Division Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology

Not all clicks are the same

Manufacturers must be able to respond immediately to faults in machinery and equipment, so as to avoid downtime. An acoustic monitoring system by the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg recognizes based on noises whether production parameters are within the set limit values. AI-based techniques help manufacturers draw conclusions about the machine condition and optimize production control.

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Teaching tomorrow’s automobiles to hear

Modern cars already feature a range of sophisticated systems such as remote-controlled parking, automatic lane-departure warning and drowsiness recognition. In the future, self-driving cars will also have auditory capabilities. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg, Germany, have now developed a prototype system capable of recognizing external noises such as sirens.

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The objective of the Division Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology HSA of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT is to transpose scientific findings related to hearing perception and man-machine interaction into technological applications. Its applied research priorities are the enhancement of sound quality and speech intelligibility, personalized audio reproduction, acoustic speech recognition and event detection with the help of artificial intelligence. A further focus is the use of mobile neurotechnologies, which facilitate the recording of brain activity and utilization of the resulting data outside the laboratory too.

Application fields include consumer electronics, transport, the automotive sector, industrial production, security, telecommunications and healthcare. Through scientific partnerships, Fraunhofer IDMT-HSA has close links with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Jade University and other institutions engaged in hearing research in Oldenburg. Fraunhofer IDMT-HSA is a partner in the »Hearing4all« Cluster of Excellence.

The Division Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology HSA is funded in the program »Vorab« by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) and the Volkswagen Foundation for its transfer into an independent Fraunhofer Institute Hearing, Speech and Neurotechnology.