Press and Media

BioMonitor4CAP is a research project aiming to develop advanced biodiversity monitoring to show which agricultural practices and policies work best at conserving farmland biodiversity. The project started on December 1, 2022. Fraunhofer IDMT is one of 23 partner organizations from ten European countries and Peru participating in this four-year-long project funded through the Horizon Europe research and innovation program.

With the speech recognition technology of Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg, contactless and safe voice control is possible - even under challenging acoustic conditions. And even with Christmas workpieces. The use of this technology also brings many advantages in maintenance and quality control, for example when documenting work processes. Fraunhofer IDMT wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Many accidents at sea are due to errors in communication between seafarers. An automatic voice monitoring system for the ship’s bridge will ensure greater safety. With the speech recognition system and support from Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg, Germany, ELNAV, a start-up company based in Split, Croatia, is developing what it calls a »Helm Order Monitor«.

Researchers at Fraunhofer IDMT have developed a 3D audio technology based on audio objects which, as a central audio platform in the vehicle, allows the creation of interactive and immersive audio content and thus creates completely new application scenarios for the use of audio in vehicles. In the technical article for audioXpress magazine, our acoustics expert Christoph Sladeczek describes a new workflow that enables the rendering of audio objects in serial vehicles on resource-limited hardware.

The Fraunhofer IDMT's Oldenburg Branch will present its application-specific service portfolio at the 30th annual conference of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (DGSM) from November 10 to 12, 2022. The experts will present discreet and comfortable sensor systems that enable sleep monitoring outside the sleep laboratory.

Everyone hears differently – this applies inside a vehicle too. That is why Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg has developed a technological concept for fast and individual sound adaptation, which has been integrated into the multimedia system of vehicles from the Mercedes-Benz Group AG. At the heart of the development is an algorithm that easily adjusts the sound of music according to passengers’ wishes. Once set, the sound is optimally adapted to listening preferences.

It was with deep sadness that we learned of the sudden passing of our long-time business partner and loyal companion, Dagfinn Bach, with whom we had a wonderful friendship for many years.

New algorithms from Fraunhofer IDMT form the basis for the »Dialogue Detection« in Steinberg Media Technologies’ latest version of its audio post-production software Nuendo. The function reliably recognises speech components in the audio track and in so doing enables audio professionals to easily separate passages with and without speech into different tracks. Fraunhofer IDMT supplied algorithms for measuring, evaluating and displaying speech intelligibility for the previous version of Nuendo too.

The acoustic sensor systems of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT are used in industrial error and condition monitoring as well as automated quality control. In the »KI-MUSIK4.0« project, experts are further developing their technologies for use in highly integrated multi-sensor systems. One such application is the detection of pneumatic actuator leakage. At Hannover Messe 2022, the institute’s Oldenburg branch will provide practical insights into the results so far as well as its portfolio of products and services for industry.

The consequences of a stroke can be manifold. If a patient is affected afterwards by a speech disorder, this might be aphasia – a neuropsychological aftereffect of the stroke. Targeted logopaedic treatment can help. This is the focus, among others, of »HiSSS«, a project that has just started, which includes hybrid and interactive speech and language therapy. Under the leadership of SpeechCare GmbH, Fraunhofer IDMT is developing new approaches in collaboration with HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Bitnamic GmbH.