Press and Media

On October 24, 2023, the German actress and co-founder of the MaLisa Foundation, Maria Furtwängler, presented the results of the study "Climate change and biodiversity: What does television show - what do viewers want?" in Munich. The study was initiated jointly by the MaLisa Foundation and the four German major television stations ARD, ZDF, ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL Deutschland. The study investigated whether there is a discrepancy between the presentation of the climate crisis and biodiversity in German television programs and the perception of these topics by viewers. The Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT was responsible for the audio and video analysis of the television program as a research partner in the one-year project.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg have developed a new method for collecting and analyzing vital signs from the human body by using radar. The key feature is that the radar can be positioned sideways to collect particularly robust, non-contact vital data such as respiration and heartbeat pulse from various areas of the body. In combination with intelligent analysis methods, this opens new application possibilities ranging from medical to automotive applications.

At the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) trade fair in Amsterdam, the German Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT is presenting for the first time a solution that can automatically localize and identify people in large media archives based on their face and voice. For the "Audiovisual Identity Suite", the research institute has combined technologies for face and speaker recognition. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, vast amounts of media content are quickly analyzed for the presence of specific individuals.

Today, Professor Alfred Pecher, Head of Research and Development at Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, was elected as the new chairman of the board of trustees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT. He succeeds the long-time Chair of the Board of Trustees, Professor Dagmar Schipanski, who passed away in September 2022.

Tomorrow’s vehicles will be equipped with a sense of hearing, which will enable them to perceive, for example, bicycle bells, children playing or the sirens of approaching emergency vehicles. Experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg are working on The Hearing Car and developing AI-based system solutions for acoustic event recognition in the vicinity of vehicles. A mobile system for in-vehicle electroencephalography (EEG) for optimizing human-machine interaction and the YourSound assistant for personalizing sound experiences complete the system. The researchers will provide an insight into the latest developments at the IAA MOBILITY trade show in Munich from September 5 to 8, 2023, at the joint Fraunhofer booth in Hall B1, Booth D11.

Today, the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT is able to announce that Active Ambient Lighting with Sound Visualisation, developed by Mercedes-Benz AG in cooperation with the German research institute, has been integrated into its 2023 E-Class series of automobiles. With the new tool, the lighting mood in the vehicle adapts to the music and sounds being played.

The consortium of the "MOND" project followed up a special invitation last week. The German Federal Ministry of Health hosted the high-ranking "Data for Health Conference 2023" on June 20 and 21 in Berlin. Selected AI projects and new technologies were given a stage. Experts from the U.S. and Europe discussed a wide range of health-related topics and their implications at the conference.

Since April of this year, five noise sensors have been installed in a test area of the city of Gelsenkirchen in close vicinity of the VELTINS Arena. The rather inconspicuous boxes embody bundled research expertise from Ilmenau and could soon help to avoid traffic jams and noise pollution around the event area. In a two-year test project, both Ilmenau research institutions have developed acoustic sensors that now measure noise levels and identify noise sources. The aim is to use random noise measurements to gain an impression of the sound level propagation in the 140-hectare large test area and to identify areas of particularly high noise pollution.

Developing an audio device that offers optimum sound experience to all people is not easy. The great challenge is that each person has their own listening preferences. For this reason, the Oldenburg Branch for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology HSA of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT has developed adaptive algorithms as well as intuitive methods for adjusting personal sound. Together with a customer, this technology has now been successfully integrated in headphones as well.

Patient data enjoy extensive protection in Europe. However, this often means that their usability in medical research is restricted. The newly launched »NEMO« project is using the example of EEG data from sleep monitoring systems to investigate the extent to which a person can be clearly identified from biosignals. Anonymisation techniques are then to be developed that allow a use of data in research and development that complies with data protection regulations. Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg is the project coordinator.