Pressroom

What do localization and networking have in common with the Internet of Things? Both technologies are the basis for interactive and self-sufficient Industry 4.0 processes and smart mobility applications. A self-calibrating localization system allows flexible processes, tools, driverless transport systems, assembly systems etc. set-up, re-design and adapt to new work processes easily and in real time - in the production hall as well as outdoors. Beautiful vision or reality? The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in cooperation with the Fraunhofer CCIT Research Center IoT Comms will show how this can be achieved at Hannover Industry Trade Show 2021. For this, the localization and communication specialists will present technologies and solutions as well as a unique 5G testbed for Industry 4.0, in which companies can already realize and experience tomorrow today.

Erlangen: Organized by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the “Energy-efficient AI systems” pilot innovation contest posed the challenge: “Which team can produce a chip that detects atrial fibrillation in ECG data with at least 90 percent accuracy while consuming the least energy possible?” On March 11, 2021, Federal Minister of Education and Research Anja Karliczek presented prizes to the winners, which included the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in collaboration with Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

With “Music, Makers & Machines” Google Arts & Culture introduces an interactive online format to capture the progress and relevance of electronic music. The platform is the outcome of a collaboration of more than 50 key players, among them also Fraunhofer IIS. With “mp3 and more”, Fraunhofer IIS introduces the history of mp3 and the working principles of audio coding.

Satellite-enabled 5G services have the potential to provide worldwide connectivity. For the first time now, selected extensions of 5G New Radio (NR) to support non-terrestrial networks (NTN) have been successfully demonstrated over a geostationary (GEO) satellite. The Munich Center for Space Communications of the Bundeswehr University Munich carried out the bidirectional over-the-air tests based on the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS’s extended 5G New Radio protocol stack for satellite.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and the Belgian technology provider for compression solutions intoPIX S.A. today announce a worldwide patent licensing program for JPEG XS based software and hardware solutions. A JPEG XS license pool is currently being set up and expected to be fully rolled out by June 2021. The licensing program addresses the IPR conditions for use of JPEG XS in both cloud-based services and professional and consumer devices.

At the beginning of 2021, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft launched 6G SENTINEL, a lighthouse project to develop key technologies for the future 6G mobile communications standard. Under the project leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, five participating Fraunhofer Institutes are pooling their expertise in order to collectively attain a position at the technological vanguard of 6G research. The focus of their work will be on terahertz technologies and solutions for flexible networks.

Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Grill, who has been Institute Director at Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen with responsibility for audio and media technologies since 2016, has been appointed honorary professor at the School of Business, Economics and Society at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), effective as of January 21, 2021. University President Prof. Joachim Hornegger presented Grill with the official certificate.

On January 1, 2021, Dr. Denise Müller-Friedrich and Dr. Jens-Uwe Garbas took on joint responsibility for the Smart Sensing and Electronics research division at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. They succeed Josef Sauerer, who had been in charge since 2016.

Fraunhofer IIS, primary developer of the xHE-AAC audio codec, today announced that Netflix is now using the xHE-AAC audio codec. Netflix has licensed Fraunhofer’s high-quality xHE-AAC software and is using it to encode its entire catalog of TV series, documentaries and feature films across a variety of genres and languages.

Fraunhofer IIS, an institute of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany, has announced a new web-based test service that developers and manufacturers can use to validate their implementations of the xHE-AAC® audio codec for compliance with MPEG standards. The service, which is available exclusively at https://test.xhe-aac.com, is free to use upon registration with Fraunhofer IIS and will test both encoders and decoders.

Dr. Bernhard Grill, since 2016 Institute Director at Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen with responsibility for audio and media technologies, celebrates his 60th birthday on January 5, 2020. He is one of the co-developers of the mp3 format.

Ten years ago, at the start of the 2010 academic year, a unique collaboration was established between Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS: the International Audio Laboratories Erlangen. Since then, the research organization has become an internationally renowned institution with six professorships of its own and a team of 50 people.

Media digitalization is his business. Dr. Siegfried Foessel is Head of the Moving Picture Technology department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, and he shares his expertise with students at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). Now, HFF has made the motion picture expert an honorary professor. It will be his responsibility to integrate advances in technology into the curriculum.

Sound United LLC, parent company to Denon, Polk Audio, Marantz, Definitive Technology, HEOS, Classé, and Boston Acoustics, alongside Fraunhofer IIS, primary developer of the MPEG-H Audio standard, today announced the immediate availability of the MPEG-H 3D Audio format across a wide range of home theater products. The selected Denon and Marantz AV amplifiers and AV preprocessors will receive MPEG-H support via a firmware update.

Loose screws at important connection points are a considerable safety risk. The Research Center IoT-COMMs – part of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT – has developed a smart screw connection that enables wireless, self-powered monitoring. A thin-film sensor measures force effects on the screw connection as well as changes in the ambient temperature at the installation site. The screw regularly transmits load data via the standardized mioty® wireless protocol for monitoring purposes. The aim is to implement a self-powered approach to the permanent long-term monitoring of structures such as bridges, scaffolding and wind power plants. The solution will be presented for at the SPS Connect.

