Kategorie: ‘Research’
The GRAS Innovation Award – The Game-Changer 2025 – has been awarded to IHTA
We are proud to announce that we received the GRAS Award – The Game-Changer 2025 by GRAS Sound and Vibration. The project: A High-Resolution Head-Related Transfer Function Data Set and 3D-Scan of KEMAR by the authors Hark Braren and Janina Fels won the award in the category „the Game-Changer“.
GRAS Award Winner – The Game Changer 2025, Hark Braren and Janina Fels, RWTH Aachen University
The RWTH team created an open, high-resolution HRTF dataset using the GRAS KEMAR Head and Torso Simulator — bridging physical measurement and acoustic simulation. Their work sets a new benchmark for spatial audio realism and paves the way for future breakthroughs in 3D sound and headphone design.
The innovation speaks directly to our core mission: enabling the highest quality in acoustic measurement and supporting industry breakthroughs.
The dataset can be found here: https://doi.org/10.18154/RWTH-2020-11307
We would like to express our sincere thanks to GRAS Sound & Vibration for this special award!
3rd IHTA Retreat
The third IHTA Retreat took place on November 21st. The day began with unconventional yet exceptionally entertaining and informative project presentations with an amazing view of Aachen from the Skylounge in the main building. Participants were challenged to present their projects either as a short, powerful science pitch or in a creative way. We heard short stories about children’s hearing experiences in classrooms and saw theater plays with the inner, middle, and outer ears as the main characters. There will surely be many new contestants for Research in Shorts at DAGA 2026.
During the afternoon, we discussed challenges related to writing and publishing scientific papers, as well as strategies for overcoming them. Most importantly, we took time to learn from one another, develop new inspiration, and take the first steps to overcome writer’s block and support each other.
Thank you to Bastian Hughes for guiding us through the day with his excellent moderation! Thanks also to Julia Seitz, Lara Stürenburg, and Carolin Breuer, who organized the event.
Paper published: Exploring auditory selective attention shifts in virtual reality: An approach with matrix sentences
We are happy to share that our paper “Exploring auditory selective attention shifts in virtual reality: An approach with matrix sentences” has been published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America:
https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0039864
In this study, we explored voluntary shifts of auditory selective attention in complex and more naturalistic acoustic environments. To move beyond earlier paradigms based on single-word stimuli, we introduced unpredictable German matrix sentences to simulate more realistic listening conditions.
Overall results were comparable to previous versions, but no strong reorienting effect emerged. Interaction patterns still indicate that shifting auditory attention is more demanding than maintaining it, and that preparing attention benefits performance, as reflected in decreasing reaction times for later target onsets.
This approach contributes a paradigm for investigating auditory perception and attention in dynamic room acoustic environments, helping to close the gap between laboratory setups and real-world listening.
This work was created by Carolin Breuer and Janina Fels and was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Priority Program SPP2236 AUDICTIVE.
University Observation Week (Hochschulhospitationswoche) Electrical Engineering at IHTA
On November 6, 2025, the IHTA welcomed prospective students as part of the Electrical Engineering University Observation Week (Hochschulhospitationswoche). The tour through the world of acoustics began with an inspiring video and then introduced the participants to the diverse field of acoustics at IHTA.
Afterwards, the participants then went through three hands-on stations:
- Aliasing
- Binaural hearing – spatial hearing
- Audiometry
The experiments offered a vivid insight into key issues in hearing technology and acoustics.
Many thanks to Jana Berger, Hark Braren, and Carolin Breuer for supervising the stations.
The IHTA would like to thank the participants for their interest and enthusiasm, and looks forward to seeing some familiar faces in upcoming semesters.
Paper Published: Exploring cross-modal perception in a virtual classroom: the effect of visual stimuli on auditory selective attention
A new paper “Exploring cross-modal perception in a virtual classroom: the effect of visual stimuli on auditory selective attention” has been published in Frontiers in Psychology, as part of the Research Topic “Crossing Sensory Boundaries: Multisensory Perception Through the Lens of Audition”: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1512851
In a virtual classroom environment, we investigated how visual stimuli influence auditory selective attention. Across two experiments, congruent and incongruent pictures modulated performance during an auditory attention task: concurrent visual input increased response times overall, and incongruent pictures led to more errors than congruent ones. When visual stimuli preceded the sounds, the timing mattered — positive priming at 500 ms, but semantic inhibition of return at 750 ms.
