Date: 6-8.10.2015
Location: ABC Bildungs- und Tagungszentrum e.V in Drochtersen-Hüll (ABC Hüll Bauernreihe 1; 21706 Drochtersen Hüll; www.abc-huell.de)

Agenda

• Highlights and lowlights of Hearing4All (Birger)
  
• PAM-Talk (Stephan Ernst)
• Hearing aid algorithms: Highlights and group overview (Volker Hohmann)
• Auditory Neurosensory Sciences (Uppenkamp/Dietz/Verhulst)
  
• Speech and Audiology (Thomas Brand)
• Computational audition (Bernd Meyer)

Suggested topics:

(In order to ensure the participation of group panellists who are less familiar with the subject matter, a format similar to that of the Hearing Aid Developers Forum should be followed in each parallel group, i.e. 3-5 introductory, well-prepared short presentations (max. 5 minutes, max. 4 slides), each followed by 5-10 minutes of discussion. The main organiser recruits the other short speakers/"invited discussion contributions")

Organisational topics and content-related topics should run in parallel at times, approx. 3-5 groups in parallel.

More information on the individual groups (if available) can be found under the [+] button.

Organisational topics

• a) Communication (Wiebke)
  

  Communication – we all do it, all the time and everywhere. But why does communication come so easily with some people, whilst we constantly misunderstand others? In this workshop session, we’ll explore the four aspects of communication and examine where what is said and what is heard drift apart. We’ll also look at a model that makes it easier for us to address conflicts and problems. This workshop session can be held in German or English.

• b) Resource profiles (Who is particularly good at what?), input from everyone for a database of knowledge points, prizes for submissions (Tobias de T.)
• c) How can the Medi-Workshop be organised so that everyone benefits (Jana)
  

  What are your expectations of the workshop, and are they being met? Do we, as a working group and as individuals, benefit from the workshop in the long term? Who is the workshop actually for, and who absolutely must attend? These and other points will be discussed, and concrete proposals for next year will be drawn up to ensure that the Medi Workshop remains – or becomes – interesting and beneficial for all participants in the future. So, if there’s anything about the current organisation or running of the workshop that bothers you, or if you have suggestions for improving it, or if you’re simply interested in the topic: do come along!

• d)

  Public relations

  , external impact, NeSSy lobby/showcase (Karin)
  

  What do we at Medi mean by public relations? How does Medi want to present itself to the outside world? Who are we actually trying to reach? This session will focus on what kind of external image is particularly important to us, and how we can achieve it. Should our public relations efforts target potential new students, or rather appeal to external researchers? Is it enough to promote the Medi via the website or with leaflets, or do we perhaps need special events (seminars, laboratory tours, open days)? Could we possibly use NeSSy as a flagship for the Medi, and if so, how exactly? Anyone with ideas or suggestions for how to make the Medi more attractive to outsiders as a place of teaching and research is very welcome to join us.

• e) Let’s create a ‘Master’s trap’! Increasing the Medi’s appeal to students (B. Meyer)
  

  This discussion session aims to explore ways of inspiring students (particularly physics students) with our research, so that they choose to write their Bachelor’s and Master’s theses at the Medi. For example, the former flagship course ‘Block Lab Course in Digital Signal Processing’ is suffering from a severe lack of participants, so we will be considering how to revitalise the lab course and what alternatives exist to boost the Medi’s appeal. Anyone who has had particularly positive or negative teaching experiences can make a valuable contribution here, so that such experiences can be replicated or avoided in future.

Content topics

1. Space-Aware Hearing Aid (V. Hohmann, G. Grimm)
   

   Modern hearing aids are equipped with an increasing number of sensors. Space-aware hearing aids will utilize these sensors of different kinds, e.g., microphones, motion sensors, EOG or even EEG, to interact with the user and the surrounding environment. In this session we would like to present our plans in FOR1732 and discuss the concept of space-aware hearing aids with you.

2. Future topics, which topic/field is still missing for the future and should be strategically addressed by Medi? (N.N. -> closing plenary, ALL collect during the workshop
3. Computational Hearing with FADE: Is reference-free auditory modelling the future? (Marc René S. + Tom B. + Ladan Z.)
   

   The simulation framework for auditory discrimination experiments (FADE) enables the reference-free prediction of a range of differently complex auditory experiments, from simple tone-in-noise detection to speech-in-fluctuating-noise recognition. To run the simulations, neither empirical data nor tuning is required. We want to discuss the possible challenges and opportunities of a universal, reference-free modelling approach for our group.

4. Audiological Data Mining (Birger) (Using audiological databases, accessing databases, audiology-€)
5. Binaural loudness: causes and applications (Dirk Oetting)
   

   At the 2014 Medi-Workshop, we showed loudness scaling measurements in which hearing-impaired people had more sensitive binaural loudness functions for broadband signals compared to normal-hearing people. However, this increased sensitivity was not seen in the monaural condition or for narrowband signals. In the first part of the session we present the experiments and the results that have been conducted within the last year.
   
