Projects Psychoacoustics

A “Noise Footprint” Framework – Status: ongoing project, 24 months (December 2024 – November 2026)
Noise pollution poses a significant threat to our well-being, affecting both human health and the natural world. It disrupts our lives and leads to hearing loss, sleep disturbance and stress, but also affects wildlife and ecosystems. The “Noise Footprint” project at the University of Trento in Italy aims to create a ground-breaking framework to measure and understand the impact of noise pollution on our environment and society. The main objective is to develop a “noise footprint” metric, similar to the “carbon footprint”. This innovative approach will make it possible to quantify the total noise pollution caused by different human activities and sources.

SOUNDkids: Indoor SOUNDscape assessment for KIDS in primary school classrooms – Status: ongoing project, 36 months (November 2024 – October 2027)
This research project is conducted at the University of Ferrara in Italy. The aim of this project is to develop a novel approach to the design of acoustics in the primary school classroom that goes beyond current noise control practices and aims to specifically manage the sound environment to promote a positive school climate. The long-term vision of SOUNDkids is to utilize both soundscapes and psychoacoustic approaches for the acoustic design of learning spaces that are based on the needs of the students.

KEPRAS Contactless Evaluation of Physiological Responses to Acoustic Stimuli – Status: ongoing project, 48 months (October 2024 – September 2028)
Noise is one of the underestimated burdens of modern life and affects the quality of life and well-being of many people. However, there is a lack of knowledge about which sounds and which properties of sounds cause extra-aural noise effects. Up to now, sounds and their noise effects have been assessed by self-reporting by test persons in hearing tests. The object of this project of the KIS*MED Institute at the Technical University of Darmstadt is the contactless recording of the effects of acoustic stimuli on human physiology. On the one hand, this should make hearing tests more pleasant for test subjects and increase their acceptance, as well as enabling measurements outside of classic measurement scenarios. On the other hand, the hearing tests should become more meaningful due to the reduced influence on the test subjects. This project will create a solid basis for the contactless recording of psychophysiological reactions to sounds. The results can be used in a variety of ways – including in the field of pain therapy.

Giving voices to sonic citizens through participatory design – Status: ongoing project, 36 months (September 2024 – August 2027).
The focus of this PhD scholarship at Aarhus University Denmark is to research and further develop methods for the practical application of the soundscape approach in public places, with a focus on promoting community-oriented perspectives within soundscape research. There is a need for more practice-oriented approaches that incorporate participatory and community-oriented perspectives to promote the understanding and design of soundscapes. The gap between theory and practical application of the soundscape approach will be further explored. Participatory design research will gain insights into citizens’ lived experiences of soundscapes, support the evaluation and design of soundscapes in public spaces, and work to ensure that participatory design methods are incorporated into future standards for the practical application of the soundscape approach and are widely applied in the fields of urban spaces and healthcare. Citizens should be involved as active and collective actors, as sonic citizens, in the process of understanding the soundscape and designing soundscape interventions.

Auralization of complex urban environments – characterization of sources. – Status: ongoing project, 45 months (January 2022 – September 2025)
This project is carried out by the Institute of Technical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University in cooperation with the Technical University of Berlin. The auralization (making audible) of ambient noise offers versatile potential for the clarification of noise pollution and thus also makes an innovative contribution to noise impact research. For the direct demonstration of the acoustic effects of noise protection measures, auralizations enable realistic and cost-efficient comparisons for options in decision-making processes. The aim of the project is to create a method for the inverse source characterization of complex, moving traffic noise and its application in the auralization of urban environments. In experiments on auditory perception in complex auralized urban situations, the effect of road traffic noise on inner-city recreational areas and the effect of façade structures on the perception and evaluation of road noise will be investigated. These studies provide important information on the requirements for protecting inner-city recreational areas from traffic noise. To date, there has been a lack of comprehensively recognized criteria in this area.

A Listening Studio and Psychoacoustic Evaluation Tool for Improved Acoustic Environments – Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg
Status: ongoing project (January 2022 to June 2025). Funding for a hearing studio and a psychoacoustic assessment tool for improved acoustic environments.

