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Matthias Hoffmann-Kuhnt

Research Fellow

Matthias got a masters degree in Zoology (on mental rotation in bottlenose dolphins) from the University of Regensburg, Germany and got his PhD from the University of Berlin, Germany (visual and acoustic vigilance in bottlenose dolphins). Before coming to ARL, he worked at KBMML in Hawaii for 10 years (a decade with Dolphins!) where he was involved in cognitive and sensory research on bottlenosed dophins and behavioural fieldwork with Humpback whales. Matthias loves to dive, surf & hike. He also loves cooking, playing piano, classical music, photography and books. recently he has ventured into paragliding… and is still scared of heights! His favorite color is BLUE (just in case you were thinking of getting him a Hawaiian shirt). As to his reasons for migrating to ARL form KBMML, he says “If I would have stayed any longer in Hawaii, I would have grown a dorsal fin and started to whistle and click!” (he already does).

When Matthias is not riding around on his VROD, he is working on Biosonar (dolphin echolocation) and Humpback Whale song and sound localization. At present he spends a lot of time in Hong Kong for a collaboration with Ocean Park working there with two pacific bottlenose dolphins, Ginsan and Angel.

  • mahoku@nus.edu.sg

Publications

  1. C. Wei, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, W. W. Au, A. Z. Ho, E. Matrai, W. Feng, D. R. Ketten, and Y. Zhang, “Possible limitations of Dolphin Echolocation: A simulation study based on a cross-modal matching experiment,” Scientific Reports, vol. 11, pp. 6689, March 2021. [ DOI | .pdf ]
  2. E. Matrai, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, and S. T. Kwok, “Lateralization in accuracy, reaction time and behavioral processes in discrimination task in an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops Aduncus),” Behavioural Processes, vol. 162, pp. 112–118, 2019. [ DOI | .pdf ]
  3. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, D. Herzing, A. Ho, and M. A. Chitre, “Whose Sound is it Anyway? Identifying the Vocalizer on Underwater Video by Localizing with a Hydrophone Array,” Animal Behavior and Cognition, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 288–298, 2016. [ DOI | .pdf ]
  4. E. Matrai, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, A. Tse, and A. Z. H. Ho, “Horizontal and Vertical Echoic Angular Resolution in the Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus),” in Society for Marine Mammalogy Biennial Conference, (San Francisco, USA), December 2015. (Poster Presentation). [ .pdf ]
  5. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, A. Z. H. Ho, V. N. Hari, M. Chitre, E. Matrai, and A. Tse, “Buzz that Rod! Acoustic Analysis and Patterns of the Echolocation Signals of a Blindfolded Bottlenose Dolphin Performing a Horizontal and Vertical Angular Resolution Task,” in Society for Marine Mammalogy Biennial Conference, (San Francisco, USA), December 2015. (Poster Presentation). [ .pdf ]
  6. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, A. Z. H. Ho, and M. Chitre, “Dolphin “Echo-Imaging”: Recent Advances Investigating the Dolphin’s Abilities to Recognize Shapes through Echolocation,” in 12th International Conference on Theoretical and Computational Acoustics (ICTCA 2015), (Hangzhou, China), October 2015. (Invited).
  7. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, E. Matrai, A. J. G. Bouchage, A. Z. H. Ho, A. Tse, K. Kwok, and M. A. Chitre, “Size almost Doesn’t Matter! Cross-Modal Matching of Complex Shapes Across Different Ratios and Sizes by a Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus),” in 20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand), December 2013.
  8. E. Matrai, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, A. Tse, and J. Lee, “Shape consistency across normal and abstract objects in a cross-modal matching-to-sample study with an Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus),” in 20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Dec 2013.
  9. S. Li, D. Wang, X. Wang, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, N. Fernando, E. A. Taylor, W. Lin, J. Chen, and T. Ng, “Likely Age-related Hearing Loss (Presbycusis) in a Stranded Sousa chinensis (Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin),” in Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, Budapest, Hungary, Aug 2013.
  10. S. Li, D. Wang, X. Wang, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, N. Fernando, E. A. Taylor, W. Lin, J. Chen, and T. Ng, “Possible age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) and corresponding change in echolocation parameters in a stranded Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin,” Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 216, pp. 4144–4135, 2013. [ .pdf ]
  11. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M. Chitre, E. Mátrai, K. Yeo, and J. Lee, “Dolphin echolocation – synthetic aperture or `raster scanning’?,” in Acoustics 2012 Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition, (Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre), May 2012.
  12. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M. Chitre, E. Mátrai, K. Yeo, and J. Lee, “Dolphin echolocation—synthetic aperture or “raster scanning”?,” in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 131, pp. 3362–3362, 2012. [ DOI | http ]
  13. S. Li, D. Wang, X. Wang, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, N. Fernando, E. A. Taylor, P. J. Seekings, W. Lin, and J. Chen, “Presbycusis in a stranded Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis)?,” in The Third Symposium of Cetacean Research and Conservation Cross Taiwan Strait, Nanjing, China, Nov 2012. (Invited).
