Author: Duncan Williams
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319722727
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 171
Book Description
This book presents an overview of the emerging field of emotion in videogame soundtracking. The emotional impact of music has been well-documented, particularly when used to enhance the impact of a multimodal experience, such as combining images with audio as found in the videogames industry. Soundtracking videogames presents a unique challenge compared to traditional composition (for example film music) in that the narrative of gameplay is non-linear – Player dependent actions can change the narrative and thus the emotional characteristics required in the soundtrack. Historical approaches to emotion measurement, and the musical feature mapping and music selection that might be used in video game soundtracking are outlined, before a series of cutting edge examples are given. These examples include algorithmic composition techniques, automated emotion matching from biosensors, motion capture techniques, emotionally-targeted speech synthesis and signal processing, and automated repurposing of existing music (for example from a players own library). The book concludes with some possibilities for the future.
Emotion in Video Game Soundtracking
Author: Duncan Williams
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319722727
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 171
Book Description
This book presents an overview of the emerging field of emotion in videogame soundtracking. The emotional impact of music has been well-documented, particularly when used to enhance the impact of a multimodal experience, such as combining images with audio as found in the videogames industry. Soundtracking videogames presents a unique challenge compared to traditional composition (for example film music) in that the narrative of gameplay is non-linear – Player dependent actions can change the narrative and thus the emotional characteristics required in the soundtrack. Historical approaches to emotion measurement, and the musical feature mapping and music selection that might be used in video game soundtracking are outlined, before a series of cutting edge examples are given. These examples include algorithmic composition techniques, automated emotion matching from biosensors, motion capture techniques, emotionally-targeted speech synthesis and signal processing, and automated repurposing of existing music (for example from a players own library). The book concludes with some possibilities for the future.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319722727
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 171
Book Description
This book presents an overview of the emerging field of emotion in videogame soundtracking. The emotional impact of music has been well-documented, particularly when used to enhance the impact of a multimodal experience, such as combining images with audio as found in the videogames industry. Soundtracking videogames presents a unique challenge compared to traditional composition (for example film music) in that the narrative of gameplay is non-linear – Player dependent actions can change the narrative and thus the emotional characteristics required in the soundtrack. Historical approaches to emotion measurement, and the musical feature mapping and music selection that might be used in video game soundtracking are outlined, before a series of cutting edge examples are given. These examples include algorithmic composition techniques, automated emotion matching from biosensors, motion capture techniques, emotionally-targeted speech synthesis and signal processing, and automated repurposing of existing music (for example from a players own library). The book concludes with some possibilities for the future.
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Big Data Analytics for Cyber-Physical System in Smart City - Volume 1
Author: Mohammed Atiquzzaman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819908809
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 823
Book Description
This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the 4th Big Data Analytics for Cyber-Physical System in Smart City (BDCPS 2022) conference, held in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 16–17. The contributions, prepared by an international team of scientists and engineers, cover the latest advances and challenges made in the field of big data analytics methods and approaches for the data-driven co-design of communication, computing, and control for smart cities. Given its scope, it offers a valuable resource for all researchers and professionals interested in big data, smart cities, and cyber-physical systems.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819908809
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 823
Book Description
This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the 4th Big Data Analytics for Cyber-Physical System in Smart City (BDCPS 2022) conference, held in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 16–17. The contributions, prepared by an international team of scientists and engineers, cover the latest advances and challenges made in the field of big data analytics methods and approaches for the data-driven co-design of communication, computing, and control for smart cities. Given its scope, it offers a valuable resource for all researchers and professionals interested in big data, smart cities, and cyber-physical systems.
Classical Antiquity in Video Games
Author: Christian Rollinger
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350066648
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world. This volume explores the varied depictions of the ancient world in video games and demonstrates the potential challenges of games for scholars as well as the applications of game engines for educational and academic purposes. With successful series such as “Assassin's Creed” or "Civilization” selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences' perceptions of the past. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of classical reception. This collection of essays fills this gap with a dedicated study of receptions, remediations and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres. It presents cutting-edge research in classics and classical receptions, game studies and archaeogaming, adopting different perspectives and combining papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants. In doing so, it delivers the first state-of-the-art account of both the wide array of 'ancient' video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350066648
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world. This volume explores the varied depictions of the ancient world in video games and demonstrates the potential challenges of games for scholars as well as the applications of game engines for educational and academic purposes. With successful series such as “Assassin's Creed” or "Civilization” selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences' perceptions of the past. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of classical reception. This collection of essays fills this gap with a dedicated study of receptions, remediations and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres. It presents cutting-edge research in classics and classical receptions, game studies and archaeogaming, adopting different perspectives and combining papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants. In doing so, it delivers the first state-of-the-art account of both the wide array of 'ancient' video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field.