Best Paper Awards
The HEAD Genuit Foundation regularly supports the annual Best Paper Awards in the EAA Young Acousticians Program of the European Acoustics Association with funding. The funds are used to award prizes for outstanding papers presented by young scientists at EAA conferences.

DEGA membership
Our foundation supports the work of the German Acoustical Society by a membership.

Event sponsorship
We regularly sponsor events that focus on improving the acoustic environment, such as the DEGA Day against Noise and the Urban Sound Symposium.

Travel grants
Presenting one´s research projects at international symposia and participating in international conferences is an important building block in the scientific career. The HEAD Genuit Foundation awards travel grants for the active participation of scientists and doctoral students in the field of acoustics research at conferences abroad as well as lecture tours abroad, e.g. DAGA, Internoise or Forum Acusticum

Scholarship – “Speech intelligibility predicion and auralization in office rooms”
Status: completed project; 24 months (September 2022 to August 2024). This research aimed to explore and analyze the potential of different sustainable sound absorbers to improve acoustic comfort and speech intelligibility in noisy office spaces.
Publications:
Animal-based waste for building acoustic applications: A review
Effects of synthetic and eco-friendly sound absorbers on perceived speech intelligibility ratings in a simulated open-plan office

Quality measurement for quiet household appliances
Status: completed project, 42 months (October 2020 to March 2024) This project was carried out at the Institute of Technical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University. In order to support the implementation of sound quality hearing experiments in general, a stable and reproducible technical basis in the form of a documented sequence of actions for the creation of audiovisual VR test scenarios was to be developed.
Publications:
Sound Quality Evaluation of Coffee Grinders in Virtual Reality
Product Sound Quality Evaluation in Virtual Reality

Endowed Professorship in psychology with a focus on auditory cognition RWTH Aachen University
Status: completed project, 6 years (2018 – 2024) The professorship was intended to offer interdisciplinary research and teaching opportunities in the field of environmental psychology, for example in the area of human perception of sound. The particular aim of this professorship was to link the field of psychology with the field of natural and engineering sciences.

Guest Professorship in the field of psychoacoustics TU Berlin
Status: completed project, A one-year guest professorship was established for 2019. A five-year guest professorship has been established for the years 2020 to 2024. The tasks of the professorship are the investigation of the psychological and physiological effects of sound (including infra- and ultrasound) on humans, as well as the development of technical possibilities for noise control and personal hearing protection devices based on electronic methods.

Virtual Acoustic Environments for Soundscape Research
Status: completed project (duration 30 months, July 2020 to December 2022) This research project was conducted at the Institute of Technical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University. The aim was to explore the methods and algorithms for creating virtual real-time acoustic environments in VR/AR environments for the proposal of soundscape research and for future potential applications in soundscape design and soundscape management. Furthermore, the effects of soundscape cognitive factors, especially human spatial perception of objects/sources (e.g. through spatial hearing), on human emotional responses should be tested.
Publications:
A framework to conduct psychoacoustic experiments in virtual reality
Virtual reality environments for soundsacpe research

Validation of the effect of soundscape modification on well-being and behavior of people with dementia in a clinical context – University of Ghent
Status: completed project (duration July 2020 to December 2022)
The aim of this research project was to show that a carefully created, personalized acoustic environment can influence the well-being of people with dementia. Acustical-Clinical investigated in detail the benefits of a specially adapted soundscape for the residents and staff of a dementia care facility, in terms of evening relaxation, sleep and morning treatment. In contrast to previous work by the same research group, Acusticare-Clinical aimed at a more precise follow-up study of behavioral observation and bio-monitoring of selected individuals with moderate to severe BPSD (Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia). This includes people with an NPI-Q score > 20 (Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire).
Publications:
Validation of the effect of soundscape on the well-being and behaviour of people with dementia: a randomized clinical-trial

