Audio Experience Design, Imperial College London — Design Engineering Showcase 2023

Student: Xianghao Wang
Team: Audio Experience Design
Role: Research Intern
Sector: Academia & Research
Links: Email

The AXD Team is a leading research group in acoustic technologies with particular focus on sonic interaction and user experience design. We’ve published comprehensive HRTF databases and tools that reveal a deep understanding of perceived sound bias (which enables human to target audio cues in 3D space). My main research project involves innovating in HRTF generation methods, which utilises digital pinna models generated from parameters to reduce the need for real-person lab measurements.

Role and Contributions

I am a research intern, and I accomplish tasks assigned by leading researchers. My job is rather flexible and diverse. Most of my time was dedicated to the SONICOM research project, where I used my 3D modeling and Blender skills to refine and standardise collected facial mesh data, and further processed them with linear algebra methods. I’ve cleared half of the database, which will introduce a more credible statistical result and eventually leads to a new method to generate a user-customisable 3D audio experience (HRTF).

In the meantime, I brought what I’ve learnt in Industrial Design (DFA and DFM) and created a handbook with step-by-step workflow for the mesh processing tasks. This will allow more researchers (with or without a background in CAD-3D) to participate in this research, eventually leading to a faster pace in 3D audio development.

A second role involved UI/UX design for the HRTF Adaptation Experiment, where I utilised my rapid prototyping capabilities to design the UI and UX elements for the tests, and introduced a new sensational feedback routine (haptic) within the UNITY Engine. In the long term, we believe it will lead to an improved adaptation quality for human to non-standardised HRTF.

Project Details

Role and Contributions