The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
Author: Melanie Fritsch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316999440
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 483
Book Description
Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years. Now, reaching billions of listeners, game music encompasses a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of video game music by a diverse group of scholars and industry professionals. The chapters and summaries consolidate existing knowledge and present tools for readers to engage with the music in new ways. Many popular games are analysed, including Super Mario Galaxy, Bastion, The Last of Us, Kentucky Route Zero and the Katamari, Gran Turismo and Tales series. Topics include chiptunes, compositional processes, localization, history and game music concerts. The book also engages with other disciplines such as psychology, music analysis, business strategy and critical theory, and will prove an equally valuable resource for readers active in the industry, composers or designers, and music students and scholars.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316999440
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 483
Book Description
Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years. Now, reaching billions of listeners, game music encompasses a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of video game music by a diverse group of scholars and industry professionals. The chapters and summaries consolidate existing knowledge and present tools for readers to engage with the music in new ways. Many popular games are analysed, including Super Mario Galaxy, Bastion, The Last of Us, Kentucky Route Zero and the Katamari, Gran Turismo and Tales series. Topics include chiptunes, compositional processes, localization, history and game music concerts. The book also engages with other disciplines such as psychology, music analysis, business strategy and critical theory, and will prove an equally valuable resource for readers active in the industry, composers or designers, and music students and scholars.
Post-Mass-Media and Participation
Author: Michel Schreiber
Publisher: Schüren Verlag
ISBN: 3741001465
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 108
Book Description
30 Jahre nachdem Félix Guattari den Begriff des Postmassenmedialen als notwendige Bedingung medialer Teilhabe eingeführt hat, wirkt er weiterhin in den Arbeiten nachfolgender Generationen nach. Dass ein Konzept, das auf politisches Geschehen und technische Entwicklungen bis hin zur Zäsur von 1989 reagiert, noch heute den wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs beschäftigt, ist jedoch nicht selbstverständlich. Diese Ausgabe der AugenBlick, die im Umfeld der DFG-Forscher:innengruppe Mediale Teilhabe entstanden ist, unterstreicht die Notwendigkeit, aufmerksam die sich wandelnden Formen politischer und künstlerischer Partizipation im sogenannten "postmedialen Zeitalter" zu betrachten. Die hier versammelten Beiträge formulieren dabei keine Medientheorie der Ermöglichung von Teilhabe. Viel eher tritt das Postmassenmediale selbst als eine Frage der Teilhabe hervor, die in sich medial begriffen werden muss. Dieser Rahmen erlaubt es, das Postmassenmediale in unserer gegenwärtigen techno-politischen Situation zu verorten. So tritt es uns in Arbeiten zu Videospielen, dokumentarischen Projekten, YouTube, Ästhetik und Ethik des Politischen und in Meditationen zur Pandemie entgegen
Publisher: Schüren Verlag
ISBN: 3741001465
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 108
Book Description
30 Jahre nachdem Félix Guattari den Begriff des Postmassenmedialen als notwendige Bedingung medialer Teilhabe eingeführt hat, wirkt er weiterhin in den Arbeiten nachfolgender Generationen nach. Dass ein Konzept, das auf politisches Geschehen und technische Entwicklungen bis hin zur Zäsur von 1989 reagiert, noch heute den wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs beschäftigt, ist jedoch nicht selbstverständlich. Diese Ausgabe der AugenBlick, die im Umfeld der DFG-Forscher:innengruppe Mediale Teilhabe entstanden ist, unterstreicht die Notwendigkeit, aufmerksam die sich wandelnden Formen politischer und künstlerischer Partizipation im sogenannten "postmedialen Zeitalter" zu betrachten. Die hier versammelten Beiträge formulieren dabei keine Medientheorie der Ermöglichung von Teilhabe. Viel eher tritt das Postmassenmediale selbst als eine Frage der Teilhabe hervor, die in sich medial begriffen werden muss. Dieser Rahmen erlaubt es, das Postmassenmediale in unserer gegenwärtigen techno-politischen Situation zu verorten. So tritt es uns in Arbeiten zu Videospielen, dokumentarischen Projekten, YouTube, Ästhetik und Ethik des Politischen und in Meditationen zur Pandemie entgegen
The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music
Author: Melanie Fritsch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108473024
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 483
Book Description
A wide-ranging survey of video game music creation, practice, perception and analysis - clear, authoritative and up-to-date.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108473024
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 483
Book Description
A wide-ranging survey of video game music creation, practice, perception and analysis - clear, authoritative and up-to-date.
