Davide Straninger and Andreas Uhl using a laser distance measuring tool to calulate the distance and angles of the 12 speaker locations of the sound system.

Image by Cornelius Poepel

A team of scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California – San Diego has been using the power of sound to their advantage. In recent studies conducted in a marine preserve near the Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico, the team used sonar technology to send sound signals into the water and record what “bounced” back. Once they had this information, they were able to apply their knowledge of hydroacoustics, the study of the behavior of sound in water, to get an idea of how many fish were occupying the preserve, and even record the physical properties of these animals, such as their density, size, and shape.

Moreover, according to the article from Australia’s Science Channel, the team of scientists who used sonar technology to count the fish were able to complete their task roughly 125,000% more quickly than the team who solely used visual observations. While using sonar technology to count and observe fish may seem like the obvious solution to a lack of efficiency, visual observations do offer a higher degree of detail about the fish, such as their specific species, color, and activity.

However, hydroacoustic and sonar technologies are only advancing, so it’s highly likely that in the future they will be able to provide us with almost all of the information that visual observations can about marine life, and save scientists thousands of hours of tedious work.

Without words …

Setting up ILERo (assembling and image by Andreas Uhl)

Having established the cooperation with Departamento de Sonido at Facultad de Artes of Universidad de Chile we were working hard in organizing material for setting up ILERo. What is ILERo? The acronym ILERo is a short form for Immersive Listening Experience Room.

Draft Immersive Listening Experience Room (Image: Andreas Uhl)

The room offers a 12.2 channel sound system and six projection surfaces for the visuals. One of the objectives is to undertake research in how far virtual reality scenarios of the Listen(n) project differ in the perception in comparison to the perception via EcoRift.

Andreas Uhl, student of the Ansbach MIK Master program has made a big effort in planning the room. He is now working on setting it up. We are very happy that the director Dr. Hans Mehringer of the Ansbach company Die Muggergittermacher has offered a room at the company’s industrial site to set up and test the system.

Room for setting up ILERo (Image: Andreas Uhl)

This room will be filled with the ILERo AV materials. We will keep you posted. Stay tuned.

Director of ILERo: Prof. Dr. Cornelius Poepel
Scientific assistance: Robert Kraemer
Developer / Setting up: Andreas Uhl
Student assistance: Davide Straninger

ILERo is a project of KoSI