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)
  

  Communicating - we all do it, all the time and everywhere. But why does communication work effortlessly with some people, while we constantly misunderstand each other with others? In this workshop unit, we will look at the four sides of communication and see where what is said and what is heard drift apart. We will also look at a model that makes it easier for us to address conflicts and problems. This workshop unit can be held in German or English.

• b) Resource profiles (who can do what particularly well?), input from everyone for database with knowledge points, prizes for entries (Tobias de T.)
• c) How can the Medi-Workshop be organised so that everyone benefits (Jana)
  

  What expectations do you have of the workshop and will these be met? Do we as a working group and individuals benefit from the workshop in the long term? Who is the workshop actually for and who absolutely has to be there? These and other points should be discussed and concrete suggestions for next year should be developed so that the Medi-Workshop remains or becomes interesting and profitable for all participants in the future. So if there is anything that bothers you about the current organisation or implementation of the workshop, or if you have suggestions for improving it, or if you are simply interested in the topic: come along!

• d) Public relations, external effectiveness, NeSSy lobby/showcase (Karin)
  

  What do we at Medi understand by public relations? How does/should Medi present itself to the outside world? Who do we want to address at all? This session will focus on what kind of public image is particularly important to us and how we can achieve this. Should our public relations work be aimed at potential new students or rather at external researchers? Is it enough to advertise Medi on the website or with flyers, or do we perhaps need special events (seminars, lab tours, open days)? Can we possibly use the NeSSy as a figurehead for the Medi, and if so, how exactly? Anyone who has ideas or suggestions on how to make Medi more attractive to outsiders as a place of teaching and research is very welcome.

• e) We are making a Master's trap! Increasing the attractiveness of the Medi for students (B. Meyer)
  

  This topic round will discuss ways to get students (especially physics students) excited about our research so that they write their Bachelor's and Master's theses at the Medi. For example, the former mainstay "Blockpraktikum Digitale Signalverarbeitung" is suffering from a severe lack of participants, so we will consider how the practical course can be revamped and what alternatives there are to increase the attractiveness of Medi. Anyone who has had particularly good or bad teaching experiences can make a particularly good contribution here so that the same experiences can be reproduced 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?