Scholarship – “Influence of Acoustic Environment on People’s Emotions”
Status: completed project; 2 years and 6 months (January 2020 to June 2022) This research has focused on a range of emotions that people feel about the sound environment, which could largely depend on the environment. The research has systematically investigated the influence of a range of psychoacoustic (sensations perceived by the human auditory system) and cognitive (e.g. semantic) factors on them. It has been investigated through a series of laboratory-based subjective listening tests of the recorded sound environment, based on the studies in multiplier disciplines, including linguistics, psychology, neurobiology, sociology and philosophy. This research has also developed an automatic sound source detection method to enable the direct application of the research results of these and many other soundscape studies.
Publications: 
How auditory sensations affect human emotional responses to acoustic environments

“The Hush City Mobile Lab”
Status: completed project; 2 years (April 2018 to March 2020). As a follow-up study to the project “Beyond the noise: Open Sources Soundscapes”, this project at TU Berlin aimed to realize the following objectives: Increase and maintain citizen participation (Citizen Science communication campaign), further explore identified quiet areas, create a framework for EU/US policy and best practice for noise mitigation and soundscape planning, develop guidelines and regulations for urban planning in Berlin.
Project website:
https://opensourcesoundscapes.org/

Noise exposure in daycare centers
Status: completed project (March 2017 to February 2023). According to the latest research findings, it is currently unclear whether currently used measurement and assessment methods are valid and correct for children at all due to physiological and psychological differences to adults. Therefore, this research project at RWTH Aachen University was concerned with the attempt to create a well-founded approach for measuring, analyzing and evaluating noise exposure in daycare centers, kindergartens and elementary school using aurally accurate and child-friendly methods.
Publications:
Toward child-appropriate acoustic measurement methods in primary schools and daycare centers
Children´s intentional switching of auditory selective attention in spatial and noisy acoustic environments in comparison to adults

Building-acoustic auralization test environment (Building-acoustic auralization test environment)
Status: completed project (duration 3 years and 2 months, March 2017 to April 2020). This three-year research project was conducted at the Institute of Technical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University to create an interface between psychoacoustic research and sound attenuation in buildings. It aimed to create an interface between psychoacoustic research and sound insulation in buildings. Building on existing preliminary work, this project focused mainly on the design and evaluation of an efficient network of filters based on standard sound insulation metrics for the calculation of transfer functions for complex building components. These filter networks enable the calculation of sound transfer paths from the moving source to the receiver in complex scenes for interactively varying architectural structures as a helpful tool for the final auralization chain.

Mobile hearing test laboratory
Status: completed project (August 2016 to June 2018). Studies in the past have shown that hearing experiments, for example in schools or kindergartens, are not practicable for many reasons. Other test subject groups (workers, older people) are also often very difficult to recruit for psychoacoustic hearing experiments for noise research. The aim of this research project was therefore to be able to carry out psychoacoustic experiments with test subjects (e.g. children or senior citizens) in an uncomplicated manner and on site. To this end, a caravan was converted into a mobile hearing test laboratory.

Scholarship – Historic Soundscape Evaluation
Status: completed project. The HEAD Genuit Foundation has awarded a grant for research into the perception of sound at historical sites in Germany and Greece. Research was conducted into a) the soundscape in antiquity, b) the original function of historic sites based on their acoustic relationship to their surroundings, and c) the potential for developing new forms of psychoacoustic soundscape studies to identify links between the historic interpretation of the site and the sonic experience of contemporary visitors.
Publications:
Sound Experience in Archaeology and Field Investigations: An Approach to Mapping Past Activities Through Sound at Mount Lykaion’s Sanctuary of Zeus
Searching for ancient sonic experience in present-day landscapes
Employing Psychoacoustics in Sensory Archaeology: Developments at the Ancient Sanctuary of Zeus on Mount Lykaion

Scholarship – “Influence of Sound Environments on People`s Emotional Feelings”
Status: completed project; 2 years (January 2018 to December 2019). People’s response to and evaluation of external stimuli is influenced by their emotional state, which varies according to social and cultural background, age, mood, personality, state of mind and other factors. This research aimed to analyze the human “external” emotional state of mind/body (i.e. emotions influenced by external factors).