Media Ventriloquism
Author: Jaimie Baron
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197563627
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
"Media Ventriloquism repurposes the term "ventriloquism," which has traditionally referred to the act of throwing one's voice into an object that appears to speak, to reflect our complex vocal relationship with media technologies. Indeed, media technologies have the potential to separate voice from body and to constitute new relationships between them that could scarcely have been imagined before such technologies' invention and mass circulation. Radio, cinema, television, video games, digital technologies, and other media have each fundamentally transformed the relationship between voice and body in myriad and often unexpected ways. Our volume interrogates the categorical definitions of voice and body as they operate within mediated environments, exploring the experiences of ventriloquism facilitated by media technologies and theorizing some of the political and ethical implications of separating bodies from voices. We build in particular on Steven Connor's notion of the vocalic body, which he coined to identify an imaginary body that is created and maintained primarily through voice. In modifying Connor's term to theorize the "technovocalic body," we focus our study on cases in which the relationship between voice and body has been modified specifically by media technologies. The essays in the collection demonstrate not only how particular bodies and voices have been been (mis)represented through media ventriloquism but also how marginalized groups - racialized, gendered, queered, etc. - have used media ventriloquism to claim their agency and power"--
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197563627
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
"Media Ventriloquism repurposes the term "ventriloquism," which has traditionally referred to the act of throwing one's voice into an object that appears to speak, to reflect our complex vocal relationship with media technologies. Indeed, media technologies have the potential to separate voice from body and to constitute new relationships between them that could scarcely have been imagined before such technologies' invention and mass circulation. Radio, cinema, television, video games, digital technologies, and other media have each fundamentally transformed the relationship between voice and body in myriad and often unexpected ways. Our volume interrogates the categorical definitions of voice and body as they operate within mediated environments, exploring the experiences of ventriloquism facilitated by media technologies and theorizing some of the political and ethical implications of separating bodies from voices. We build in particular on Steven Connor's notion of the vocalic body, which he coined to identify an imaginary body that is created and maintained primarily through voice. In modifying Connor's term to theorize the "technovocalic body," we focus our study on cases in which the relationship between voice and body has been modified specifically by media technologies. The essays in the collection demonstrate not only how particular bodies and voices have been been (mis)represented through media ventriloquism but also how marginalized groups - racialized, gendered, queered, etc. - have used media ventriloquism to claim their agency and power"--
The SAGE Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology
Author: Todd K. Shackelford
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1529737443
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 2222
Book Description
Evolutionary psychology is an important and rapidly expanding area in the life, social, and behavioral sciences, and this Handbook represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference text in the field today. Over three volumes, the Handbook provides a rich overview of the most important theoretical and empirical work in the field. Chapters cover a broad range of topics, including theoretical foundations, the integration of evolutionary psychology with other life, social, and behavioral sciences, as well as with the arts and the humanities, and the increasing power of evolutionary psychology to inform applied fields, including medicine, psychiatry, law, and education. Each of the volumes has been carefully curated to have a strong thematic focus, covering: - The foundations of evolutionary psychology; - The integration of evolutionary psychology with other disciplines, and; - The applications of evolutionary psychology. The SAGE Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students in all areas of psychology, and in related disciplines across the life, social, and behavioral sciences.
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1529737443
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 2222
Book Description
Evolutionary psychology is an important and rapidly expanding area in the life, social, and behavioral sciences, and this Handbook represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference text in the field today. Over three volumes, the Handbook provides a rich overview of the most important theoretical and empirical work in the field. Chapters cover a broad range of topics, including theoretical foundations, the integration of evolutionary psychology with other life, social, and behavioral sciences, as well as with the arts and the humanities, and the increasing power of evolutionary psychology to inform applied fields, including medicine, psychiatry, law, and education. Each of the volumes has been carefully curated to have a strong thematic focus, covering: - The foundations of evolutionary psychology; - The integration of evolutionary psychology with other disciplines, and; - The applications of evolutionary psychology. The SAGE Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students in all areas of psychology, and in related disciplines across the life, social, and behavioral sciences.
