Holophonic Sound (Overview)

Given that I'm about done with my 3D scanner (I promise I'll put an overview up soon), I've been looking around for a new project. I recently happened across this mp3 (Headphones are needed for the full effect)

It's not the first time I've heard it, but it's still impressive. On a whim, I decided I'd try my hand at my own holophonic recording setup (might make long distance Skype calls more pleasant if the audio is good enough), and I started to do some research. Cetera doesn't seem to have commercialized their technique, and I couldn't find much in the way of software to simulate the effect, so it comes down to the physical setup (which also doesn't seem to be commercialized), and homebrew code tinkering.

To get the best effects, it seems you need not just to position two microphones in the correct places, but also to put a physical "head" between them. This seems like the hardest part to me, so it's where I'll focus my efforts, at least until I get things working.

What still isn't clear to me is exactly how much detail the head needs. Other homemade setups I looked at had a nose on the head, and depressions for eyes, but my guess is that these don't add much in the end (I'll probably do them anyways though, for aesthetic reason if no others. A head without a face might be too creepy for me.). I'd imagine that good models of the ears are important (they're certainly hard enough to find), and of course that the microphones need to be high enough quality to pick up on the detail necessary for the sound.

At this point in time, my plans are as follows (I'll probably do a blog post on each part):

1. Find good model ears (or figure out how to make good resin casts of my own. Seems unpleasant, but it might be the cheapest way.) and reasonably priced small microphones(?).
2. Get a good model of the human head online, and slice it up in SketchUp to get rough cross sections, say, every inch and a half. I'm thinking something like a bust so it can stand itself up.
3. Build a hotwire (something that's been on my list for a while) and make cross sections out of inch and a half thick insulation foam to assemble. Make it look pretty (or at least OK. I know how these things go.), and cut out internal spaces so all the electronics fit, etc.