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Akustik-Blog

Kategorie: ‘Current research’

Aachen Acoustics Colloquium 2024

27. November 2024 | von

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.

 

 

Paper published: Listening effort in children and adults in classroom noise

08. November 2024 | von

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.

Read the full paper here.

 

 

Acoustic investigations at Sagrada Familia

30. September 2024 | von

At the end of February this year, a team of the Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics conducted acoustic measurements at the renown Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona. The team of experienced acousticians consisted of current and former employees of IHTA and was led by Josep Llorca-Bofí and Michael Vorländer.

In the further course of the project, the measurement data was evaluated, processed and auralizations were generated. The study revealed Gaudi’s design challenges and opportunities and is a basis for future musical instruments design in different places and its liturgical use of the Sagrada Família Foundation.

Inter-Noise 2024 in Nantes

10. September 2024 | von

This year’s Inter-noise conference took place from August 25th to 29th in Nantes, France. More than 1500 delegates participated in this conference and presented interesting research in the field of acoustics and noise. Highlights of the conference included a plenary talk by Arnaud Can and Pierre Aumond (Joint Research Unit in Environmental Acoustics at Gustave Eiffel University, Nantes, France) on advanced characterization of urban sound environments and a keynote lecture about the child perspective on noise exposure and health effects, held by Kerstin Persson Waye from Gothenburg University, Sweden, who is also collaborating with IHTA in the Equal-Life project.

Members of IHTA travelled to the conference and presented the following research papers:

  • Chalotorn Möhlmann: Validation measurement of vehicle pass-by models for dynamic urban environments (results of the BaLSaM project)
  • Marco Berzborn: Inference of the acoustic properties of transversely isotropic porous materials
  • Lara Stürenburg: Loudness and preference judgments for noises of a heat pump (results of the LowNoise project)
  • Joao Fatela (Guest researcher from the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples, Italy):
    An experimental setup to investigate relevant validation parameters for the auralization of commercial aircraft flyovers in complex urban contexts

Directly after the closing ceremony of the conference, the satellite workshop “Unlocking the Potential of Open Research Software in Acoustics at Inter-Noise 2024” started. This event was organized by Maarten Hornikx and Huiqing Wang, from the Building Acoustics team of Eindhoven University of Technology, and included interesting exchanges and presentation on the development, maintenance, documentation and distrubtion of acoustics-related open-source software. As one of four invited speakers, Lukas Aspöck held a presentation about IHTA’s auralization software Virtual Acoustics. The slides of this presentation are available for download (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Next to insightful overview presentations by Maarten Hornikx and Huiqing Wang, further successful research software was presented: Pyroomacoustics by Eric Bezzam, NoiseModelling by Pierre Aumond and SoundScapy by Andrew Mitchell, along with many examples of challanges and best practices for open research and open-source software development. Many thanks to Maarten and his team for the invitation and the organization of this exciting event.

 

 

 

Einladung zum Halbzeittreffen des BaLSaM-Projekts am 21.5.

11. Mai 2024 | von

Das Konsortium des Projekts “Braunkohlereviere als attraktive Lebensräume durch Straßengeräuschsimulation auf Basis bestehender Verkehrsdaten zur Minimierung von Lärm”(BaLSaM) lädt zum öffentlichen Halbzeittreffen ein. Es wird am 21.5.2024 von 8:30-13:00 Uhr im Institut für Kraftfahrzeuge der RWTH Aachen University stattfinden (Adresse: Steinbachstraße 7, 52074 Aachen, Deutschland).

Während des Treffens werden die Projektpartner den bisherigen Fortschritt des Projekts zu präsentieren. Darüber hinaus wird das Event die Gelegenheit bieten, Erfahrungen auszutauschen und gemeinsam an zukünftigen Herausforderungen und Fragestellungen zu arbeiten. Neben der Teilnahme vor Ort ist auch eine digitale Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung möglich. Bitte füllen Sie in beiden Fällen das folgende Formular aus, um sich für die Teilnahme zu registrieren.

