Curriculum Vitae, Riitta Väänänen

 Riitta Elina Väänänen, PhD (EE).

Personal Information

 

Contents

• Personal information
• Education
• Relevant work experience
• Professional skills
• Language skills
• Other Activities
• List of Publications
• Invited Talks
• Certificates

Education

06/97-12/03	Post-graduate studies for the degree of Doctor of Technology in the Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering, and since 01/99 in the framework of the Pythagoras Graduate School (a program of scientific education for post-graduate students in the field of music and sound research). The public examination of the doctoral thesis was held in May 2003, and the final PhD graduation in December 2003.
	Topic of the major studies: Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, topic of the minor studies: Telecommunication Software and Applications (interactive digital media). Topic of the Doctoral Thesis: Modeling of room acoustics in interactive virtual reality applications.
06/97	Graduation as a Master of Science (PhD EE), Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering. Topic of the Masters Theses: Efficient Modeling and Simulation of Room Reverberation.
09/95-06/96	Erasmus exchange student. University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Northern Ireland.
08/89-06/97	Studies for the degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSc EE). Helsinki University of Technology,Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering. Major studies in Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, minor studies in Information Science.
05/89	Matriculation examination, Finland.
08/86-05/89	Hykkylän lukio, Helsinki, Finland (senior high school).

Relevant Work Experience

10/03 -	Senior Research Engineer in Nokia Research Center/Multimedia Laboratory, Helsinki, Finland.
08/02-09/03	Research scientist in the Room Acoustic Modeling Team at Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris. Authoring tool development and software integration for the creation, transmission and rendering of MPEG-4 format spatial sound scenes within the CARROUSO EU project. Continuation of the MPEG-4 standard development (completion of the 3D Audio profile conformance work).
03/01-02/02	Visiting PhD researcher in the Room Acoustic Modeling Team at Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Paris. Work on room acoustic parameter extraction from measured room impulse responses in the framework of the CARROUSO EU (IST) project, participation on the MPEG-4 consortium work.
06/97-08/02	Research scientist. Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing. Collaborating in the 3-D Sound Group. Conducting research on room reverberation modeling, and sound spatialization in interactive audiovisual virtual environments. Participation in and contribution into MPEG-4 standardization.
	Working for the MPEG-4 standardization process since 07/97. Participation in the MPEG (ISO/IEC SC29 Working Group 11) meetings during 01/98 - 12/99 (41st-50th meetings). Tasks in the standardization process: Progress with Advanced AudioBIFS proposals in the Systems part of MPEG-4 version 2. Editor of MPEG-4 version 2 standard. Co-chairman of the BIFS (Binary Format for Scenes) Ad Hoc Group. Implementation of the Advanced AudioBIFS in the reference software of the standard. Contributing to the conformance testing definitions and bitstream production for Advanced AudioBIFS, and to the definitions of a BIFS profile (for Systems version 3) that includes Advanced AudioBIFS functionalities.
06/96-06/97	Research assistant. Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing. Collaborating in the 3-D Sound Group of the Acoustics lab. Research on room acoustics and reverberation modeling.
06/95-08/95	Trainee. Telecom Finland. Working on audio data conversion and transmission issues.

Professional skills and ambitions

• Conducting research, research project management in international contexts.
• Digital audio signal processing: digital filter design, real-time audio effects filtering, audio processing algorithm design and implementation, filter design for parametric audio environment modeling.
• Programming: C, C++, Java, Pascal, Assembly (Texas Instruments TMSC30), Matlab, Tcl/Tk.
• Audio Scene Description development, implementation and authoring in context with audiovisual virtual environments.

Language skills

Finnish (mother tongue), English (fluent), French (basics), Swedish (basics), German (basics), Japanese (basics).

Other Activities

• 1993-1994 Instructor of Aikido in Meido-Kan ry.
• 1996- Member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES).
• 1997 Accountant of Akustiikan aineopiskelijat, a club of students interested in Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, part of Student Union of Helsinki University of Technology.
• 1997- Member of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA).

 

List of Publications

Theses:

Riitta Väänänen. Efficient Modeling and Simulation of Room Reverberation. Masters Thesis, 89 p. Helsinki University of Technology. June 1997.
 
