Nokia, a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology and consumer electronics company, has made the world’s first ‘immersive’ phone call. The innovation uses the new Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS) codec, which is part of the ‘5G Advanced’ standard. Nokia claims the codec can create a three-dimensional sound experience and can make phone calls more lifelike.
Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark together with Finland’s Ambassador of Digitalization and New Technologies, Stefan Lindström, made the phone call using a regular smartphone that can access a public 5G network. Jyri Houpaniemi, Nokia Technology’s head of audio research, said that in addition to being used for immersive calls, it could also be used for conference calls where participants’ voices can be separated based on their location.
Most smartphones have at least two microphones with which this technology can be implemented by transmitting the spatial characteristics of the call in real time, executives said. Unfortunately, the upcoming 5G Advanced standard, which is set to follow existing 5G cellular technology, will not be fully launched for several years. Nokia aims to license the technology and it may take some time to do so.
It is hoped that this very valuable innovation will be launched quickly by Nokia in the future.