Anmeldung: https://www.balsam-projekt.de/de/halbzeitevent.html

Agenda:

08:30 Ankommen
09:00 Begrüßung
09:10 Projektvorstellung
09:30 Beschreibung der Schallquelle Fahrzeug
10:00 AVAS-Geräuschband & Lärmwahrnehmung
10:30 Kaffeepause
11:00 Schallausbreitungssimulation
11:30 Optimierungsstudie
12:00 Pause für offenen Austausch
12:30 Abschluss mit Institutsführung

 

— English version —

The consortium of the project “Braunkohlereviere als attraktive Lebensräume durch Straßengeräuschsimulation auf Basis bestehender Verkehrsdaten zur Minimierung von Lärm” (BaLSaM) invites you to the public mid-term meeting. It will take place on May 21, 2024 from 8:30-13:00 at the Institute of Automotive Engineering at RWTH Aachen University (address: Steinbachstraße 7, 52074 Aachen, Germany).

The BaLSaM project investigates how traffic noise can be simulated and auralized, aiming to develop concepts to minimize road noise to create more pleasant environments. During the meeting, the project partners will present the progress of the project. In addition, the event will provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and discuss future challenges and research questions. In addition to on-site participation, digital participation in the event is also possible. In both cases, please fill out the following form to register for participation.

Agenda and registration: https://www.balsam-projekt.de/de/halbzeitevent.html

Posterpreis bei der DAGA 2024

06. Mai 2024 | von

Bei der diesjährigen in Hannover stattgefundenen Jahrestagung für Akustik DAGA 2024 erhielt unsere wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin Lara Stürenburg den Preis für das beste Poster, ausgewählt von einer Jury aus fachlich versierten Mitgliedern der DEGA. Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Der dazugehörige Beitrag mit dem Titel Herausforderungen bei Messungen von Lüftungsgeräuschen in einem reflexionsfreien Halbraum ist gemeinsam mit allen anderen Beiträgen der Konferenz im online frei zugänglichen Tagungsband veröffentlicht.

Cognitive neuroscience of auditory and cross-modal perception 2024

22. April 2024 | von

Last week, our colleagues Carolin Breuer and Natálie Brožová presented their work at the 5th workshop on Cognitive neuroscience of auditory and cross-modal perception in Kosice, Slovakia. The workshop was focused on neural processes of auditory, visual, and cross-modal perception with a special focus on spatial audio virtualization and gamification for hearing assessment and enhancement. Featuring 16 invited talks as well as contributed posters and presentations, the workshop allowed for a very familiar atmosphere that encouraged exchanges among attendees. These participants came from diverse fields such as acoustics, neuroscience, biology, and psychology, to name just a few.

Natálie Brožová presented her recent study on “Investigating the Neural Basis of Audiovisual Cross-modal Correspondences and Their Influence on Perceptual Decision-Making” which is part of the interdisciplinary Research Training Group “MultiSenses – MultiScales”.

Carolin Breuer presented a poster investigating visual priming on auditory selective attention in Virtual Reality which is an extension of a previous study presented at DAGA 2023 and was conducted as part of the ECoClass-VR project related to the priority program AUDICTIVE.

Group Picture of KogNeuro Workshop 2024

 

Poster Session during KogNeuro Wkroshop 2024

IHTA goes DAGA 2024

16. März 2024 | von

Again, IHTA is joining DAGA in Hannover with interesting contributions from March, 19th, to March, 21th, 2024. We are delighted to invite to our presentations and posters. In total, IHTA members will be represented with 19 contributions (15 presentations and 4 posters):