The Soundtrack Album
Author: Paul N. Reinsch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429833830
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media offers the first sustained exploration of the soundtrack album as a distinctive form of media. Soundtrack albums have been part of our media and musical landscape for decades, enduring across formats from vinyl and 8-tracks to streaming playlists. This book makes the case that soundtrack albums are more than promotional tools for films, television shows, or video games— they are complex media texts that reward a detailed analysis. The collection’s contributors explore a diverse range of soundtrack albums, from Super Fly to Stranger Things, revealing how these albums change our understanding of the music and film industries and the audio-visual relationships that drive them. An excellent resource for students of Music, Media Studies, and Film/Screen Media courses, The Soundtrack Album offers interdisciplinary perspectives and opens new areas for exploration in music and media studies.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429833830
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media offers the first sustained exploration of the soundtrack album as a distinctive form of media. Soundtrack albums have been part of our media and musical landscape for decades, enduring across formats from vinyl and 8-tracks to streaming playlists. This book makes the case that soundtrack albums are more than promotional tools for films, television shows, or video games— they are complex media texts that reward a detailed analysis. The collection’s contributors explore a diverse range of soundtrack albums, from Super Fly to Stranger Things, revealing how these albums change our understanding of the music and film industries and the audio-visual relationships that drive them. An excellent resource for students of Music, Media Studies, and Film/Screen Media courses, The Soundtrack Album offers interdisciplinary perspectives and opens new areas for exploration in music and media studies.
The Technology of Binaural Understanding
Author: Jens Blauert
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030003868
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 815
Book Description
Sound, devoid of meaning, would not matter to us. It is the information sound conveys that helps the brain to understand its environment. Sound and its underlying meaning are always associated with time and space. There is no sound without spatial properties, and the brain always organizes this information within a temporal–spatial framework. This book is devoted to understanding the importance of meaning for spatial and related further aspects of hearing, including cross-modal inference. People, when exposed to acoustic stimuli, do not react directly to what they hear but rather to what they hear means to them. This semiotic maxim may not always apply, for instance, when the reactions are reflexive. But, where it does apply, it poses a major challenge to the builders of models of the auditory system. Take, for example, an auditory model that is meant to be implemented on a robotic agent for autonomous search-&-rescue actions. Or think of a system that can perform judgments on the sound quality of multimedia-reproduction systems. It becomes immediately clear that such a system needs • Cognitive capabilities, including substantial inherent knowledge • The ability to integrate information across different sensory modalities To realize these functions, the auditory system provides a pair of sensory organs, the two ears, and the means to perform adequate preprocessing of the signals provided by the ears. This is realized in the subcortical parts of the auditory system. In the title of a prior book, the term Binaural Listening is used to indicate a focus on sub-cortical functions. Psychoacoustics and auditory signal processing contribute substantially to this area. The preprocessed signals are then forwarded to the cortical parts of the auditory system where, among other things, recognition, classification, localization, scene analysis, assignment of meaning, quality assessment, and action planning take place. Also, information from different sensory modalities is integrated at this level. Between sub-cortical and cortical regions of the auditory system, numerous feedback loops exist that ultimately support the high complexity and plasticity of the auditory system. The current book concentrates on these cognitive functions. Instead of processing signals, processing symbols is now the predominant modeling task. Substantial contributions to the field draw upon the knowledge acquired by cognitive psychology. The keyword Binaural Understanding in the book title characterizes this shift. Both books, The Technology of Binaural Listening and the current one, have been stimulated and supported by AABBA, an open research group devoted to the development and application of models of binaural hearing. The current book is dedicated to technologies that help explain, facilitate, apply, and support various aspects of binaural understanding. It is organized into five parts, each containing three to six chapters in order to provide a comprehensive overview of this emerging area. Each chapter was thoroughly reviewed by at least two anonymous, external experts. The first part deals with the psychophysical and physiological effects of Forming and Interpreting Aural Objects as well as the underlying models. The fundamental concepts of reflexive and reflective auditory feedback are introduced. Mechanisms of binaural attention and attention switching are covered—as well as how auditory Gestalt rules facilitate binaural understanding. A general blackboard architecture is introduced as an example of how machines can learn to form and interpret aural objects to simulate human cognitive listening. The second part, Configuring and Understanding Aural Space, focuses on the human understanding of complex three-dimensional environments—covering the psychological and biological fundamentals of auditory space formation. This part further addresses the human mechanisms used to process information and interact in complex reverberant environments, such as concert halls and forests, and additionally examines how the auditory system can learn to understand and adapt to these environments. The third part is dedicated to Processing Cross-Modal Inference and highlights the fundamental human mechanisms used to integrate auditory cues with cues from other modalities to localize and form perceptual objects. This part also provides a general framework for understanding how complex multimodal scenes can be simulated and rendered. The fourth part, Evaluating