this and I’ll update this post if and when. Perhaps it’s just a new feature (that it doesn’t know about?!)

What I was curious about –before this distraction– was why the ChatGPT voice is so natural sounding and the Perplexity voice is canned computer-speak.

Public relations technology in 2006

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In 2006 I was asked to be on a panel discussing new technology tools for public relations professionals in the greater St. Louis area. Blogging was still relatively new at the time and I’d been at it for five or six years, consulting for advertisers on our various radio networks. It was a packed house.

2006 was a busy year for technology (social media?). Twitter officially launched in July; Facebook opened up to everyone over 13 years old, leading to explosive growth from 12 million users at the end of 2006 to 50 million by October 2007; YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in October, cementing its position as the leading online video platform.

I spent most of my working years on the media side of things rather than the PR side, but one (of many, no doubt) go-to tool was the written press release. These went out (fax, USPS, email) to any media outlet that might do a story (Newspapers, magazines, radio, TV) followed up by a phone call “pitching” the story. I don’t recall there being any way to get a release into the hands of the public. The internet –and, later, social media– changed all that. We started seeing and hearing the word “disintermediation.” Communicating directly to a target audience, bypassing traditional media.

By this time many (most?) businesses, organizations and institutions had websites but it took some technical skill to update these, a task made easier by the advent of blogs. And a well-written, frequently updated blog could be followed thanks to a bit of tech called RSS.

As I prepared to write this post I tried to recall what the field of public relations was like in 2006 (18 years ago!). Instead of googling I used a new (for me) tool called Perplexity that describes itself as an “answer engine” rather than a search engine. If you discount the personal touch, the result was much better than what you just read. I’m too new to this tool/tech to write intelligently about it does feel like a very big deal. I’m already starting to go to Perplexity for answers I once searched for on Google. And all we really wanted was the answer, right? Here’s a short (6 min) video overview of Perplexity and I’ll be sharing my experiences here.

Talking books with ChatGPT

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I prompted ChatGPT to make a list of the ten best crime fiction writers of the last fifteen years. She (I opted for the female voice called ‘Sky’) left off a few of my favorites and we discussed them. At the 5:38 mark of this 6 minute chat, she makes reference to my interest in classic vehicles, communications and blogging. Topics which came up in earlier conversations. I still have goose bumps.

Perplexity: “The controversy involving Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI’s ChatGPT voice centers around the introduction of a new AI voice assistant named “Sky,” which many users and industry professionals noted bore a striking resemblance to Johansson’s voice from the 2013 film “Her.” Johansson voiced an AI assistant in the film, and the similarity between her voice and Sky’s led to significant backlash.”

Jump to the :35 second mark in the trailer below to hear Johansson’s voice. I do not  hear the similarity.