Recent technological developments are having a fundamental impact on the field Human-Computer Interaction. Technologies such as holography, head-mounted displays, full-dome immersive video projection, kinesthetic communication (haptic technology), transparent monitors, and three-dimensional (3D) sound and electronic sensors, facilitate sophisticated and interactive environments using augmented and virtual reality. The scope of this augmentation is participant immersion, which is the ultimate goal of an effective virtual or augmented experience. It is a common belief that aurality constitutes an essential part in VR and AR and offers additional details and a visceral sense to the immersive experience. Aurality encloses the synthesis, spatialisation, and reception of sound in a virtual world.

In this session, we welcome research papers that lie in all the individual aspects of aurality and sound spatialisation as well as novel engineering efforts and applications that bridge VR and AR development with immersive sound and auralisation.

Chairperson:

Athanasios G. Malamos received Bsc in Physics from the University of Crete (1992) and MSc and PhD from the Technical University of Crete in 1995 and 2000 respectively. From 2002 until 2019 he was with the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Dept. of Informatics Engineering (former name of the department Applied Informatics and Multimedia). Since May 2019 is a professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept., of the Hellenic Mediterranean University. He is an active member of the WEB3D community. He is a member of the web3D Consortium spatial sound and semantics group and the W3C representing the consortium in the Audio Work Group. His laboratory team contributed to the spatial sound, the Humanoid, the Physics libraries, and streaming in X3D platforms. Dr. Malamos is honored with the ACM Recognition of Service Award and by the WEB3D consortium with recognition of his efforts in the organization of web3D conferences. His research interests include online multimedia services, Web3D, and Virtual and Augmented Reality.