Reshaping Spatial Acoustics (RESPA)

Description

RESPA investigates how sound in AR is never simply "natural," but is always mediated by technology, space, and listening practices. Combining perspectives from empirical aesthetics, philosophy of technology, acoustic studies, and perception research, the project seeks to understand how virtual and real-world sounds blend and what makes AR audio feel plausible, meaningful, and ethically acceptable. A central outcome of the project is an AR telepresence demo developed at the Aalto Acoustics Lab, in which users wearing mixed reality glasses can see and hear a remote person as a life-sized hologram that is visually and acoustically integrated into their real environment. This demo serves as a test bed for studying how sound influences presence, communication, and interpersonal distance in hybrid digital–physical spaces. RESPA's insights will inform future design guidelines for AR audio, taking into account the aesthetic, emotional, and ethical dimensions of embodied listening.