Dienstag, 19.03.2024
Thomas Deutsch, Luigi Falanga, Iring Koch, Janina Fels Sound Localization Performance with and without Simulated Hearing Loss: Comparison of Different Spatial Audio Reproduction Methods 13:40 Raum 7/9
Simon Kersten, Franck Sgard, Michael Vorländer Impact of the Ear Canal Motion on the Occlusion Effect for Bone-Conducted Stimulation 14:20 Raum 7/9
Christian Dreier, Michael Vorländer Air traffic auralization: Modeling and synthesis of drones 15:00 Blauer Saal
Philipp Schäfer, Pascal Palenda, Lukas Aspöck, Michael Vorländer Plug-and-play tutorials for the auralization of complex scenarios using an open-source simulation framework (Poster) 15:20 Poster-Forum
Hark Braren, Janina Fels Wie gut können Kinder Schallquellen lokalisieren? (Poster) 15:20 Glasgang, Posterbereich D
Lukas J. Vollmer, Frederike Rust, Janina Fels Intuitive Pitch-to-Digit Associations Do Not Support Verbal Short-Term Memory 16:00 Roter Saal
Melchior Käppel, Marco Berzborn, Michael Vorländer Untersuchungen zu Ambisonics-Decodern für irreguläre Lautsprecherarrays im Nahfeld 16:00 Blauer Saal
Natálie Brožová, Lukas Vollmer, Christoph Kayser, Björn Kampa, Janina Fels Audiovisual Cross-modal Correspondences and Their Influence on Perceptual Decision Making 16:20 Roter Saal
Anne Heimes und Michael Vorländer A new scattering metric for auralization in urban environments 17:20 Blauer Saal
Julia Seitz, Karin Loh, Janina Fels Assessing Listening Effort in Primary School Children: A Dual-Task Approach 17:40 Raum 7/9
Niklas Mika, Pascal Palenda, Jonas Heck, Michael Vorländer Incorporating complex surface impedance into auralization filters based on Image Sources 17:40 Blauer Saal
Jonas Heck, Josep Llorca-Bofí, Christian Dreier, Michael Vorländer Does ambient sound enhance outdoor auralization? 18:00 Blauer Saal
Mittwoch, 20.03.2024
Chalotorn Möhlmann, Pascal Palenda, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels Comparing Simulated and Measured Urban Traffic Noise 09:00 Blauer Saal
Pascal Palenda, Philipp Schäfer, Michael Vorländer Open-source exchange format for sound paths in interactive simulation 17:00 Runder Saal
Donnerstag, 21.03.2024
Chinthusa Mohanathasan, Jonathan Ehret, Andrea Bönsch, Cosima A. Ermert, Janina Fels, Torsten W. Kuhlen, Sabine J. Schlittmeier The Role of Talker Visibility on Memory and Listening Effort during Conversations 08:40 FMS B
Carolin Breuer, Robert Schmitt, Larissa Leist, Stephan Fremerey, Alexander Raake, Maria Klatte, Janina Fels Exploring the Impact of Realistic Classroom Noise on Auditory Selective Attention 10:20 FMS B
Lara Stürenburg, Philipp Ostmann, Lukas Aspöck, Dirk Müller und Janina Fels Herausforderungen bei Messungen von Lüftungsgeräuschen in einem reflexionsfreien Halbraum (Poster) 11:00 Glasgang, Posterbereich D
Lukas Aspöck, Melchior Käppel, Carolin Breuer, Jonathan Ehret, Andrea Bönsch, Isabel S. Schiller, Sabine J. Schlittmeier, Torsten W. Kuhlen, Janina Fels Real-Time Auralization for a VR-based Investigation of Background Sounds in a Classroom Scenario (Poster) 11:00 Glasgang, Posterbereich A
Alexander Raake, Stephan Fremerey, Carolin Breuer, Larissa Leist, Maria Klatte, Janina Fels Towards using Audiovisual Scene Analysis to Evaluate Cognitive Performance in Classroom Scenarios 15:20 FMS B

An overview of all contributions and updated information can be found in the DAGA 2024 App.

We are looking forward to seeing you at DAGA 2024!

Aachen Acoustics Colloquium 2023

24. November 2023 | von

Next week the 14th Aachen Acoustics Colloquium will take place at Parkhotel Quellenhof in Aachen. On Tuesday, November, 28th and Wednesday, November, 29th, the scientific program includes 22 interesting 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 contributes to two presentation to this conference:

  • Mark Müller-Giebeler: “FE-Based Inverse Approach to Determine Complex Acoustic Material Parameters in Alpha Cabins”
  • Chalotorn Möhlmann: “Holistic Approach for Aurally Accurate Road Traffic Noise Reduction by Adaption of Traffic Routes and Infrastructure Planning” (together with Carolin Schliephake, part of the BalSaM project)

Registration for the on-site participation this event is no longer available, but the registration for online participation is still possible on the AAC website.