The new LoPAN wireless technology from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS paves the way for numerous practical applications, such as connecting temperature sensors to an air-conditioning system to reduce energy costs and simultaneously or selectively monitoring and controlling numerous blinds, postboxes, and heating systems over a remote connection. This technology links up and networks any number of sensors via a single base station. Unlike conventional remote maintenance and control applications for smart homes and smart buildings, LoPAN brings together advantages such as high energy efficiency, broadcast communication, a long range of several kilometers, and highly robust and therefore reliable transmission of the required sensor data – even in the vicinity of coexisting wireless protocols or in challenging environmental conditions.

M³Infekt, a Fraunhofer cluster project, aims to develop a monitoring system that enables early intervention in the event that a patient’s condition suddenly starts to deteriorate. It will be a modular, multimodal and mobile system, and will also be suitable for use in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. By facilitating the required intervention at an early stage, the system helps to lessen the effects of disease, shorten the duration of therapy and make flexible use of intensive care wards.

Police, customs, fire brigades, critical infrastructure – they all increasingly depend on satellite navigation. But satnav is easy to disrupt and manipulate. A research team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has found a fix for this security predicament. Robust, trustworthy and tamper-proof – with this solution the team receives one of four Joseph von Fraunho-fer Prizes 2020, each endowed with 50,000 euros.

A new webinar series featuring a distinguished panel of experts in standardization, broadcast and production workflows will talk about pioneering solutions for immersive audio and video production, efficient delivery formats and live encoders for broadcast and OTT, as well as creation of enhanced consumer experiences.

The standardized JPEG XS codec was developed to handle media workflows from acquisition to the distribution encoder by using inter-net settings and Ethernet infrastructure only. The Fraunhofer IIS expert team for video coding successfully implemented a pilot project for streaming of 8k video over IP in cooperation with the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

As a pioneer in applied research, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft brings together the expertise of 23 separate Fraunhofer facilities to develop new development and production technologies for innovative cell and gene therapeutics, as well as vaccines, in the “Production for Intelligent Medicine” innovation cluster. As a first step of the project, a concept for a modular pilot plant for the automatic production of these therapeutics is to be developed combining both Industry 4.0 and Health 4.0.

Fraunhofer IIS is pleased to announce the licensing of its MPEG-H Audio patents to Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., allowing Samsung to manufacture products that feature MPEG-H Audio.

Fraunhofer IIS welcomes the release and official adoption of the MPEG-H 3D Audio Baseline Profile. The new profile was designed to exactly meet the business and technical needs of the industry.

Germany has launched its own Coronavirus Warning App on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), following development by SAP SE and Deutsche Telekom AG, the new app could prove a key digital component in the fight to control and contain the current coronavirus pandemic. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft continues to be closely involved in technical aspects of the project – in particular, key components used to estimate physical distance by means of the exposure notification API (application programming interface).

The Development Center X-ray Technology EZRT at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has further developed the "ntCT" nano CT system in collaboration with partners. This improved system is now commercially available via the system integrator, ProCon X-Ray. "ntCT" is suitable for the microscopically fine investigation of sample objects with a resolution of up to 150 nanometers. By integrating the latest generation of X-ray tubes, the system now supplies outstanding resolution while also greatly reducing the measuring time.

At the embedded world 2020 the mioty alliance was introduced to a large audience of leading companies from research & industry, such as Texas Instruments, Fraunhofer-Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, and Diehl Metering. Since then the alliance has registered an ever-growing number of enterprises that have decided to join. The mioty joint patent licensing program has been organized by Sisvel International S.A. to make mioty technology available for innovative LPWAN applications in various areas like Industrial IoT, Smart City or in smart buildings. The new Fraunhofer IIS features for robust, reliable and energy-efficient solutions, like Energy Harvesting, provide an attractive technology pool to boost massive IoT applications.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is working together with partners PreciPoint GmbH, HTI Automation GmbH, the Department of Pathology at the University Hospital Regensburg and the Technical University of Munich to create an automated digital pathology system. Fraunhofer IIS intends to find a way of assessing the quality of tissue samples and weeding out any unsuitable ones before the samples are loaded for scanning. This will save valuable time by preventing unnecessary scans and means that pathologists won’t end up with substandard specimens.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) invests in the development of new electronic systems and supports joint research projects that advance the Industry 4.0 agenda. KI-PREDICT, a project funded by the BMBF, aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) at various levels of the manufacturing process to enable condition-based, predictive maintenance for factory equipment and to monitor product quality on the fly during production. Seven partners are taking part in this project, one being the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. It is developing a sensor interface application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Fine-tuned for sensors that monitor the condition of equipment and help control processes in real time, this ASIC will enable energy-efficient feature extraction and local, on-sensor signal processing.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS participates in the multinational initiative "Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing" (PEPP-PT) for a cross-border platform and framework on the basis of which privacy-compliant apps can be developed to help contain the COVID19 pandemic. The Fraunhofer IIS expert team for networking coordinates the methods and algorithm development of Bluetooth-supported distance estimation and implements the different methods.

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, inventor of mp3 and primary developer of xHE-AAC and the MPEG-H Audio standard, announced that NXP® Semiconductors will leverage Fraunhofer’s MPEG audio SDK. This software package covers four generations of audio codecs: legacy MPEG Layer-1/2/3 as well as the next-generation MPEG-H 3D Audio standard and the AAC codec family, including xHE-AAC. NXP will incorporate these codecs into its multimedia system solutions, which raise the bar for audio quality in home entertainment products, such as set-top boxes, soundbars or smart speakers.