Aural-scene Quality and Speech Understanding, focuses on the object-forming aspects of binaural listening and understanding. It addresses cognitive mechanisms involved in both the understanding of speech and the processing of nonverbal information such as Sound Quality and Quality-of- Experience. The aesthetic judgment of rooms is also discussed in this context. Models that simulate underlying human processes and performance are covered in addition to techniques for rendering virtual environments that can then be used to test these models. The fifth part deals with the Application of Cognitive Mechanisms to Audio Technology. It highlights how cognitive mechanisms can be utilized to create spatial auditory illusions using binaural and other 3D-audio technologies. Further, it covers how cognitive binaural technologies can be applied to improve human performance in auditory displays and to develop new auditory technologies for interactive robots. The book concludes with the application of cognitive binaural technologies to the next generation of hearing aids.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030003868
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 815
Book Description
Sound, devoid of meaning, would not matter to us. It is the information sound conveys that helps the brain to understand its environment. Sound and its underlying meaning are always associated with time and space. There is no sound without spatial properties, and the brain always organizes this information within a temporal–spatial framework. This book is devoted to understanding the importance of meaning for spatial and related further aspects of hearing, including cross-modal inference. People, when exposed to acoustic stimuli, do not react directly to what they hear but rather to what they hear means to them. This semiotic maxim may not always apply, for instance, when the reactions are reflexive. But, where it does apply, it poses a major challenge to the builders of models of the auditory system. Take, for example, an auditory model that is meant to be implemented on a robotic agent for autonomous search-&-rescue actions. Or think of a system that can perform judgments on the sound quality of multimedia-reproduction systems. It becomes immediately clear that such a system needs • Cognitive capabilities, including substantial inherent knowledge • The ability to integrate information across different sensory modalities To realize these functions, the auditory system provides a pair of sensory organs, the two ears, and the means to perform adequate preprocessing of the signals provided by the ears. This is realized in the subcortical parts of the auditory system. In the title of a prior book, the term Binaural Listening is used to indicate a focus on sub-cortical functions. Psychoacoustics and auditory signal processing contribute substantially to this area. The preprocessed signals are then forwarded to the cortical parts of the auditory system where, among other things, recognition, classification, localization, scene analysis, assignment of meaning, quality assessment, and action planning take place. Also, information from different sensory modalities is integrated at this level. Between sub-cortical and cortical regions of the auditory system, numerous feedback loops exist that ultimately support the high complexity and plasticity of the auditory system. The current book concentrates on these cognitive functions. Instead of processing signals, processing symbols is now the predominant modeling task. Substantial contributions to the field draw upon the knowledge acquired by cognitive psychology. The keyword Binaural Understanding in the book title characterizes this shift. Both books, The Technology of Binaural Listening and the current one, have been stimulated and supported by AABBA, an open research group devoted to the development and application of models of binaural hearing. The current book is dedicated to technologies that help explain, facilitate, apply, and support various aspects of binaural understanding. It is organized into five parts, each containing three to six chapters in order to provide a comprehensive overview of this emerging area. Each chapter was thoroughly reviewed by at least two anonymous, external experts. The first part deals with the psychophysical and physiological effects of Forming and Interpreting Aural Objects as well as the underlying models. The fundamental concepts of reflexive and reflective auditory feedback are introduced. Mechanisms of binaural attention and attention switching are covered—as well as how auditory Gestalt rules facilitate binaural understanding. A general blackboard architecture is introduced as an example of how machines can learn to form and interpret aural objects to simulate human cognitive listening. The second part, Configuring and Understanding Aural Space, focuses on the human understanding of complex three-dimensional environments—covering the psychological and biological fundamentals of auditory space formation. This part further addresses the human mechanisms used to process information and interact in complex reverberant environments, such as concert halls and forests, and additionally examines how the auditory system can learn to understand and adapt to these environments. The third part is dedicated to Processing Cross-Modal Inference and highlights the fundamental human mechanisms used to integrate auditory cues with cues from other modalities to localize and form perceptual objects. This part also provides a general framework for understanding how complex multimodal scenes can be simulated and rendered. The fourth part, Evaluating Aural-scene Quality and Speech Understanding, focuses on the object-forming aspects of binaural listening and understanding. It addresses cognitive mechanisms involved in both the understanding of speech and the processing of nonverbal information such as Sound Quality and Quality-of- Experience. The aesthetic judgment of rooms is also discussed in this context. Models that simulate underlying human processes and performance are covered in addition to techniques for rendering virtual environments that can then be used to test these models. The fifth part deals with the Application of Cognitive Mechanisms to Audio Technology. It highlights how cognitive mechanisms can be utilized to create spatial auditory illusions using binaural and other 3D-audio technologies. Further, it covers how cognitive binaural technologies can be applied to improve human performance in auditory displays and to develop new auditory technologies for interactive robots. The book concludes with the application of cognitive binaural technologies to the next generation of hearing aids.