Riitta Väänänen. Parametrization, Auralization, and Authoring of Room Acoustics for Virtual Reality Applications. Doctoral Thesis. 167 p. Helsinki University of Technology. May 2003.

 

International conference and journal papers:

Riitta Väänänen, Vesa Välimäki, Jyri Huopaniemi, and Matti Karjalainen. Efficient and Parametric Reverberator for Room Acoustics Modeling. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, pages 200-203, Thessaloniki, Greece, September 1997.

L. Savioja, J. Huopaniemi, T. Lokki, and R. Väänänen. Virtual environment simulation - Advances in the DIVA project. In International conference on auditory display (ICAD'97), pages 43-46, November 1997.

Tapio Lokki, Riitta Väänänen, Lauri Savioja, and Jyri Huopaniemi. A DSP solution for 3-D Audio in an Interactive Multimedia Environment. In Proceedings of the IEEE Nordic Signal Processing Symposium (NORSIG'98), Vigso, Denmark, June 1998. Institute of the Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

Eric D. Scheirer, Riitta Väänänen, and Jyri Huopaniemi. AudioBIFS, The MPEG-4 standard for effects processing. In Proceedins of the First COST-G6 Workshop on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX98), Barcelona, Spain, November 1998.

Takala, T., Rousku, E., Lokki, T., Savioja, L., Huopaniemi, J., Väänänen, R., Pulkki, V., and Salminen, P. 1998. MARIENKIRCHE - A visual and aural demonstration film. Presented in SIGGRAPH'98 Computer Animation Festival (Electronic Theater). Electronic Art and Animation Catalogue, pp. 149, Jul. 1998.

Lokki T., Väänänen, R., Savioja, L., and Huopaniemi, J. 1998. Advanced 3-D audio in an interactive multimedia environment. in Proc. IEEE Nordic Signal Processing Symposium (NORSIG'98), pp. 201-204, Vigsø, Denmark, June 8-11, 1998.

Lokki, T., Savioja, L., Huopaniemi, J., Hänninen, R., Ilmonen, T., Hiipakka, J., Pulkki, V., Väänänen, R., and Takala, T. 1999. Virtual Concerts in Virtual Spaces - in Real Time. (Invited paper) Joint ASA/EAA Meeting - a Special Session on Auditory Display, Berlin, Germany, March 14-19, 1999.

Eric D. Scheirer, Riitta Väänänen, and Jyri Huopaniemi. AudioBIFS: Describing Audio Scenes with the MPEG-4 Multimedia Standard. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 1(3), 1999.

Lauri Savioja, Jyri Huopaniemi, Tapio Lokki, and Riitta Väänänen. Creating Interactive Virtual Acoustic Environments. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 47(9), 1999.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Spatial presentation of sounds in scene description languages. Preprint 4921. Presented in the 106th AES Convention, Munich, May 1999.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Virtual Acoustics Rendering in MPEG-4 Multimedia Standard. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conferencde ICMC'99, pages 585-588, Beijing, October 1999.

Riitta Väänänen. Synthetic Audio Tools in MPEG-4 Standard. Preprint 5080 (25pp). Presented in the 108^th AES Convention, Paris, February 2000.

Riitta Väänänen, Jyri Huopaneimi, and Ville Pulkki. Comparison of Spatialization Techniques in the MPEG-4 Scene Description. To be presented in the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) 2000 in Berlin, August 2000

Riitta Väänänen, Jyri Huopaniemi. Spatial Processin of Sound in MEPG-4 Virtual Worlds. To be presented in X European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO) 2000 in Tampere, September 2000.

Jyri Huopaniemi, Lauri Savioja, Riitta Väänänen, and Tapio Lokki. Virtual Acoustics - Applications and Technology Trends. To be presented in X European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO) 2000 in Tampere, September 2000.

Riitta Väänänen, Analysis and Synthesis of Room Acoustics Using the MPEG-4 Scene Description, in Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2001), pp. 60-63, Havana, Cuba, September 18-22, 2001.

Riitta Väänänen, Olivier Warusfel, and Marc Emerit. Encoding and Rendering of Sound Scenes in the Carrouso Project. in Proceedings of the AES 22nd International Conference on Virtual, Synthetic and Entertainment Audio (AES22), pp. 289-297, Espoo, Finland, June 15-17, 2002.

