The HörTech Center of Competence at The Haus des Hörens has recently gained a new "family member": The Fraunhofer project group "Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology", headed by Prof Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier, has started its work with the appointment of Dr Jens Appell as head of department and six other research assistants.
The aim is to realise scientific and technological developments in hearing rehabilitation, speech communication and audio technology for all areas of everyday life. "As part of Oldenburg's globally recognised hearing research, the new research group complements our expertise in the field of audio system technology and acoustics," says Prof. Dr Karlheinz Brandenburg, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Ilmenau, which is the "parent institute" supporting the Fraunhofer establishment in Oldenburg, which is funded by the state of Lower Saxony with 3.3 million euros. The research focus on "Audio system technology for audiology and assistive systems", "Hearing support in communication environments" and "Personal hearing systems" is aimed at customers in the health, transport, multimedia, telecommunications and security technology sectors. "As part of the EU project DIRAC, which is coordinated by the University of Oldenburg, we are developing, for example, a demonstrator with cameras and microphones that recognises unusual or alarming events in the home environment of older people or in public spaces," says Appell, commenting on some of the current research work.
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