ASD Acoustic Sensing and Design

New techniques of sound design, improved signal processing and transmission, and innovative sensor and input and output systems stand in the center of the project.

Ambient noise contains a significant amount of information for people’s communication and security. Nevertheless, uninformative and informative noises often occur together, provoking stress, a sense of danger and health problems. It is, therefore, important to find appropriate methods to obtain reliable acoustic information and even actively expand the acoustic environment.

To extract information from ambient noise, a high-quality microphone (sensor) systems, advanced technologies and basic research is needed. In the ASD project, all the skills needed for the successful detection and design of ambient noises and sounds are united. This opens the potential for innovation in cost-effective and intelligent acoustic sensor development and for the active design of improved audio environment. Intelligent sensors will increase security through the rapid detection of dangerous accidents. Combined with computer simulation facilitates, acoustic sensors simplify and accelerate the production process. Enhanced listening is achieved by combining the information measured with the active generation of supportive sounds, for example, in very quiet electric vehicles where the physical conditions would otherwise be barely noticeable. Useful sounds, such as speech, are often affected by the acoustic environment found in factories or natural environments. Acoustic user interfaces for machines and production systems can be improved by intelligent acoustic signal processing.

The primary objective is to improve audio quality to protect the listener from harmful noise and increase the recording distance in order to give people more room to move around the recording equipment.

ASD is the successor of the successful K-Project “Advanced Audio Processing –AAP” (www.comet - aap.at) submitted to the first call of the COMET K- projects with an expanded consortium and new core content areas.

The K-Project ASD is supported within the framework of COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies, BMVIT, BMWFJ, Steirische Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft mbH (SFG) and the Land Steiermark and Die Technologieagentur der Stadt Wien (ZIT). The COMET program is managed by FFG.