Tapio Lokki, Lauri Savioja, Jyri Huopaniemi, Riitta Väänänen, and Tapio Takala. Sound Rendering – Creation of Interactive Virtual Auditory Environments. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 49-57, July/August 2002.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Advanced AudioBIFS: Virtual Acoustics Modeling in MPEG-4 Scene Description. Accepted for Publication (in 2002) in IEEE Transactions on Multimedia.

Riitta Väänänen. User interaction and authoring of 3D sound scenes in the Carrouso EU Project. Preprint No. 5764 of the 114^th Convention of the Audio Engineering Society (AES). Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 2003.

 

National Conferences and Seminars:

Selkärankaisten Suuntakuulo (Directional Hearing of Vertebrates). In: Backman, J., Huopaniemi, J., Rahkila, M. (editors). Seminar on Acoustics. Spatial hearing and auralization, Helsinki University of Technology, Report No. 36, pp. 9-23. 1995.

Riitta Väänänen. Digital Modeling of Room Reverberation. In: M. Karjalainen (ed.). Seminar on Audio Signal Processing. Methods for Digital Audio Signal Processing. Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, Report No. 41, pp. 139-160. 1996.

Riitta Väänänen. Huoneakustiikan mallintaminen digitaalisuotimien avulla (Modeling of room reverberation with the aid of digital signal processing). In Akustiikkapäivät, pages 95-100, Finland, Espoo, Oct 1997. Akustinen Seura ry.

Riitta Väänänen. Äänen esitys MPEG-4-standardissa (Presentation of Sound in MPEG-4 Standard). In: Välimäki, V. ja Karjalainen, M. (toim). Äänenkäsittleyn seminaari. Signaalinkäsittely audiotekniikassa, akustiikassa ja musiikissa, Helsinki University of Technology, Report No. 50, pp. 155-173. 1998.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Äänimaailman kuvaus MPEG-4 Standardissa (Description of sound scenes in MPEG-4 standard). In Akustiikkapäivät, pages 81-86, Tampere, October 1999. Akustinen seura ry.

Book chapters:

MPEG-4 Jump-start :

1. Chapter 11. Riitta Väänänen, “Introduction to Natural and Synthetic Audio Tools in MPEG-4”
2. Chapter 12. Riitta Väänänen, “Composition and Presentation of Sound in MPEG-4”
3. Chapter 13. Riitta Väänänen, “Enhanced modeling of 3-D sound scenes in MPEG-4”

The MPEG-4 Book. Prentice-Hall 2002. Touradj Ebrahimi (Editor), Fernando Pereira (Editor) Chapter 12: Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi, “SNHC Audio and Audio Composition”

 

MPEG documents:

MPEG Input Documents

Jyri Huopaniemi and Riitta Väänänen. Aspects in Definition and Implementation of Virtual Acoustic Objects the MPEG-4 Audio Compositor. Input document No. m2355 of the 40^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Stockholm, July 1997.

Jyri Huopaniemi and Riitta Väänänen. Advanced audio rendering capabilities in MPEG-4 version 2. BIFS. Input document No. m3103 of the 42^ndISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, San Jose. February 1998.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Advanced sound parameters in MPEG-4 version 2 BIFS. Input document No. m3440 of the 43^rdISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Tokyo. March 1998.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. A new node for directive sound source modeling in MPEG-4 version 2 BIFS. Input document No. m3501 of the 43^rdISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Tokyo. March 1998.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Additions to advanced audio BIFS in MPEG-4 version 2 BIFS. Input document No. m3559 of the 44^thISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Dublin. July 1998.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Requirements for the advanced audio BIFS. Input document No. m3842 of the 44^thISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Dublin. July 1998.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Current status and demonstrations of Advanced AudioBIFS. Input document No. m4305 of the 46^thISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Rome. December 1998.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Update to Advanced AudioBIFS; Physical approach. Input document No. m4590 of the 47^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Seoul, Korea, March 1999.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Refined definition of reverb in AcousticScene node of Advanced AudioBIFS. Input document No. m4922 of the 48^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Vancouver, Canada, July 1999.

Riitta Väänänen. Study on Systems PDAM (BIFS part). Input document No. m4289 of the 48^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Vancouver, Canada, July 1999.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Advanced AudioBIFS parameter harmonization. Input document No. m5212 of the 49^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Melbourne, Australia, October 1999.

