Audio and Media Technologies

AI improves the listening experience

Audio and Media Technologies | September 29, 2023

© Fraunhofer IIS / hl Studios

Clear sound, even when you are surrounded by noisy traffic or your colleague is hammering on their keyboard? A team at Fraunhofer IIS developed a low-complexity real-time AI-based noise reduction technology. What makes it unique is that it is device independent.

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Campus radio funklust e.V. is broadcasting from a new home

Audio and Media Technologies / Communication Systems | 23.11.2022

© Fraunhofer IIS / Julian Popp

About 19 years ago, Fraunhofer IIS and the Chair of Information Technology (LIKE) at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) founded a digital campus radio station. It was a research project aimed at testing technical innovations and digital broadcasting systems and working with FAU students on developing innovative, content-related concepts. The campus radio station has long since outgrown its status as a research project, and in 2022, the broadcasting studio moved from Erlangen’s E-Werk cultural center to the “Blue House” on the Europa Canal in Erlangen. On the occasion of this move, we take a look back at 19 years of fruitful collaboration.

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New potential in photo and film production: what you should know about light-field

Audio and Media Technologies /30.8.2022

In a recent interview Joachim Keinert, head of the “Computational Imaging and Algorithms“ group, shares his insights on light-field, which optimizes editing scenes during the postproduction process.

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Bias in language: Is gender bias a factor in industrial speech processing?

Audio and Media Technologies / 17.9.2021

Zarcone_Alessandra_DSC4765_Pulkert.jpg
© Fraunhofer IIS / Paul Pulkert
Dr. Alessandra Zarcone holds a PhD in linguistics and works at the interface between natural language processing and cognitive science. She joined Fraunhofer IIS in 2018, where her job focuses on voice assistants and human-machine interaction.

Gender bias and bias in general play an increasing role in natural language processing. AI applications use vast amounts of data to learn associations relating to all kinds of variables or features. But in doing so, they also adopt existing prejudices and stereotypes. In this interview, Dr. Alessandra Zarcone discusses whether gender bias is also a factor in industrial natural language processing, to what extent she herself is concerned with the issue, and whether Fraunhofer IIS is addressing this problem.

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Sound engineer Daniela Rieger wins second place for the 2021 ARD/ZDF “Women + Media Technology” award

Audio and Media Technologies / 1.9.2021

New sound technologies make it possible to craft highly realistic audio experiences in which the sound comes from all sides – even from above. Sound engineer Daniela Rieger completed her Master of Engineering at Stuttgart Media University and is part of the team in the Media Systems and Applications department at Fraunhofer IIS, where she works to optimize these types of audio formats.

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"The Audio Revolution from Erlangen" – Institute Director Bernhard Grill at the Bavarian SME Conference

Audio and Media Technologies / 21.12.2020

© Fraunhofer IIS/Karoline Glasow

Dr. Bernhard Grill, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, was a guest speaker at the 19th Bavarian SME Conference in December 2020. There he talked about “Erlangen’s Audio Revolution – mp3, Fraunhofer and big business with compressed file formats.”

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Elena Burdiel – An international innovation artist with a passion for music and the Nuremberg metropolitan region

Audio and Media Technologies / 14.12.2020

© Fraunhofer IIS / Paul Pulkert

When Elena Burdiel talks about her work in the Audio Coding & Multimedia Software group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, you immediately notice her enthusiasm and how her eyes light up. It quickly becomes clear that her world revolves (almost) entirely around music and sound. But delving a little deeper reveals that the 29-year-old has many exciting qualities that make her a unique “innovation artist” in the Nuremberg metropolitan region.

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MPEG-H AUDIO – next Generation Audio for UHD, Streaming and VR

Audio and Media Technologies / July 14, 2020

MPEG-H Audio
© Fraunhofer IIS

Audio description for video over MPEG-H audio now available in eight languages.

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In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic webinars open up new opportunities

Audio and Media Technologies / Engineering of Adaptive Systems / Fraunhofer IIS / 25.06.2020

© AdobeStock / Tierney

Speakers tell us about their experience with the webinar series at Fraunhofer IIS.

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»This is absolutely one of the most difficult problems in AI research.«

Audio and Media Technologies

Birgit Brüggemeier, Ph.D.
© Fraunhofer IIS/Paul Pulkert
Project manager Birgit Brüggemeier is researching intelligent human-machine interaction using voice. Together with other AI experts, she is developing future voice interfaces.

Voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and the like are becoming more and more popular, but the systems struggle when it comes to understanding complex contents and context or deriving semantic meaning. Birgit Brüggemeier knows what the problem is: »The machine lacks common sense.« Together with her project team, she is working on the European version of a voice assistant, looking at how these error messages can be communicated to the user without them getting annoyed and ending their interaction with the voice assistant.

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“We’re determined to be in on the act”Fraunhofer IIS

Audio and Media Technologies / 16.5.2019

Prof. Albert Heuberger, Dr. Bernhard Grill, directors of Fraunhofer IIS
© Fraunhofer IIS/Peter Roggenthin
Prof. Albert Heuberger and Dr. Bernhard Grill want to advance AI technologies at Fraunhofer IIS in such a way that they benefit industry and users.

In this interview, Prof. Albert Heuberger and Dr.  Bernhard Grill explain why the time is ripe for artificial intelligence and how AI can make technological developments for customers even more beneficial.

Fraunhofer IIS @IBC 2018

Audio and Media Technologies / 5.9.2018

© Antonioguillem - Fotolia.com

Fraunhofer IIS is presenting the latest audio and media technologies at IBC 2018. Some of them can be seen here in a series of short employee films. Take a look!

3D sound for everyone

Audio and Media Technologies / 11.7.2018

© Fraunhofer IIS/viaframe
3D sound that transports viewers to the heart of the action.

Until now, recording high-quality 360° sound or enjoying immersive audio in a home theater was exclusive to users willing to install and operate a multitude of microphones or loudspeakers. Such complex setups will, however, soon be a thing of the past. Thanks to the special algorithms of the Fraunhofer upHear family of technologies capturing and playback of 3D sound is now possible just with a single device.

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