These results highlight that cross-modal priming differs from multisensory integration, and that temporal dynamics between modalities substantially shape attentional behaviour.
This work was a collaboration between Carolin Breuer, Lukas Jonathan Vollmer, Larissa Leist, Stephan Fremerey, Alexander Raake, Maria Klatte and Janina Fels.
It was funded by the Priority Programme SPP2236 AUDICITVE and the Research Training Group (RTG) 2416 – MultiSenses, MultiScales, both of which are funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Many thanks to everyone involved.
Paper published: The influence of complex classroom noise on auditory selective attention
We are very glad to share that our paper “The influence of complex classroom noise on auditory selective attention”, based on the bachelor’s thesis of Robert Schmitt, which we co-authored, has just been published in Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-18232-2
It has been a real pleasure to supervise this work and to see it evolve into a full publication. In the study, we examined how plausible classroom noise affects auditory selective attention in a virtual reality classroom environment.
Our results underline the importance of studying realistic and complex acoustic scenarios to gain more reliable and valid insights into auditory perception by showing higher error rates in the auditory attention task under complex noise conditions, as well as an increased perceived listening effort when the background contained intelligible speech.
The paper was developed within the ECoClass-VR project, part of the DFG Priority Program SPP 2236 AUDICTIVE on Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments. More information at www.spp2236-audictive.de.
We hope these findings contribute to advancing our understanding of auditory attention in complex, real-world listening situations.
Many thanks to the co-authors Robert Schmitt, Larissa Leist, Stephan Fremerey, Alexander Raake, Maria Klatte, and Janina Fels, and to the AUDICTIVE community for the inspiring collaboration and support.
Research data publications at IHTA
In recent years, the importance of open data in academic research has become increasingly prominent. Open data in the context of scientific research refers to the practice of making datasets publicly accessible, either as separate data publications or as supplementary material along with the research article. Making such (documented) data available allows other researchers to build upon existing work or to verify findings. This makes research more efficient, transparent and reproducible. Research data publications are usually assigned a DOI, providing a permanent link to the dataset, which can be cited properly in related scientific work.
Researchers from the Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics have published several datasets in the past years – many of them being different kind of HRTF datasets, but also other acoustic measurements, input data for simulations and stimuli for listening experiments. To give a better overview of these data publications, we recently updated the corresponding section on our website, which also lists IHTA’s research software. Further datasets, if published on the Zenodo platform, can also be found in IHTA’s Zenodo-Community.
Paper published: Serial recall in spatial acoustic environments: irrelevant sound effect and spatial source alternations
We are happy to announce that Cosima Ermert, Manuj Yadav, John E. Marsh, Sabine Schlittmeier, Torsten W. Kuhlen, and Janina Fels recently published their article Serial recall in spatial acoustic environments: irrelevant sound effect and spatial source alternations in Scientific Reports!
Environments with multiple, spatialized sound sources present unique challenges for verbal short-term memory – particularly in the presence of background noise and when the location of target talkers changes. In this study, we investigated how switches of spatial location and the type of irrelevant background sounds in complex acoustic scenes influence the ability to remember sequences of items within the serial recall.
Our findings reveal that the type of background noise plays a crucial role in memory performance, strongly affecting the recall of sequences. Interestingly, changes in spatial location only disrupt memory when switches occur at a fast rate – much faster than rates in natural conversations. This highlights the importance of both acoustic content and movement dynamics in understanding listening and memory challenges in realistic conversational situations.
This research was carried out within the priority program SPP2236 AUDICTIVE funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Janina Fels und Cosima Ermert beim „International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research – ISAAR 2025“
Vom 19. bis 22. August 2025 reisten Janina Fels und Cosima Ermert nach Dänemark, um das „International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research – ISAAR 2025“ in Nyborg zu besuchen.
Janina Fels hielt einen eingeladenen Vortrag zum Thema „Exploring Auditory Cognition: Connecting Real-World Contexts with Interactive Virtual Environments” und stellte dabei mehrere laufende Forschungsvorhaben vor, die sich speziell mit selektiver auditiver Aufmerksamkeit und Höranstrengung (Listening Effort) bei Kindern in Klassenräumen unter realistischen Hörbedingungen befassen.