Riitta Väänänen. Study on Systems version 2 BIFS (14496-1 FPDAM, part 2). Input document No. m5213 of the 49^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Melbourne, Australia, October 1999.

Riitta Väänänen and Jyri Huopaniemi. Proposals on MPEG-4 Version 2 Advanced AudioBIFS Conformance and Level Definitions. Input document No. m5597 of the 50^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Maui, Hawaii, December 1999.

Riitta Väänänen. Study on Systems FPDAM (BIFS part). Input document No. m5598 of the 50^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Maui, Hawaii, December 1999.

Riitta Väänänen, Jyri Huopaniemi. Draft text for Advanced AudioBIFS Conformance Testing (Physical Approach). Input document No. m5879 of the 51^st ISO/IEC JTC1/ SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Noordwijkerhout, March 2000.

Jyri Huopaniemi, Riitta Väänänen. Discussion on applications, profiles and levels of Advanced AudioBIFS. Input document No. m5901 of the 51^st ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Noordwijkerhout, March 2000.

Marc Emerit, Yannick Mahieux, Jean Bernard Rault, Marco Mattavelli, Giorgio Zoia, Riitta Väänänen, Jyri Huopaniemi, and Jean-Marc Jot. Advanced Audio Profile. Input document No. m6131 of the 53^rd ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting. Beijing, July 2000.

MPEG output documents

Riitta Väänänen, Atul Puri, Gerard Fernando, and Niels Rump. MPEG-4 version 2 Systems Working Draft 4.0. Output document No: m2524 of the 45^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Atlantic City. October 1998.

Riitta Väänänen, Atul Puri, Gerard Fernando, and Niels Rump. MPEG-4 version 2 Systems Working Draft 5.0. Output document No: w2611 of the 46^thISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/ WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Rome. December 1998.

Wiswanathan Swaminathan, Riitta Väänänen, Gerard Fernando, David Singer, and William Bellknap. ISO/IEC 14496-1/PDAM1, Committee Draft (Amendment for MPEG-4 Systems. Output document No: m2739 of the 47^thISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Seoul. March 1999.

Wiswanathan Swaminathan, Riitta Väänänen, Gerard Fernando, David Singer, and William Bellknap. ISO/IEC 14496-1/FPDAM1, Final Committee Draft (Amendment for MPEG-4 Systems). Output document No: w2801 of the 48^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/ WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Vancouver. July 1999.

Wiswanathan Swaminathan, Riitta Väänänen, Gerard Fernando, David Singer, William Bellknap, and Lim Young-Kwon. ISO/IEC 14496-1/FPDAM1, Study on Final Committee Draft (Final Proposed Draft Amendment 1 for MPEG-4 Systems). Output document No: w3020 of the 49^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Melbourne. October 1999.

Wiswanathan Swaminathan, Riitta Väänänen, Gerard Fernando, David Singer, William Bellknap, and Lim Young-Kwon. ISO/IEC 14496-1/FPDAM1, Final Draft Amendment 1 for MPEG-4 Systems. Output document No: w3054 of the 50^th ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) meeting, Maui, Hawaii. December 1999.

Invited Talks

Riitta Väänänen. MPEG-4 Version 2 Synthetic Audio Tools. Presented in MPEG-4 Seminar in July 1999 in Vancouver.

Riitta Väänänen. MPEG-4 Audio Composition. Presented at MPEG-4 Workshop at ISCAS 2000 in Geneva in May 2000.

Riitta Väänänen. MPEG-4 Synthetic Audio Coding. Presented at MPEG-4 Workshop at ISCAS 2000 in Geneva in May 2000.

Riitta Väänänen. MPEG-4 Synthetic audio coding and audio scene description. Presented in the MPEG-4 Workshop San Jose (CA) in June 2001.

Riitta Väänänen. MPEG-4 Synthetic audio coding and audio scene description. Presented in the MPEG-4 Workshop in Paris in April 2002.

Riitta Väänänen. IRCAM activities and the Carrouso EU project, National AES Seminar, Espoo in November 02.

 

Certificates

Certificate of Appreciation from ISO and IEC for acting as a project editor in the development of International Standard (ISO/IEC 14496-1: 2001, Information technology – Coding of audio-visual objects – Part 1: Systems) 

30/07/2006