Immersion and content-a framework for audio research

Audio technology is rapidly expanding to various directions. In addition to recording, transmission, storage, and reproduction of sounds it supports practically unlimited modification and generation of sounds and their properties. It is possible to create ever more immersive virtual soundscapes. Audio-related information is also considered not only as signals or data anymore: sound can be analyzed more and more deeply, approaching its content. The focus of this article is to discuss a framework in which modern audio signal and information processing could be placed to see more clearly the explored and unexplored realms of research. This is the author's personal framework that has helped in shaping research in the Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing at the Helsinki University of Technology, and hopefully some of the ideas and visions could be useful also to others working in the field.