Winner of the German Future Prize 2012
In November 2012 a dream came true for the team of Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger Kollmeier, Prof. Dr. Volker Hohmann (University of Oldenburg, Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4all”) and Dr. Torsten Niederdränk (Siemens AG) from Auditory Valley.
Their developments in the field of hearing systems were crowned with the German Future Prize. The Federal President awards the German Future Prize annually for outstanding technical, engineering or scientific innovations.
The researchers have created the technological basis for novel hearing systems in which two hearing aids in both ears are coupled and adjusted to each other according to the individual hearing impairment. In addition, a new type of diagnostic procedure and mathematical algorithms can be used to specifically compensate for the hearing impairment of those affected. In future, this will allow hearing-impaired people to hear better in acoustically “difficult” environments – for example, in rooms with reverberation, when there are several people talking at once or loud background noise.
Further information and explanatory videos on the technology developed can be found on the Deutscher Zukunftspreis website.
The question why people need two ears is answered by the podcast series Edgar Auris. In four entertaining radio drama episodes, the series revolves around a mysterious case that an investigator duo has to solve with the help of Auditory Valley experts. Here you can find the podcast series
The podcast series “The Unheard-of Cases of Edgar Auris” makes the spectacular effects of binaural hearing a reality for everyone. The podcast is specially recorded to create binaural listening impressions. For optimal listening pleasure, the podcast should be listened to with headphones!
