Three-dimensional sound systems and communication between humans and machines are among the subjects being investigated at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, or IDMT for short. In a nutshell, the work done in the institute's new building in Ilmenau focuses on bridging the gap between the virtual and real worlds. The technological innovations from this small town in the Thuringian Forest have had an international impact.
How MP3 is changing the music world
The director of the IDMT is Karlheinz Brandenburg, a scientist who is occasionally asked for his autograph after a lecture. He is the mathematician and electrical engineer behind one of the greatest high-tech successes to come from Germany. Known as "Mr MP3", he is the developer of the algorithm for what is currently the world's most successful audio standard. This audio coding technique has revolutionized not only the music industry, but also how we listen to music: without this means of compressing audio data to a twelfth of its original size there would be no MP3 players or music downloads from the internet. Karlheinz Brandenburg emphasizes the teamwork that led to the development of the technology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) in Erlangen, but ultimately he was the researcher who described the fundamental principles for MP3 technology in his PhD thesis in 1989.
Marketable new developments
Today Professor Brandenburg supervises some 20 PhD students, one of which is Hanna Lukashevich from Belarus. It was primarily the high-quality profile of the young Fraunhofer Institute that drew her to Ilmenau. Essentially, the 28 year old researcher is working on the results of her supervisor's invention. Now that it is possible to store thousands of songs on our MP3 players, we often lose track of what we have. "The situation is even more difficult for professional music databases, for example, at radio stations or music labels," says Hanna Lukashevich. She works in the Semantic Metadata Systems business area, where she is developing software tools that will recommend and find music. "How can I find a specific song, or find new music that suits my tastes? These are important issues for multimedia use," explains Karlheinz Brandenburg – and there is a large market for software that addresses these issues. Transforming new technologies like these into marketable products is one of the main goals of the Fraunhofer Society.
Patent revenues promote further innovation
There has been a great deal of debate about why the MP3 idea was developed in Germany, but marketed in the United States. "What's often overlooked though is that the licence fees have benefited the Fraunhofer Institute in Erlangen," says Professor Brandenburg. These revenues are so high that the IIS has become the largest of the 57 Fraunhofer Institutes. One hundred million euro of this income was used to establish a foundation to promote new patent clusters. In other words, earnings from this successful idea are being utilized to support further innovation in Germany.
Founding of the IDMT in Ilmenau
Professor Brandenburg also receives a share of the licence fees. However, being at the head of a new Fraunhofer Institute that is equipped with lots of high-technology means more to the 53-year-old. It means he can influence a large number of new developments. After his MP3 success, he had plenty of opportunities to choose from, including the chance to start his own company on the American west coast. Instead, in 2000, he moved from Erlangen in Bavaria to Ilmenau in Thuringia, a small town with 26,000 inhabitants where he became a professor at the Institute for Media Technology at the Ilmenau University of Technology. He was also appointed director of a branch of the Erlangen IIS in Ilmenau, which eventually became the independent Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in 2004. In the end, entrepreneurial thinking is important at Fraunhofer because the institutes are financed to a large extent by contract research done for industry.
Three-dimensional sound with Iosono
One of the most impressive developments at IDMT is the Iosono spatial sound system. This system uses a large number of computer-controlled loudspeakers to create more realistic sound landscapes than you will ever find in a multiplex cinema with a conventional surround-sound system. When a short sample is played in the presentation room, the clip-clopping of horses' hooves coming from the back of the chamber makes everyone in the room want to turn their heads to the right, but the riders have already dashed past and the hoofbeats have faded away. "Iosono has the potential to be even bigger than MP3," believes Professor Brandenburg. Lindenlichtspiele in Ilmenau was the first cinema to equip a theatre with the high-tech sound system in partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute. Since autumn 2008, however, the famous Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles has been the most important cinema using Iosono. Spin-off companies are also part of the Fraunhofer philosophy: in this way, Fraunhofer innovations are intended to play an economic role in their respective regions. Accordingly, Iosono GmbH, the company founded by Professor Brandenburg, today handles the global marketing of the innovative sound system in Erfurt and Los Angeles.
Innovation needs freedom
What are the prerequisites for innovations of this kind? As one of the EU Ambassadors for the Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009, it is Karlheinz Brandenburg's job to think about this question. "Knowledge and hard work," he answers. "But it's also important not to be a blinkered specialist, because new things often happen at interfaces." That is why he considers it important for his colleagues to have interests outside of their research. "Particularly against the background of global competition, creativity and innovation play a key role," says Professor Brandenburg. "Outstanding achievement requires kindling a personal interest – and a certain degree of freedom." He grants his PhD students and colleagues this freedom as part of a deliberate effort to foster innovation at IDMT.
Music recognition software
Hanna Lukashevich also appreciates this freedom and autonomy in her scientific work. The high-frequency physicist studied in Minsk, came to the IDMT for an internship and stayed to obtain a PhD. Now she is trying to discover how to 'teach' computers to recognize music from Asia or Africa. In the process she is working closely with the Berlin-based Piranha music label. "I really like having close contact with the industry," says Hanna Lukashevich, "if you only focus on your research, you lose touch with reality."