Research trip to Santiago de Chile

23. Oktober 2023 | von

From October 10th to October 13th 2023, Lukas Aspöck participated in the workshop “Digital transformation in the development of rehabilitation sciences: the current challenge to use state-of-the-art technology” on behalf of the Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics.

The workshop was held in Santiago de Chile and Valparaíso and was mainly hosted and organized by the Universidad San Sebastián.  The program included many interesting presentations by national and international researchers related to machine learning, virtual reality and the development of sensors and tools which can be applied within different fields of rehabilitation and related research. As part of the workshop, the researchers also visited various facilities, ranging from laboratories and workshops for speech therapy and audiology to a healthcare unit for physical rehabilitation and the research and technology transfer center AC3E of the Federico Santa María Technical University.

Lukas contributed to the event by giving a 60-minute presentation with the topic “Virtual reality environments for research in acoustics and audiology”. The slides of this presentation are available here.

Many thanks to our former colleague Rhoddy Viveros for the organization and the invitation to this event. Thanks also to the rest of the organization team, which was led by Carla Contreras and also included Sandra Rojas, Matías Zañartu and Cristhian Mendoza. The event was funded by the Chilean National Research and Development Agency (International Linkage FOVI220126).

Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung 2023

16. Oktober 2023 | von

Im Rahmen der Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung 2023 in Saarbrücken fand am 5. Oktober 2023 ein Marktplatz aktueller Forschung statt, in der Methoden und Werkzeuge für die digitale Musikforschung präsentiert werden konnten. Im Zuge der Zusammenarbeit mit Prof. Stefan Morent von der Universität im Projekt „Sacred Sound – Sacred Space“ demonstrierten unsere Mitarbeitenden Carolin Breuer und Pascal Palenda die Möglichkeiten, Räume akustische zu simulieren und auralisieren, in virtuelle Räume hinzusingen oder zu musizieren, sowie Räume in der Virtuellen Realität mit Hilfe eines Head-Mounted-Displays interaktiv akustisch-visuell erlebbar zu machen.

Stand bei der Jahrestagung für Musikforschung. Foto: Martin Albrecht-Hohmaier

New publication on HRTFs in Journal of the Audio Engineering Society

27. April 2023 | von

We are happy to announce that the article “A magnitude-based parametric model predicting the audibility of HRTF variation” by Shaima’a Doma, Cosima Ermert, and Janina Fels has been recently published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (JAES) as part of the Special Issue on “Spatial Audio”. The study examines just noticeable differences in HRTFs with a focus on monaural cue changes. The probability of a listener detecting spectral changes is modelled as a function of three monaural error metrics, with linear model coefficients derived using Principal Component Analysis.

The open-access article can be viewed and downloaded in the AES E-Library.

Graphical abstract of the published paper.

Sacred Sound: The acoustic reconstruction of no longer existing spaces

24. April 2023 | von

The project Sacred Sound – Sacred Space, led by musicologist Prof. Stefan Morent of the University of Tübingen, deals with the acoustics of sacred spaces as they existed and were used many centuries ago. In cooperation with IHTA, this project uses simulations to reconstruct, for example, the acoustics of the abbey church of Cluny III in order to auralize the liturgical chants of the medieval monks. Cluny III existed between 1130 and 1790 and was the largest church in the world until the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Based on the room acoustic simulations, medieval choir chants were performed and recorded in IHTA’s laboratories by the ensemble Ordo Virtutum. During the recordings, the singers were presented with the reflections of the virtually reconstructed church space in real time. In further steps of the project these recordings will be analyzed musicologically in order to investigate the influence of the architecture on the musical performance.

Parts of the project were recently documented by the SWR in a radio (116 min.) and a TV report (20 min; both in German language).

Thanks for everyone at IHTA who supported this project. Thanks also to the Visual Computing Institute for helping out with the aixCAVE system and to the company Sennheiser for providing microphones for the recording sessions!

International Congress on Acoustics ICA 2022

03. November 2022 | von

The Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics looks back on a very enjoyable and successful 24th International Congress on Acoustics ICA 2022 in Gyeongju, South Korea. IHTA was present with a total of 10 delegates and actively contributed to the program with two theme organizers, five special session organizers, 10 oral presentations, and one plenary lecture. The conference was an excellent event to meet the international acoustic community in real life again.