Cosima Antonia Ermert präsentierte dazu ein Poster mit dem Titel „Listening Effort in Populated Audiovisual Scenes Under Plausible Room Acoustic Conditions”.
Einen Tag vor der ISAAR reiste Janina Fels zum „Pre-ISAAR Mini-Symposium“ beim Eriksholm Research Centre. Sie hatte die Gelegenheit, mehr über aktuelle Themen und Projekte zu erfahren und diese ausführlich zu diskutieren. Es fand eine exzellente Führung durch die Labore statt und es wurden zahlreiche hochinteressante Posterpräsentationen abgehalten. Zudem wurden eine Vielzahl neuer Ideen für zukünftige Kooperationen diskutiert.
Währenddessen nahm Cosima Ermert am „Workshop in Communication in Hearing Science” von WS Audiology teil. Dieser Workshop beschäftigte sich mit dem Thema „Understanding how noise and hearing impairment affect communication”. Cosima präsentierte für das IHTA ein Poster mit dem Titel „Bringing real-life into the lab: Investigating speech in virtual auditory environments – which aspects contribute to a plausible simulated conversational situation?”.
Paper published: Audiovisual angle and voice incongruence do not affect audiovisual verbal short-term memory in virtual reality
We are happy to announce that our paper Audiovisual angle and voice incongruence do not affect audiovisual verbal short-term memory in virtual reality by Cosima A. Ermert, Manuj Yadav, Jonathan Ehret, Chinthusa Mohanathasan, Andrea Bönsch, Torsten W. Kuhlen, Sabine J. Schlittmeier, and Janina Fels has just been published in PLOS ONE.
Virtual reality is increasingly used in research to simulate realistic environments – possibly increasing ecological validity. However, the visual component in virtual reality can affect participants, especially if there are incongruencies between auditory and visual information. In this study, we investigated verbal short-term memory under two types of audio-visual incongruencies: an angle incongruence, where the perceived position of the sound source did not match that of the visual representation, and a voice incongruence, where two virtual agents switched voices. The task was presented either on a computer screen or in virtual reality. We found no effect of the incongruencies or the display modality (computer screen vs. virtual reality), highlighting the complexity of audio-visual interaction.
This research is part of the priority program AUDICTIVE and was a cooperation with researchers from the Visual Computing Institute and the Work and Engineering Psychology at RWTH Aachen University.
Project Kick-off: SWOISE – UAS Swarms for Noise Reduction
Unmanned aerial systems (UAS), such as drones, are becoming increasingly popular for wide range of applications, ranging from delivery and mapping to surveillance. The emergence of the UAS swarm systems, where multiple UAS operate in coordinated formations, might offer advantages regarding improved efficiency and reduced logistical effort. However, UAS swarms also raise concerns about noise pollution, especially in urban environments. The SWOISE project aims to address this issue by investigating the noise generated by drone swarms, how it is perceived by humans, and how swarm configurations can be optimized to minimize acoustic impact. Within the project, the task of IHTA is to focus on the psychoacoustic analysis of UAS swarm noise by creating binaural sound samples using simulations of urban overflights, and analyzing them through perceptual and objective evaluations. This research will be mostly carried out by our post doctoral researcher Jithin Thilakan, who recently joined our team.
SWOISE is funded by the German aviation research program LuFo VI-3 and brings together four research partners:
- Institute of Air Transport Systems (ILT), TU Hamburg (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Gollnick)
- Chair of Flight Guidance and Air Traffic, TU Berlin (Prof. Dr. ir. Maarten Uijt de Haag)
- Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics (IHTA), RWTH Aachen University (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Janina Fels)
- German Aerospace Center (DLR Hamburg: Institute of Air Transport – associate partner)
The project officially launched with a kick-off meeting on July 8th, 2025, at TU Hamburg, where researchers from all partner institutions gathered to discuss the research plans and future steps. We look forward to advancing this collaborative effort and contributing towards quieter and more environment-friendly aviation.
