Precise Near-to-Head Acoustics with Binaural Synthesis

For enhanced immersion into a virtual scene more than just the visual sense should be addressed by a Virtual Reality system. Additional auditory stimulation appears to have much potential, as it realizes a multisensory system. This is especially useful when the user does not have to wear any additional hardware, e.g., headphones. Creating a virtual sound scene with spatially distributed sources requires a technique for adding spatial cues to audio signals and an appropriate reproduction. In this paper we present a real-time audio rendering system that combines dynamic crosstalk cancellation and multi-track binaural synthesis for virtual acoustical imaging. This provides the possibility of simulating spatially distributed sources and, in addition to that, near-to-head sources for a freely moving listener in room-mounted virtual environments without using any headphones. A special focus will be put on near-to-head acoustics, and requirements in respect of the head-related transfer function databases are discussed.

Multi-Contact Grasp Interaction for Virtual Environments

The grasping of virtual objects has been an active research field for several years. Solutions providing realistic grasping rely on special hardware or require time-consuming parameterizations. Therefore, we introduce a flexible grasping algorithm enabling grasping without computational complex physics. Objects can be grasped and manipulated with multiple fingers. In addition, multiple objects can be manipulated simultaneously with our approach. Through the usage of contact sensors the technique is easily configurable and versatile enough to be used in different scenarios.

DMG-Lib - The Digital Mechanism and Gear Library

Motion systems are important parts of technical products. Those are mostly composed of mechanisms and gears. Today mechanism and gear technology is essential for the whole industry and it will become even more important due to the introduction of new technologies and respective new fields of applications.

Nirgendwo nichts

Gelten die im Zuge des Wohnungsbauprogramms in der DDR seit Mitte der 1970er Jahre in industrieller Bauweise errichteten Neubaugebiete als Inbegriff ortloser Betonghettos, steht jener öffentlichen Wahrnehmung die Intention gegenüber, durch die Integration des natürlichen, landschaftlichen und baulichen Erbes sowie durch künstlerische Strategien der Vermittlung regionaler Gegebenheiten Identität zu stiften. Den Hintergrund hierfür bildeten sowohl ein verändertes Geschichtsbild als auch ein sich allmählich herausbildendes Umweltbewusstsein. Im vermeintlichen Typeneinerlei der Großwohnsiedlung Berlin-Marzahn sucht der Beitrag nach theoretischen Grundlagen und praktischen Ansätzen für die Einbeziehung des mittelalterlichen Angerdorfs sowie nach Spuren der Repräsentation der märkischen Landschaft. Ihrer rudimentären Verwirklichung zum Trotz bilden sie die Grundlage für Umbau und weitere Entwicklung.