We often see a disconnect between how people express themselves through language and how those words are perceived or interpreted. This gap exists, for example, between architects who strive to meet client expectations and users of the designed spaces who express their needs and requirements. We aim to bridge this gap by investigating the vocabulary […]

Ultrasonic metal welding (USMW) is a technique of welding small-area materials by means of high-frequency vibration friction welding. Despite its wide use, it is still hard to monitor the welding process, and optimise the strengths of the welds it produces. The objective of this work is to offer a simple and automated characterization of the […]

A listening experiment based on a developed paradigm to investigate the intentional switching of auditory selective attention with binaural sound reproduction was conducted to examine the influence of generic, individualized and individual head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) on the auditory selective attention of children. For many applications, the generic HRTF of an adult artificial head is […]

The main purpose of this study is to model the transmission of vibrations in the skull bone using equivalent circuits. For this purpose, further knowledge of the equivalent circuit model and the value of the parameters in the model is important. There are two parts to achieve this purpose. First part is by comparing the […]

Noise is known to influence human cognitive performance such as auditory selective attention. Not only cognitive abilities, but also physiological reactions can be measured when being exposed to noise. In comparison to adults, children are even more exposed to noise. Especially in educational buildings, such as schools, children are confronted with many different sound sources, […]

English: When the ear canal is occluded by devices such as headphones or hearing aids, the auditory perception of bone-conducted sounds is increased, which results, e.g., in an alteration of one’s own voice perception. The effect is caused by a motion of the skull that deforms the cartilage and bone to radiate sound into the […]

Ultrasonic Metal Welding (USMW) is a widely used manufacturing technology for joining metal components in modern industry. The metal sheets which are placed above the anvil need to be bonded. The sonotrode, which is also called the horn, vibrates at high frequency and on the top of the metal sheets. The constant clamp force applied […]

This study investigates the influence of virtual humans on auditory selective attention within a virtual reality (VR) environment. Auditory selective attention is a well-established phenomenon that affects our ability to focus on specific sounds while filtering out distractions. Previous research has demonstrated that visual cues, such as seeing the talker’s face, can enhance listening abilities. […]

The generation and propagation of noise is an ongoing research topic that affects everyone. Urban environments in particular suffer from high levels of noise pollution, which can negatively impact the health and well-being of citizens. It is therefore essential to understand the propagation of sound from one or more sources to a receiver. However, human […]

Voice disorders are more prevalent in occupational voice users, such as lecturers in universities. This thesis examines if a relationship between room acoustic properties of lecture halls and voice quality in lecturers can be established. For this, a study was conducted, in which voice samples of lecturers were recorded before and after lectures in different […]

Intentional switching of auditory selective attention (ASA) in the context of electrophysiological data, such as those from the electroencephalography (EEG), has yet been little explored. However, the combination of both components could be extremely useful to further develop i.e. attention-steered hearing aids. ASA is the cognitive ability to focus on an auditory stimulus while ignoring […]

Product sound quality significantly shapes consumer perception and user experience. Thus, the assessment of perceptual sound quality holds particular relevance for the industry. Sound quality assessment in listening laboratories utilizing binaural recordings facilitates realistic sound reproduction. However, such conditions do not adequately capture potential audio-visual interactions and environmental influences on sound quality ratings. To address […]

Room acoustic simulations usually assume the acoustic impedance of surfaces to be independent from wave incidence angle - in other words locally reacting. For most materials this is a valid assumption. Some porous absorber structures are, however, non-locally reacting: Their surface impedance expresses a dependence on the direction of an incident wave - more exactly […]

Adequate room acoustic conditions are crucial for creating comfortable communication, learning, or working environments. While acoustic simulations are an established tool for the prediction of the acoustic conditions in a room, the input data describing the acoustic properties of the surfaces and objects in rooms comes with uncertainties. In this thesis work, standardized and non-standardized […]

In primary schools, various activities can be conducted during classes. To improve the quality of communication, it was aimed to understand children's listening effort during different types of activities. In this thesis, the measurements were conducted in first and fourth grade in primary schools. Listening effort was assessed subjectively by the children in the means […]

Audiovisual listening experiments are crucial for understanding acoustical noise and human sound perception. However, traditional VR setups are limited by the need for expensive equipment and time-consuming laboratory sessions. As a result, interest in online experiments has been growing, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, these experiments have been restricted to basic setups lacking […]

The working memory plays an important role in completing everyday tasks and is influenced by irrelevant sound when it comes to serialization of information. While this phenomenon, the irrelevant sound effect, is well known for phonological cognition, the influence and constraints for visuo-spatial cognition are yet to be fully explored. To serve this endeavor and […]

This study conforms an investigation on auditory memory, particularly in the field of room acoustics. Based on the research on short term memory, especially in the auditory field, this work intends to test individuals' room acoustics discrimination capabilities under different conditions; in particular, retention interval, excitation signal and room similarity. Using binaural auralizations of spatial […]

Hearing loss is a prevalent issue that impairs the quality of life of those affected. Simulating this condition allows for further investigation of its perceptual aspects and improvement of existing hearing models. This study examines the effects of simulated sensorineural hearing loss on the ability to localize sound, a crucial aspect of auditory perception. Using […]

Acoustic virtual reality (AVR) is a helpful tool that it is being used for different purposes. In architecture the use of AVR has been very advantageous for room acoustic simulation in different environments. In this work, the potential to simulate walking paths across connected rooms using AVR is analyzed, this research considers Johannes church in […]