Jens Ahrens: Current Trends in Binaural Auralization of Microphone Array Recordings

When: Wednesday 9th January 2018 @ 5:10 PM

Where: Room 4.31/4.33, Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street

Title: PCurrent Trends in Binaural Auralization of Microphone Array Recordings

Speaker: Dr Jens Ahrens (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweeden)

Abstract

Many approaches for the capture and auralization of real acoustic spaces have been proposed over the past century. Limited spatial resolution on the capture side has typically been the factor that caused compromises in the achievable authenticity of the auralization. Recent advancements in the field of microphone arrays provide new perspective particularly for headphone-based auralization. It has been shown that head-tracked binaural auralization of the data captured by a bowling-ball-sized spherical array of around 90 microphones allows for creating signals at the ears of the listener that are perceptually almost indistinguishable from the ear signals that arise in the original space. Promising results have also been obtained based on smaller arrays with fewer microphones. In the present talk, we provide an overview of the current activities in the research community and demonstrate the latest advancements and remaining challenges.

Speaker Bio

Jens Ahrens has been an Associate Professor and head of the Audio Technology Group within the Division of Applied Acoustics at Chalmers since 2016. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Applied Psychoacoustics Lab at University of Huddersfield, UK, since 2018. Jens received his Diploma (equivalent to a M.Sc.) in Electrical Engineering/Sound Engineering jointly from Graz University of Technology and the University of Music and Dramatic Arts, Graz, Austria, in 2005. He completed his Doctoral Degree (Dr.-Ing.) at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, in 2010. From 2006 to 2011, he was a member of the Audio Technology Group at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories / TU Berlin where he worked on the topic of sound field synthesis. From 2011 to 2013, Jens was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, USA. Thereafter, he re-joined the Quality and Usability Lab at the Technische Universität Berlin. In the fall and winter terms of 2015/16, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, California, USA.