The SWOISE research team at the official kick-off meeting at TU Hamburg
IHTA at Forum Acusticum Euronoise 2025 in Malaga
At the end of last month, the scientific conference Forum Acusticum Euronoise successfully took place in Malaga, Spain, organized by members of the Spanish Acoustics Society (SEA). Across four days, a total number of 1250 delegates participated and presented interesting research results in the field of acoustics and noise, accompanied by an engaging social program. The Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics was represented by Lukas Aspöck and our former colleague Marco Berzborn, who altogether organized three technical sessions and contributed to five papers:
- Marco Berzborn and Michael Vorländer: Stochastic Variational Inference of Directional Decay Times in a Reverberation Room
- Lukas Aspöck, Michael Vorländer and Janina Fels: Rendering complex acoustic scenes for perception experiments
- Marco Berzborn and Michael Vorländer: Analysis of the relationship between sound field isotropy and errors in the results of Sabine’s absorption coefficient
- Lukas Aspöck, Pascal Palenda, Janina Fels and Michael Vorländer: Application of room acoustics simulation software in university teaching
- Fabian Brinkmann, Marco Berzborn, […] Anne Heimes, Simon Kersten, Pascal Palenda et al.: Open educational resources for acoustics and audio signal processing using Jupyter notebooks and pyfar
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- Entrance of conference venue in Malaga
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- Opening on Monday: Plenary lecture on underwater sounds by Ana Sirovic
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- IHTA alumni group picture
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- Marco Berzborn during one of this presentation
IHTA at ICA/ASA Meeting in New Orleans
From May 18 – May 23, 2025, the 188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) joint with the 25th International Congress on Acoustics (ICA) takes places in New Orleans, Louisiana. Seven IHTA members have traveled to the USA in order to present their latest research and to meet the international acoustics community. The following presentations will be given with contributions from our institute:
Cosima Ermert, Andrea Bönsch, Torsten Kuhlen, Janina Fels: The impact of coverbal visual cues on speech intelligibility and cognitive load in virtual reality environments
May 20, 1:40 – 2:00 pm (UTC -5), Location: SALON F/G, Presentation Number: 2pPP3
Julia Seitz, Janina Fels: How do classroom activities influence noise levels and student’s listening effort?
Poster Session, May 20, 1:20 – 4:20 pm (UTC -5), Location: STUDIO FOYER/STUDIOS 1-4, Presentation Number: 2pSC13
E.K. Ellington Scott, Lukas Aspöck, Herbie Klinger, Michael Vorländer, Jillian Willis, Jonas Braasch: A database of anechoic modern-jazz recordings for auralization
May 20, 3:20 – 3:40 pm (UTC -5), Location: GALERIE 6, Presentation Number: 2pMUa4
Simon Kersten, Henning Taschke, Michael Vorländer: On the sound pressure distribution in the inner ear during bone conduction stimulation
May 22, 1:00 – 1:20 pm (UTC -5), Location: SALON F/G, Presentation Number: 4pPPa1
Jonas Heck, Ronny Roos, Josep Llorca-Bofí, Michael Vorländer: Complex surface impedances and spherical wave approximations in image source models for outdoor auralization
May 23, 1:20-1:40 pm (UTC -5), Location: GALERIE 5, Presentation Number: 5pNS2
You can find the full conference program and abstracts on the website https://acousticalsociety.org/new-orleans-2025/.
We are looking forward to meet you in New Orleans!
Research results on acoustic directivity patterns of road-traffic vehicles
In the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA), a research paper by our former research assistant Christian Dreier and Prof. Michael Vorländer was recently published: Speed-dependent directivity patterns of road-traffic vehicles.
This paper explores the spatial and speed-dependent directivity patterns of various road-traffic vehicles, including electric, hybrid, and combustion-powered models. By employing time-variant wave backpropagation on microphone array signals, the research reveals significant insights into how driving conditions and engine characteristics influence vehicle noise emissions. The findings are compiled in an open-access database (http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14142914), providing valuable data for noise mapping and auralization applications. The main parts of this research was supported by the HEAD-Genuit Foundation.
More details of Christian’s research will also be presented at his PhD defense, which will take place end of July 2025.
We’re happy that one of the paper’s figure was also chosen to be featured on the title page of the JASA’s current issue.
Title page of JASA, Volume 157, Issue 4
Paper published: Cross-modal congruency modulates evidence accumulation, not decision thresholds
We are happy to announce that our paper „Cross-modal congruency modulates evidence accumulation, not decision thresholds“ was published as part of the Research Topic „Crossing Sensory Boundaries: Multisensory Perception Through the Lens of Audition“ in Frontiers in Neuroscience.