   1) Frequency dependence of binaural loudness summation (MA by Christopher Bonsel, presented by Dirk Oetting)
   2) Compensation of the effect in hearing impaired people (Dirk Oetting)
   3) MRI experiment to localise the increased binaural summation (Oliver Behler)
   4) Loudness modelling of the increased binaural summation (Iko Pieper)
   
   We will use the second and main part of the session to identify further research questions related to the increased binaural summation: e.g. further psychoacoustic and psychoacoustical experiments.e.g. further psychoacoustic measurements for causal research, connection with binaural speech intelligibility in noise, connection with tinnitus and hyperacusis, acoustic reflex, contralateral inhibition, ...

6. How do we use VR space in the future, what are sensible experiments, user concept? (S. Ewert )
   • 6.1 Virtual acoustic environments (Stephan Ewert)
     

     Humans deal with complex acoustic scenes including reverberation and multiple (moving) sound sources in everyday life. One possibility to assess the effect of the such complex spatial sound field on perception in a controlled and systematic way is the use of virtual acoustic and audioviusal environments (virtual reality, VR). To support the group's applications of VR in the field on psychophysics and audiology, the following acitivities are ongoing:
     - Design and construction of a virtual reality lab employing 3D audio and video presentation
     - Software-development for the creation and rendering of acoustic scenes
     - Design of acoustic and audiovisual scenes for hearing aid evaluation
     - Room-acoustic modelling of reverberation
     This session provides an overview of these activities and highlights the possible applications.

   • 6.2 Hardware of Nessy's virtual reality lab (Jan Heeren)
     
     Nessy

     's virtual reality (VR) lab was successfully presented at the official opening, however, it still has to go some way to be finally completed. The VR lab will offer a 3-dimensional, 86-speaker array in combination with a three-projector, 180-degree panoramic video projection. The current state of the VR lab, consisting of the anechoic room, the speaker array and the video projection will be presented.

   • 6.3 TASCAR (Giso Grimm)
     

     Our new toolbox for acoustic scene creation and rendering (TASCAR) was developed to provide dynamic complex virtual acoustics for hearing aid evaluation and audiology. This overview will give insights into TASCAR's structure, its limitations, and will outline applications in research projects.

   • 6.4 Binaural speech intelligibility (Thomas Brand)
     

     We have a large data base with binaural speech intelligibility data (normal hearing, hearing impairment, different noises, reflections, reverberation) and a binaural speech intelligibility model (BSIM). How can this be integrated in a way that VR/TASCAR can use the reference data and model predictions and that we can test the model using dynamic and audio-visual conditions?

7. How will we use fMRI, what do we want to do with it strategically? (Uppenkamp)[pdf]

   Topics 7 and 8 were incorporated into one single session. We start with the MEG topic (moderated by Mathias Dietz) and move on to the fMRI topic (moderated by Stefan Uppenkamp) once we are finished with MEG. The timing is flexible according to the needs, but we should aim at talking about both.
   MEG(responsible MD):
   - S. Uppenkamp: Short tutorial on what can be done with MEG, that is not easily visible in EEG, realisation in coming equipment
   - M. Dietz: How to use acoustic stimulation, and all other problems associated with MEG
   - S. Verhulst: How to transform psychoacoustic questions to MEG experiment
   - All: Who needs all this, who wants this?
   fMRI (responsible SU):
   - S. Uppenkamp: Current state with the coming MRI scanner, configuration, systems for stimulation, access to scanning time, what we did so far
   - O. Behler: What experiments do we want to do in future?
   - J. Anemüller: Modern data analysis strategies for MRI
   - All: What can be done, what cannot be done with fMRI? What do WE want to do?

8. How will we use MEG, what do we want to do with it strategically (M. Dietz)[pdf]

   Topics 7 and 8 were incorporated into one single session. We start with the MEG topic (moderated by Mathias Dietz) and move on to the fMRI topic (moderated by Stefan Uppenkamp) once we are finished with MEG. The timing is flexible according to the needs, but we should aim at talking about both.
   MEG(responsible MD):
   - S. Uppenkamp: Short tutorial on what can be done with MEG, that is not easily visible in EEG, realisation in coming equipment
   - M. Dietz: How to use acoustic stimulation, and all other problems associated with MEG
   - S. Verhulst: How to transform psychoacoustic questions to MEG experiment
   - All: Who needs all this, who wants this?
   fMRI (responsible SU):
   - S. Uppenkamp: Current state with the coming MRI scanner, configuration, systems for stimulation, access to scanning time, what we did so far
   - O. Behler: What experiments do we want to do in future?
   - J. Anemüller: Modern data analysis strategies for MRI
   - All: What can be done, what cannot be done with fMRI? What do WE want to do?

9. CI& Algorithms (T. Jürgens)
   • 9.1. acoustic signal enhancement with ideas/approaches from the hearing aid sector
   • 9.2. find approaches based on psychoacoustic measurements of electrical stimulation that only apply to CI users (ITD-enlargement, finestructure coding...)
   • 9.3. which cues can be found in physiology, are they used and if not, why not?
10. How do we use the NeSSy studio with variable acoustics? (possibly to 6.)
11. Further topic?