Press Releases

Some children learn to talk sooner than others. This makes it difficult to detect anomalies in language acquisition immediately and in the first years of their lives. However, to give children affected by such a developmental delay a good start when they go to school, early support is essential. Together, Fraunhofer IDMT in Oldenburg and the Klett Group are exploring to what extent technological solutions can help nursery teachers to identify support needs.

Since November 2023, Luca Cuccovillo, an audio forensics researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Ilmenau, has been leading the ENFSI expert working group on Forensic Speech and Audio Analysis (FSAAWG). The group promotes research activities, best practices, training opportunities, and development of innovative techniques in the field of audio forensic science across Europe.

On October 24, 2023, the German actress and co-founder of the MaLisa Foundation, Maria Furtwängler, presented the results of the study "Climate change and biodiversity: What does television show - what do viewers want?" in Munich. The study was initiated jointly by the MaLisa Foundation and the four German major television stations ARD, ZDF, ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL Deutschland. The study investigated whether there is a discrepancy between the presentation of the climate crisis and biodiversity in German television programs and the perception of these topics by viewers. The Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT was responsible for the audio and video analysis of the television program as a research partner in the one-year project.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg have developed a new method for collecting and analyzing vital signs from the human body by using radar. The key feature is that the radar can be positioned sideways to collect particularly robust, non-contact vital data such as respiration and heartbeat pulse from various areas of the body. In combination with intelligent analysis methods, this opens new application possibilities ranging from medical to automotive applications.

At the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) trade fair in Amsterdam, the German Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT is presenting for the first time a solution that can automatically localize and identify people in large media archives based on their face and voice. For the "Audiovisual Identity Suite", the research institute has combined technologies for face and speaker recognition. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, vast amounts of media content are quickly analyzed for the presence of specific individuals.

Today, Professor Alfred Pecher, Head of Research and Development at Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, was elected as the new chairman of the board of trustees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT. He succeeds the long-time Chair of the Board of Trustees, Professor Dagmar Schipanski, who passed away in September 2022.

Tomorrow’s vehicles will be equipped with a sense of hearing, which will enable them to perceive, for example, bicycle bells, children playing or the sirens of approaching emergency vehicles. Experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg are working on The Hearing Car and developing AI-based system solutions for acoustic event recognition in the vicinity of vehicles. A mobile system for in-vehicle electroencephalography (EEG) for optimizing human-machine interaction and the YourSound assistant for personalizing sound experiences complete the system. The researchers will provide an insight into the latest developments at the IAA MOBILITY trade show in Munich from September 5 to 8, 2023, at the joint Fraunhofer booth in Hall B1, Booth D11.

Today, the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT is able to announce that Active Ambient Lighting with Sound Visualisation, developed by Mercedes-Benz AG in cooperation with the German research institute, has been integrated into its 2023 E-Class series of automobiles. With the new tool, the lighting mood in the vehicle adapts to the music and sounds being played.