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VISION

Whoever puts on one of the most advanced head mounted displays like the Oculus Rift and experiences virtual reality for the very first time will barely find the right words to describe this breath-taking experience.

Goldman Sachs predicts that VR/AR will disrupt many existing markets is possibly as game changing as the advent of the PC*.

* Bellini et al. „Virtual & Augmented Reality: Understanding the race for the next computing platform.“ Profiles in Innovation 1 (2016).

 

The VRACE consortium has the vision that the sounds you hear while being in VR are not pre-recorded surrogates but physics-based simulations of vibrating objects or object parts radiating sound into a physically correct virtual world.  In order to tackle this sophisticated vision and to meet the future demand for highly qualified young researchers in this fast-growing field of “physics-based procedural audio” a consortium has been established which unites experienced specialists for all stages of the processing chain.

Although this network aims at sound experience design, there will be intermediate simulation results having some impact on the visual part of VR. In order to study sound generation, physical modelling of dynamic systems with moving parts and non-stationary fluid motion will be performed. The predicted motion of solid bodies and the dynamic deformation of surface and volume meshes will serve as the source of radiated sound. This simultaneously requires visual rendering, which aids towards a physically correct virtual reality.

Bringing together several important disciplines of engineering acoustics will provide VRACE fellows and future PhD students a unique curriculum that no European university is currently offering. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions/Innovative Training Networks, this perspective meets one of the European Commission’s goals:  “The Commission will also support business-academia collaborations through the creation of „Knowledge Alliances“ between education and business to develop new curricula addressing innovation skills gaps”.