The full proceedings of the conference are available for download on the ICA 2022 website.

IHTA at the BauSIM conference in Weimar

22. September 2022 | von

From the 20th to the 22nd September 2022, the BauSIM conference took place. The scientific core topic of the conference is traditionally the energetic simulation in the building sector and offers an ideal discussion forum for experts from science and industry for mutual exchange. The conference is organized by the and IBSPA Germany-Austria, member of the International Building and Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) This year’s conference introduced a new session on acoustic simulation topics, and our institute was present.

In particular, our Junior Principal Investigator Dr. Josep Llorca-Bofí, from the PAAD group was invited as key-note speaker, talking about The city – A machine for noise? Virtual acoustics in architectural design research. Together with our PhD student M. Sc. Jonas Heck and  Professor Michael Vorländer, the following research paper was presented: 3D photogrammetry for auralization – An approach for geometry simplification and material categorization.

 

BASH 2021 – Joint Conference on Binaural and Spatial Hearing

18. Oktober 2021 | von

The 2nd joint conference on binaural and spatial hearing (BASH) was held on October 7th and 8th, 2021. The meeting took place virtually, featuring talks on behavior, modeling, physiology and virtual reality. On Friday, October 8th, Janina Fels and Carolin Reimers gave a presentation on a paradigm investigating auditory selective attention in a virtual classroom, which has been developed in the context of the project “Evaluating cognitive performance in classroom scenarios using audiovisual virtual reality – ECoClass-VR” . This project is part of the priority program SPP2236 – AUDICTIVE: Auditory Cognition in interactive virtual Environments funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – German Research Foundation. Next to exciting projects, AUDICTIVE also organizes workshops for the participating researchers, such as a visualization workshop offered by Martina Grigoleit, which has already been made use of during the BASH.

Annual Meeting of the Priority Program AUDICTIVE

17. September 2021 | von

On September 16th, 2021 we met online for our annual meeting of our priority program SPP2236 – AUDICTIVE (www.spp2236-audictive.de): Auditory Cognition in interactive virtual Environments funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – German Research Foundation.

The day was very inspiring and the basis for special interests groups and lab visits could be established! Special thanks go to our moderator Ellen Gürtler.

We are looking forward to the upcoming months full of exciting collaborations!

Zoom_Meeting_Screenshot_ 2021-09-16_AUDICTIVE

Screenshot of the Zoom Meeting

Computational Acoustics Early Career Presenter Award

11. Juni 2021 | von

The contribution „Ray Tracing for efficient simulation of curved sound propagation paths: Towards real-time auralization of aircraft noise“ presented by our researcher Philipp Schäfer at the ASA Acoustics Virtually Everywhere Meeting in December 2020 was honored with the Computational Acoustics Early Career Presenter Award by the ASA.

In this work, the concept of aircraft noise auralization was presented and

evaluated with respect to the computational effort. A demonstration of the implemented aircraft noise auralization is included in this YouTube video.

Congratulations to Philipp for this prestigious award!

 

Priority Program AUDICTIVE – Kick-Off-Meeting

02. Mai 2021 | von

Awesome day (on April 27, 2021) with the virtual Kick-Off-Meeting from the priority program SPP2236-AUDICTIVE: Auditory Cognition in interactive virtual Environments funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Group picture of the AUDICTIVE participants - Zoom

Group picture of the AUDICTIVE participants – Zoom

We are very happy that we had a very interactive and successful meeting with great collaborators and partners within AUDICTIVE. Special thanks go to our moderator Ellen Gürtler and the graphic recorder Martina Grigoleit, who made this day very inspiring and extraordinary.

Graphic Recording of the Meeting by Martina Grigoleit

Graphic Recording of the Meeting by Martina Grigoleit

PAAD research group emerges at the Institute of Technical Acoustics

25. November 2020 | von

The Person-focused Analysis of Architectural Design – PAAD  group will be born in January 2021, integrated in the Institute of Technical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University. The group is constituted by Dr. Josep Llorca-Bofí and one full-time doctoral candidate and is funded for a period of four years by the RWTH Junior Principal Investigator Fellowship.

The visionary approach is to offer new knowledge about architect’s design implications on people’s perception, by passing over the specific languages of other research areas, such as acoustics.