University of York PhD Student wins best paper award

Jay Harrison, a University of York PhD student working with the AudioLab and XR Stories in collaboration with BBC R&D, has won the best student paper award at the 2024 Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality.

The international conference, organised by the Audio Engineering Society, brings together audio engineers, creative artists, scientists and students working in the field to share best practice, research and development.

Jay’s paper examines how listener engagement with media is affected by environmental noise boosted through hear-through features on headphones. Adjustable hear-through is a feature on some headphones that allows users to control the level of external noise and sounds they can hear through their headphones.

The paper presents the results of a listening experiment that investigated how noise influences engagement with speech-based media presented over earphones. Results suggest that boosting from hear-through provides listeners with greater awareness of their surroundings without diminishing their engagement with speech-based media. 

Jay’s paper builds on existing research that highlights a trend in listeners (especially younger listeners) who wear their earbuds for long periods throughout the day to listen to media whilst participating in other activities. 

Jay’s work shows that listeners who are using hear-through functionality are likely to be more able to perceive and understand what those around them are saying.

The research also has implications for listeners who have concerns for personal safety whilst using headphones, highlighting how hear-through functionality can actually enable a greater awareness of surroundings. 

Jay comments: “It is wonderful to have had our work at the AudioLab recognised by peers in the research community in this way. I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to travel to the conference and present my research alongside so much other brilliant work.”

Visit the Audio Engineering society publications webpage to read the paper.

Published on 11 September 2024