The Medical Physics working group at the University of Oldenburg has taken over the coordination of the European research project DIRAC. The "Detection and Identification of Rare Audio-Visual Cues" project involves an international team of ten partner institutions researching new ways in which machines, from hearing aids to robots, can react to unforeseen events, such as dangerous situations. The researchers from Belgium, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and the USA are investigating this issue on an interdisciplinary basis with work in the fields of hearing research, Computing Science, engineering and biology. The researched techniques will be tested in practice on the audiovisual platform "AWEAR", the prototype of a wearable audio-visual companion for people. The Oldenburg team, led by Prof Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier and Dr Jörn Anemüller, expects the research project, which is being funded by the European Union to the tune of 6.4 million euros over five years, to provide new impetus for the construction of intelligent hearing systems, from hearing aids to intelligent audio systems at home.