  14. J. Simmons, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, T. M. Leong, S. Hiryu, H. Riquimaroux, J. M. Knowles, and C. F. Moss, “The variety of broadband echolocation sounds and their implications for biosonar processing,” in 164th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City Marriott Downtown Hotel, Mansan City, United States , Oct 2012.
  15. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M. Chitre, R. Wellard, J. Lee, G. Abel, K. Yeo, and J.-L. Chew, “Is synthetic aperture an essential tool for echoic shape recognition in dolphins?,” in OCEANS 2011 MTS/IEEE, (Kona, Hawaii, USA), September 2011. [ DOI | .pdf ]
  16. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, R. Wellard, J. Lee, E. Matrai, and M. A. Chitre, “Cross-Modal Matching of Rotated Stimuli by a Bottlenose Dolphin,” in 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, (Tampa Convention Center, Florida, USA), Dec 2011. [ .pdf ]
  17. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, “Biosonar research – from KBMML to ARL,” in 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals (Invited paper), Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, United States, Dec 2011. (Invited).
  18. M. Doniec, C. Detweiler, I. Vasilescu, M. Chitre, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, and D. Rus, “Aquaoptical: A lightweight device for high-rate long-range underwater point-to-point communication,” Marine Technology Society Journal, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 55–65, 2010.
  19. M. Doniec, I. Vasilescu, C. Detweiler, D. Rus, M. Chitre, and M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, “AQUAOPTICAL: A lightweight device for high-rate long-range underwater point-to-point communication,” in OCEANS 2009 MTS/IEEE, (Biloxi, MS, USA), October 2009. [ DOI ]
  20. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, P. J. Seekings, and M. A. Chitre, “ASPOD — acoustic source position overlay device – real-time visual and acoustic localization of marine mammals,” in 18th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, (Quebec, Canada), October 2009.
  21. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt and M. A. Chitre, “Do dolphins use synthetic aperture during echolocation shape perception?,” in 5th Animal Sonar Symposium, Kyoto, Japan, 2009. (Invited).
  22. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M. Chitre, P. Seekings, and G. Abel, “Acoustics of shape recognition by a dolphin in a cross-modal matching-to-sample paradigm,” in ASA-EAA Joint Conference Acoustics’08, Paris, France, vol. 123, p. 3361, 2008. (Invited).
  23. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M. A. Chitre, J. R. Potter, and C. Cai, “What do dolphins see in sound? – a simulation of the backscattered sound field from an object insonified by an echolocation click,” in 17th Biennial conference on the biology of marine mammals (P. Best and M. Bester, eds.), (Cape Town, South Africa), December 2007.
  24. J. R. Potter, A. A. Pack, J. Reidenberg, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, P. J. Seekings, M. A. Chitre, T. B. Koay, and L. M. Herman, “Humpback whale song source location in the head, source levels and directionality from in-situ rebreather diver recordings,” in 17th Biennial conference on the biology of marine mammals (P. Best and M. Bester, eds.), (Cape Town, South Africa), December 2007.
  25. J. R. Potter, A. A. Pack, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, T. B. Koay, P. Seekings, and M. A. Chitre, “A Synchronised Acoustic Array, Rangefinder & Video System With Examples From Singing Humpback Whales (Megaptera Noveangliae),” in European Cetacean Society 2007, April 23-25 2007. [ .pdf ]
  26. T. B. Koay, P. J. Seeking, M. Chitre, S. P. Tan, and M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, “Advanced PANDA for high speed autonomous ambient noise data collection and boat tracking – system and results,” in OCEANS 2006 MTS/IEEE – Asia Pacific, (Singapore), pp. 1–9, May 2006. [ DOI | .pdf ]
  27. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, S. Duncan, R. Kinoshita, G. Abel, and G. Wong, “Matching across the senses — how to train dolphins to integrate vision and echolocation?,” in International Marine Animal Trainers Association, Honolulu, USA, 2006.
  28. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M. A. Chitre, J. R. Potter, and W. J. Lee, “Dolphin echolocation – seeing through the clutter,” in 16th Biennial Conference of the Biology of Marine Mammals, (San Diego, USA), December 2005.
  29. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M. Chitre, and J. Potter, “”Ghosts in the image” – aliasing problems with incoherent synthetic aperture using a sparse array,” in OCEANS 2004 MTS/IEEE TECHNO-OCEAN ’04, vol. 2, (Kobe, Japan), pp. 621–625, November 2004. [ DOI | .pdf ]
  30. M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, J. R. Potter, A. A. Pack, T. B. Koay, M. H. Deakos, L. M. Herman, and C. Durville, “Up close and personal: Recording humpback whale song at close ranges (10-50m),” in OCEANS 2003 MTS/IEEE, (San Diego, CA, USA), p. 472, September 2003.
  31. A. A. Pack, L. M. Herman, and M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, “Dolphin echolocation shape perception: from sound to object,” in Echolocation in Bats and Dolphins (J. Thomas, C. Moss, and M. Vater, eds.), pp. 298–308, University of Chicago Press; Chicago & London, 2003.
  32. A. A. Pack, L. M. Herman, M. Hoffmann-Kuhnt, and B. K. Branstetter, “The object behind the echo: Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) perceive object shape globally through echolocation,” Behavioural Processes, vol. 58, pp. 1–26, 2002. [ .pdf ]