In this study, we collaborated with Björn Kampa from the Systems Neurophysiology Department of the Institute of Zoology here at RWTH Aachen University, and Christoph Kayser from the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at Universität Bielefeld. We explored how audio-visual stimulus pairs—linked either by co-occurrence or by shared meaning—affect behavior and brain activity during decision-making.
By combining behavioral data from a decision-making task with brain activity measured via electroencephalography (EEG), we found two key stages that shape perceptual decisions: an early, sensory-driven stage, and a later, decision-related stage. Interestingly, whether the stimulus pairing was expected in terms of co-occurrence or meaning played a major role in how these early and late components contributed to the decision-making process.
Paper published: Activity-based acoustic situations in primary schools
We are happy to share a new publication by Julia Seitz and Janina Fels. Their journal paper „Activity-based acoustic situations in primary schools: Analyzing classroom noise and listening effort“ was published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
The publication introduces the concept of „activity-based acoustic situations“ in primary schools, shedding light on the everyday sound environment in classrooms.
Key findings include that different classroom activities result in significantly different noise levels, that noise levels decrease as students age—first graders experience higher levels than fourth graders—and that subjective listening effort does not differ significantly between activities. The results highlight the importance of activity-based assessment of classroom noise to create optimal learning environments.
IHTA Contributions to DAS|DAGA 2025
This year’s DAS|DAGA 2025 is the joint annual meeting of the Danish and German Acoustical Societies (DAS and DEGA). The conference takes place in Copenhagen from 17th to 20th of March, 2025. As usual, IHTA members will present their work on the plethora of research topics covered at IHTA. This year, the IHTA is involved in a total of 23 contributions. In addition, the IHTA has been very active in organizing special sessions and events (see below).
We are happy to invite you to our presentations and posters!
You can find the full conference program in the DAS|DAGA Web-App. Every contribution in the table below links to its entry in the web-app, where you can read its abstract and add it to your personal conference schedule.
We are looking forward to meet you there!
| Monday, March 17 | ||||
| Simon Kersten, Michael Vorländer | Physical Mechanisms Underlying the Occlusion Effect | Precolloquium: Hearing Acoustics: Models, algorithms and applications | 12:25 | Room 20 |
| Tuesday, March 18 | ||||
| Rouben Rehman, Simon Kersten, Janina Fels | An Experimental Setup for the Estimation and Emulation of Bone and Air Conducted Components of One’s Own Voice | Methods for Technical and Perceptual Evaluations of Hearing Devices 1 | 14:20 | Room 19 |
| Kristin Ohlmann, Simon Kersten, Michael Vorländer, Birger Kollmeier | Perceptual Estimation of the Bone Conduction Path for One’s Own Voice | Psychoacoustics (Poster) | 15:20 | Hall E, Poster Island H |
| Cornelius Frankenbach, Carsten Herzog, Julia Seitz, Janina Fels | Comparing Localization Accuracy With Generic, Estimated, and Individual HRTFs Using Dynamic Binaural Synthesis | Binaural Technologies | 16:40 | Room 5 |
| Julia Seitz, Janina Fels | A Questionnaire Suitable to Assess Listening Effort in Children and Adults | Noise Effects in Children | 17:40 | Hall B - Sydhavn (B4M4) |
| Wednesday, March 19 | ||||
| Nils Rummler, Gülnihan Atay, Josep Llorca-Bofí, Michael Vorländer | RAVEN Benchmark Using the Loudspeaker Orchestra | Virtual Acoustics 2 | 8:40 | Room 5 |
| Lara Stürenburg, Lukas Aspöck, Janina Fels | Investigating the Perception of a Heat Pump in Different Audio-Visual Settings | Effects of Noise & Noise Policy | 10:00 | Hall B - Sydhavn (B4M4) |
| André Kruh-Elendt, Christian Laufs, Jonas Heck, Janina Fels, Moritz Lippold, Christoph Klanten, Andreas Herweg | Evaluation of Stress in Response to Traffic Noise Using Virtual Reality | Effects of Noise & Noise Policy | 10:20 | Hall B - Sydhavn (B4M4) |
