Investigations into the plausible presentation of natural sound sources in virtual acoustic environments

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christoph Pörschmann
• Subject Area: Acoustics
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572159676

When technically realizing virtual acoustic environments, the aim is often to create a natural reproduction of a real environment. In this context, it is essential for the presentation of a virtual sound source that listeners perceive the virtual representation as plausible. According to the commonly used test paradigm for plausibility studies, a listener compares a presented stimulus in relation to his or her internal reference, which manifests itself as the result of personal experience and expectations. Psychoacoustic experiments that investigate the plausibility of a virtual environment are established for scientific studies in virtual acoustic environments. However, the plausibility of sound radiations of everyday objects, referred to in the following as "natural sound sources", has not yet been investigated in detail in scientific experiments. When reproducing or simulating sound propagation in a room, it is not only the room geometry and the properties of the wall boundaries that are relevant but also the sound radiation of the source, which differs significantly between different types of sound sources and may even vary over time for natural sound sources. The core topic of this proposal is the technical realization of methods to simulate the directional sound radiation of natural sound sources for virtual acoustic environments, as well as the investigation of perceptual aspects of their required presentation accuracy. Both aspects are scientifically still largely unexplored.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants