From binaural hearing to auralization: A triumph of Blauert's 40 years in room acoustics
Ning Xiang, Wolfgang F. Hess · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2008
In the late 60's when Jens Blauert's work on sound localization in the median plane was recognized by the psychoacoustics community, he had already started on a long journey from binaural-hearing research to many aspects of what nowadays is called Communication Acoustics. In addition to initiating many new research activities such as binaural auditory modelling, binaural technology, sound-quality, and speech synthesis, his unremitting endeavour in room acoustics has led to innovative developments in the fields of analysis and synthesis of auditory scenes. For example, binaural room-acoustics modelling, real-time dynamic room-impulse response processing, and auditory virtual environments (nowadays known as "auralization") were particularly driven by his work and his supervision of over 50 doctoral students. In this regard the first head-tracking and fast-convolution patent application was filed in the early 70's. Recently auditory models have been applied in auditory spatial evaluations of rooms and cars. Not only his excellent analytical skills and theoretical knowledge, but also his vision for transfer to practical applications in room acoustics and human-auditory spatial perception led to an outstanding life-work. This paper will highlight just a few of Jens Blauert's major contributions to room-acoustics.