| Thomas Deutsch, Luigi Falanga, Iring Koch, Janina Fels | Spatial Release From Masking With and Without Simulated Hearing Loss: Comparison of Different Spatial Audio Reproduction Methods | Audiological and Medical Acoustics | 11:00 | Room 19 |
| João Fatela, Anne Heimes, Michael Vorländer | Efficient Acoustic Radiosity Modelling for Precise Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Patterns | Virtual Acoustics 2 | 11:20 | Room 5 |
| Marco Berzborn, Michael Vorländer | Stochastic Inference of Directional Decay Times in a Reverberation Room | Room Acoustics 2 | 15:00 | Aud 15 |
| Lukas Aspöck, Chalotorn Möhlmann, Philipp Schäfer, Hanna Potulski, Vanessa Overhage, Thomas Gries, Christa Reicher, Janina Fels | Acoustic Simulation and Auralizations to Investigate the Impact of Textile Building Façades in Urban Environments | Effects of Noise & Noise Policy (Poster) | 15:20 | Hall E, Poster Island D |
| Gülnihan Atay, Josep Llorca-Bofí, Michael Vorländer | Audio-Visual Perception of Loudness in Concert Halls | Room Acoustics (Poster) | 15:20 | Hall E, Poster Island B |
| Manan Lamba, Simon Kersten, Stephan D. Ewert, Michael Vorländer, Birger Kollmeier | Perceived Level Differences at Equal Loudness in Headphone-Based Comparisons of Virtual Room Acoustics and Diotic Stimuli | Room Acoustics (Poster) | 15:20 | Hall E, Poster Island B |
| Alexander Raake, Stephan Fremerey, Carolin Breuer, Larissa Leist, Maria Klatte, Janina Fels | Evaluation of Audiovisual Scene Analysis in Virtual Reality Classroom Scenarios | AUDICTIVE 1 - Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments | 16:20 | Room 6+7 |
| Carolin Breuer, Larissa Leist, Stephan Fremerey, Alexander Raake, Maria Klatte, Janina Fels | Exploring the Impact of Room Acoustics on Auditory Selective Attention | AUDICTIVE 1 - Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments | 17:40 | Room 6+7 |
| Thursday, March 20 | ||||
| Cosima A. Ermert, Jonathan Ehret, Chinthusa Mohanathasan, Andrea Bönsch, Torsten W. Kuhlen, Sabine J. Schlittmeier, Janina Fels | Influence of (Non) Intelligible Background Speech on Memory and Listening Effort in Conversational Situations | AUDICTIVE 2 - Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments | 8:40 | Room 6+7 |
| Lukas J. Vollmer, Leonie Schmitz, Karin Loh, Janina Fels | Cue-Related Evoked Potentials Capture Auditory Attention Switches | AUDICTIVE 2 - Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments | 9:20 | Room 6+7 |
| Pascal Palenda, Christoph Kirsch, Stephan D. Ewert, Michael Vorländer | Validation of a Simplified Higher-Order Diffraction Model in Urban Environments | Outdoor Sound Propagation 1 | 9:20 | Hall B - Nørrebro (B3M1) |
| Christoph Kirsch, Pascal Palenda, Michael Vorländer, Stephan D. Ewert | A Toolbox for Filter-Based First- and Higher-Order Edge Diffraction Modeling | Outdoor Sound Propagation 1 | 9:40 | Hall B - Nørrebro (B3M1) |
| Moritz Bender, Jamilla Balint, Janina Fels | A Study on Voice Quality and Vocal Fatigue of Lecturers in Lecture Halls | Speech Processing 1 | 10:40 | Room 19 |
| Anne Heimes, Densil Cabrera, Michael Vorländer | Determination of Bidirectional Scattering Coefficients From Measured Scattering Patterns | Outdoor Sound Propagation 2 | 14:00 | Hall B - Nørrebro (B3M1) |
| Chalotorn Möhlmann, Lukas Aspöck, Janina Fels | Auralization of Vehicle Pass-By Using Impulse Responses of Dynamic Urban Environments | Outdoor Sound Propagation 2 | 15:20 | Hall B - Nørrebro (B3M1) |
| Jonas Heck, Josep Llorca-Bofí, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels | Efficient Modeling of Urban Traffic Scenarios for Virtual Reality | Virtual Acoustics 3 | 15:40 | Room 5 |
| Organized Sessions | ||||
| Noise Effects in Children | Julia Seitz, Kerstin Persson Waye | Tuesday, 18.03.2025 | 16:00 - 18:20 | Hall B - Sydhavn (B4M4) |
| AUDICTIVE 1 - Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments | Janina Fels, Carolin Breuer | Wednesday, 19.03.2025 | 16:00 - 18:00 | Room 6+7 |
| AUDICTIVE 2 - Auditory Cognition in Interactive Virtual Environments | Thursday, 20.03.2025 | 08:40 - 11:00 | ||
