Focus TV Sound Where You Want It

How many times have you heard your spouse tell you to "turn it down" when you're watching an action movie while they're trying to read a book? Yamaha may have come up with the answer: a new feature on its Digital Sound Projector speaker system that focuses the sound based on the position of the system remote.

Called "My Beam," this mode allows users to focus sound to a specific position in their room at the touch of a button, to avoid disturbing others. The feature works in concert with Yamaha's Digital Sound Projector.

The Digital Sound Projector is a "bar" speaker system that fills a room with surround sound using 42 small speakers enclosed in a single unit that sits below your TV; it was the much-imitated hit of CES 2005.

In its latest incarnation, the YSP-1100 ($1700), the system remote control has a built-in microphone. If you want to narrow the sound so that most of it is focused on you, push a button and the DSP emits pulses that are picked up by the mic. By measuring how long it takes for the pulses to reach the mic, the system can determine your location and focus the sound on you. Pretty nifty.

For more up-to-the-minute blogs, stories, photos, and video from the nation's largest consumer electronics show, visit PC World's CES 2007 Live Coverage Infocenter.

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