Hey,
If everyone develops an interest in it and we can finde some equipment that actually will take advantage of it then I am all for it. I've just been waiting for that to happen. It does seem like that's pretty soon.....
Just like me! I'm working on open source SIP firmware, http://0cpm.org/firmerware/ and have also included this as a remark in its documentation, to tickle hardware manufacturers, https://github.com/vanrein/0cpm-Firmerware/blob/master/doc/hardware-design.r... I very much liked your idea of using two speakerphones BTW! To fill a circle, we'd probably need three channels, but it might work out fine with two and spreading people over half a circle. Coming back to my experience of someone talking directly to you when vision is blocked -- not sure what causes that exactlye. The stereo represents just the angle from which the sound comes, but the info that makes you feel that the sound is not bouncing indirectly to you might be something else. Not sure here, probably blind people know more about it. Cheers, -Rick