3D Audio
3D Audio is both a new breakthrough and the subject of an upcoming MPEG standard. Current standardization activities deal, for example, with questions on how to automatically adapt audio program material to the target number of loudspeakers available in a given consumer's listening venue and how the audio presentation (i.e. number and position of loudspeakers) can enhance sound source localization and the sense of immersiveness.
Leading Scientist: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Herre
Audio data reduction by means of perceptual audio coding, as it is used e.g. in the well-known “mp3” algorithm, has become a widely deployed technology that can be found in each portable music player, mobile phone and PC, as a format for music on the Internet, on digital media and in digital broadcasting. 
Digital signal processing for the analysis of audio signals is a basis for many other audio related research fields. Current activities include the development of new perceptual models, signal adaptive time-frequency analysis, and signal representations for source separation. 
Semantic audio processing deals with the development of techniques and tools for analyzing, structuring, retrieving, navigating, and presenting music-related audio signals and other time-dependent multimedia data streams. 
Spatial audio processing deals with the development of techniques and algorithms for sound recording and reproduction employing multiple microphones and loudspeakers. 
Speech coding enables efficient digital transmission and storage of compressed speech signals, and thus includes topics of speech production and perception modelling, as well as data compression and speech enhancement 
Virtual Reality generates three-dimensional computer simulations users can experience, explore and interact with in real-time. By providing the human senses with consistent stimuli such as stereoscopic images and 3D sound, users are immersed into the content and feel present in simulated environment. 
More and more devices in our daily lives at home, at work, and on the go are connected to the Internet. At the same time, more and more devices are equipped with audio playback and/or audio recording capabilities. Bringing those two properties together and thus creating new application scenarios is the goal of the research field “Internet of Things in the audio domain.”