| Junge DEGA Events | ||||
| Icebreaker | junge DEGA Jonas Heck, Tabea Breitkreutz, Lara Stürenburg | Monday, 17.03.2025 | 15:00 - 16:00 | Balcony 1, in front of Auditorium 10-12 (Plenary hall) |
| Pub night | Monday, 17.03.2025 | 20:00 - 23:00 | The Moose (Sværtegade 5, 1118 København K) | |
| Speed Dating — Meet the Acousticians | Tuesday, 18.03.2025 | 17:40 - 18:20 | Hall B - Nordhavn (B3M10) | |
| Research in short(s) & Power-Point-Karaoke | Wednesday, 19.03.2025 | 16:00 - 17:20 | Room 20 | |
| Mentoring-Café | Wednesday, 19.03.2025 | 17:20 - 18:00 | Room 18 | |
| Other Events | ||||
| Frauen@DEGA Meeting | Karin Loh, Cleopatra Christina Moshona | Thursday, 20.03.2025 | 12:30 - 14:00 | Room 5 |
| Hands-On Workshop: PYFAR - Python Packages for Acoustics Research | IHTA (RWTH Aachen University), Audio Communication Group (TU Berlin), Department of Engineering Acoustics (TU Berlin), Institute of Communications Engineering (TH Köln) | Thursday, 20.03.2025 | 12:30 - 14:00 | Room 6+7 |
Virtual Acoustics: Release Version 2024a
The newest version of our auralization framework Virtual Acoustics (VA) was just released. The new version comes with a reworked python interface (VAPython) which is more user-friendly and now has *NatNetTracking* support. Also, there are some minor improvements in the audio rendering process.
The current as well as all former releases are now hosted on Zenodo, which allows citing a specific VA version without any ambigouity.
Further information on VA can be found on the project’s website. This includes a detailed changelog.
Aachen Acoustics Colloquium 2024
Currently the 15th Aachen Acoustics Colloquium is taking place at Parkhotel Quellenhof in Aachen. This year’s scientific program includes 26 interesting contributions (2 Keynotes, 18 presentations and 6 poster presentations) about current research within the area of automotive acoustics, accompanied by a technical exhibition from various companies and research institutes. A detailed overview of the program can be found in this PDF.
Our institute is part of the organizing team of this event, which is attended by around 190 persons (~170 in-person and 22 online). On Tuesday morning, Michael Vorländer chaired the session „Infotainment in the vehicle“ including a very interesting keynote presentation by Hermann Ney on the current progress in speech and language technology. In the following session about numerical methods and simulations, our research assistant Christian Dreier held a presentation titled „Speed-dependent directivity patterns of road traffic sound sources“.
Additionally at the exhibition, our Institute presented current progress of research projects, e.g., the BalSaM project, in form of interactive demonstrations.
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- Hosting team of the AAC: Lutz Eckstein (ika), Klaus Genuit (HEAD acoustics), Michael Vorländer (IHTA) and Stefan Pischinger (fev). Photo: Stefan Hense.
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- Christian Dreier during his presentation. Photo: Stefan Hense.
Paper published: Listening effort in children and adults in classroom noise
We are happy to share the publication of our journal paper „Listening effort in children and adults in classroom noise“ in Scientific Reports as part of the Auditory processing and perception collection!
Julia Seitz, Karin Loh, and Janina Fels conducted a study to investigate listening effort in children aged 6-10 years and young adults using a child-appropriate dual-task paradigm. Realistic classroom scenarios with multi-talker babble noise at different signal-to-noise ratios in anechoic and simulated classroom environments were investigated.
The key findings
• Found differences in listening effort between noise conditions in 8-10-year-olds
• Demonstrated the importance of considering room effects in listening experiments
• Observed correlations between subjective and behavioral measures of listening effort
This research contributes to our understanding of how children process speech in noisy classroom environments and could help to improve learning conditions.
