Deputy Director
Hearing Cluster
Head of Virtual Acoustics
Head of Lab
Tel. +43 1 51581-2511
Email: piotr.majdak(at)oeaw.ac.at
Scientific IDs:
ORCID (0000-0003-1511-6164), Scopus, Research Gate, Google Scholar
Academic background
After completing a technical school for electrical engineering, Piotr Majdak studied audio engineering at the University of Technology in Graz (TU-Graz) and at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz (KUG). During his studies, he developed hardware and software for measurement tools and process-controlling devices.
Piotr Majdak graduated with the Master's thesis entitled "Implementation of a head related binaural technique", in which he dealt with a real-time binaural system called Ambisonics. In that project, Ambisonics allowed the inclusion of the listener’s head movements without the need for time-variant filtering, and therefore a reduction of the computational power. As part of the thesis, the binaural system was implemented for a digital signal processor platform including a head-tracker. The Master's thesis was done jointly with Markus Noisternig.
In 2002, he joined ARI as a junior researcher being involved in setting-up the group "Psychoacoustics and experimental audiology".
In 2008, he finished his PhD about sound lateralization in cochlear-implant listeners, in which the effects of different aspects of the interaural time differences on sound lateralization are described.
In 2015, his habilitation for the area "Acoustics and audio engineering" was approved, which allows him to supervise PhD students at the KUG.
Current research
General research field is spatial hearing, in particular:
- Sound localization in normal-hearing, hearing-impaired, and cochlear-implant listeners;
- Virtual acoustics;
- Effects of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) and its numerical simulation;
- General binaural effects in electric hearing.
Piotr Majdak was the main developer of ExpSuite, an open-source software framework for psychoacoustic experiments in normal-hearing and cochlear-implant listeners, used at ARI since 2003 and now mainly developed by Michael Mihocic. Piotr Majdak is also the main developed of SOFA, the file format to store spatially oriented acoustic data. Piotr initiated the development of the corresponding SOFA Toolbox, which is now mantained by Michael Mihocic. Further, Piotr is the leader of the AMT project: The Auditory Modeling Toolbox.
Projects
Publications
Publications
- Laback B.; Zimmermann I.; Majdak P. (2009) Perception of Interaural Time Differences in Electric and Acoustic Hearing. ISAAR 09. Helsingör S. CD-ROM.
- Goupell M. (2009) The localization of channel-vocoded stimuli in the median plane. . Lake Tahoe.
- Goupell M.; Laback B.; Majdak P.; Baumgartner W. D. (2008) Current-level discrimination and spectral profile analysis in multi-channel electrical stimulation. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Bd. 124, S. 3142-3157.
- Laback B.; Majdak P. (2008) Reply to van Hoesel: Binaural jitter with cochlear implants, improved interaural time-delay sensitivity, and normal hearing. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (PNAS), Bd. 105, S. E51.
- Majdak P. (2008) Lateralization of sounds based on interaural time differences in cochlear-implant listeners. . Graz.
- Majdak P.; Laback B.; Goupell M.; Mihocic M. (2008) The Accuracy of Localizing virtual Sound Sources: Effects of Pointing Method and Visual Environment. .
- Goupell M.; Laback B.; Majdak P.; Baumgartner W.D. (2008) Effects of upper-frequency boundary and spectral warping on speech intelligibility in electrical stimulation. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., S. 2295-2309.
- Marelli D.; Fu M.; Balazs P.; Majdak P. (2008) An Iterative Method for Approximating LTI Systems using Subbands. .
- Laback B.; Majdak P.; Goupell M. (2008) Binaural jitter improves ITD sensitivity of cochlear implantees and normal hearing listeners. Fortschritte in der Akustik, DAGA 08, Dresden. Dresden.
- Goupell M.; Laback B.; Majdak P.; Baumgartner W.D. (2008) Spectral Profile Analysis in Cochlear Implant Listeners. . Dresden.
- Goupell M.; Laback B.; Majdak P.; Baumgartner W.D. (2008) Sensitivity to Spectral Features for Sound Localization in Cochlear-Implant Listeners. .
- Laback B.; Majdak P. (2008) Binaural jitter improves interaural time difference sensitivity of cochlear implantees at high pulse rates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A (PNAS), Bd. 105, S. 814-817.
- Majdak P.; Laback B.; Balazs P. (2007) Multiple Exponential Sweep Method for Fast Measurement of Head Related Transfer Functions. Journal of the Acoustical Engineering Society (Journal of the Acoustical Engineering Society, ed.), Bd. No. 7/8, S. 623-637.
- Baumgartner W.D.; Laback B.; Majdak P. (2007) Interaural Time Differences in Ongoing and Gating Signal Portions in Acoustics and Electric Hearing: Model Results. .
- Goupell M.; Baumgartner W.D.; Laback B.; Majdak P. (2007) Effect of different frequency mappings on speech intelligibility for CI listeners. Fortschritte der Akustik. Stuttgart.
- Laback B.; Majdak P. (2007) Effect of center frequency on the sensitivity to interaural time differences in filtered pulse trains. DAGA 2007 (DEGA, ed.).
- Laback B.; Majdak P.; Baumgartner W.D. (2007) Lateralization discrimination of interaural time delays in four-pulse sequences in electric and acoustic hearing. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., S. 2182-2191.
- Majdak P.; Laback B.; Baumgartner W.-D. (2006) Effects of interaural time differences in fine structure and envelope on lateral discrimination in electrical hearing. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Bd. 120, S. 2190-2201.
- Laback B.; Majdak P.; Baumgartner W.D. (2005) Interaural Time Differences in Fine Structure, Onset, and Offset in Bilateral Electrical Hearing: Effects of Stimulus Duration. .
- Laback B.; Majdak P.; Baumgartner W.D. (2005) Interaural Time Differences in Fine Structure and Envelope in Bilateral Electrical and Acoustical Hearing. .
Additional Information
Additional Information
Functions
Piotr Majdak is responsible for ARI's experimental facilities. Since January 2016, he is the deputy director of the ARI.
Teaching
He teaches "Algorithmen in Akustik und Computermusik" (algorithms in acoustic and computer music) at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics, KUG in Graz. Since 2014, he also teaches "Audiotechnik" at the Fachhochschule Technikum Wien.
Professional societies and activities
Piotr Majdak is member of the ASA, AAA ,DEGA, ARO, and the president of the Austrian section of the AES.
Since December 2020 Piotr Majdak is chairing the technical comittee of the Psychological and Physiological Acoustics (PPA) of the European Acoustics Association (EAA)