SONORA: The Spatial Dynamics of Room Acoustics

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©Face

Acoustics
May 2018 - April 2023

The SONORA project aims to increase the general understanding of how complex sound scenes are impacted by the spatial dynamics of room acoustics.

The SONORA project aims to increase the general understanding of how complex sound scenes are impacted by the spatial dynamics of room acoustics. This knowledge is crucial in the design of signal processing algorithms for audio acquisition and reproduction problems in real-life situations, where moving sound sources and observers interact with room acoustics in a complicated manner. The room acoustics models developed in this project are data-driven models with a physically motivated structure and are expected to fill the existing gap between geometric and wave-based models. This will be achieved by formulating existing and novel models in a dictionary-based mathematical framework and introducing a new concept coined as the equivalent boundary model, aimed at relaxing the prior knowledge required on the physical room boundary. A second part of the project will focus on the development of a protocol for measuring spatiotemporal sound fields. Thirdly, novel signal processing algorithms capable of handling spatiotemporal sound fields will be designed. The SONORA research results are anticipated to have a notable impact in various audio acquisition and reproduction problems. These problems have many applications in speech, audio, and hearing technology, hence a significant benefit for industry and for technology end users is expected in the long run.