Let the Children Listen: A First Approximation to the Sound Environment Assessment of Children through a Soundwalk Approach

The urban sound environment is one of the layers that characterizes a city, and several methodologies are used for its assessment, including the soundwalk approach. However, this approach has been tested mainly with adults. In the work presented here, the aim is to investigate a soundwalk methodology for children, analyzing the sound environment of five different sites of Gothenburg, Sweden, from children\u27s view-point, giving them the opportunity to take action as an active part of society. Both individual assessment of the sound environment and acoustic data were collected. The findings suggested that among significant results, children tended to rank the sound environment as slightly better when lower levels of background noise were present (LA90). Moreover, traffic dominance ratings appeared as the best predictor among the studied sound sources: when traffic dominated as a sound source, the children rated the sound environment as less good. Additionally, traffic volume appeared as a plausible predictor for sound environment quality judgments, since the higher the traffic volume, the lower the quality of the sound environment. The incorporation of children into urban sound environment research may be able to generate new results in terms of children\u27s understanding of their sound environment. Moreover, sound environment policies can be developed from and for children

Sound Environmental Development By Younger School Students As a Condition of Introduction to Culture

The article reveals the significance of the sound environment in the formation of the audio culture of a person; The author’s definitions of the terms “sound environment”, “personality culture” are given, the interdependence and interdependence of the sound environment and personality culture is revealed, the role of school disciplines in the development of the pupils’ sound space is indicated. The author presents the author’s program the formation of the audial culture of students in elementary school. Keywords: sound environment, audio culture, development of a sound environment, formation of audio culture, younger students

Sound environment analysis in smart home

International audienceThis study aims at providing audio-based interaction technology that lets the users have full control over their home environment, at detecting distress situations and at easing the social inclusion of the elderly and frail population. The paper presents the sound and speech analysis system evaluated thanks to a corpus of data acquired in a real smart home environment. The 4 steps of analysis are signal detection, speech/sound discrimination, sound classification and speech recognition. The results are presented for each step and globally. The very first experiments show promising results be it for the modules evaluated independently or for the whole system

Isolating key features in urban traffic dynamics and noise emission: a study on a signalized intersection and a roundabout

Urban planning and transport network are considered as major urban systems with great impact on the sound environment. Most of the work done in transport management and traffic design to improve the quality of both outdoor and indoor sound environment relies on conventional noise mapping software outcomes. This type of tool is based on macroscopic traffic modelling, considering traffic flow as a steady noise source. A commonly implemented practice intended to reduce noise in urban areas is the transformation of a signalised crossing into a roundabout. However, the individual vehicle behaviour becomes relevant in these decisions, where high time-pattern fluctuations are responsible for changes in the quality of the urban sound environment and of human activity. The present paper studies a set of indicators from isolated key features in these two road traffic configurations and their possible variations (acceleration, heavy vehicles, etc.). A VISSIM microscopic traffic simulation model combined with the CNOSSOS-EU noise emission model is used to test cases based on real situations, now in development stage. The approach presented aims to provide stronger basis in the reasoning behind why different road traffic configurations adopted in the urban planning practice give certain effects in relation to the urban sound environment

Sound pleasantness evaluation of pedestrian walks in urban sound environments

ICA 2016, 22nd International Congress on Acoustics, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINE, 05-/09/2016 - 09/09/2016The health benefits of a daily physical activity, and of walking in particular, are widely acknowledged. However, walking in urban environment inevitably leads to an increased exposure to noise, which forms a drawback of choosing this transportation mode. Being able to estimate the sound pleasantness associated with an urban walk trip has many potential applications, such as informing pedestrians about the sound along their intended walk, which may help them to optimize their route choice. In the past decade, various studies have focused on characterizing and estimating the sound pleasantness perceived at specific locations, on the basis of perceptive and physical measurements. However, to estimate the sound pleasantness along an urban walking trip, an additional step is required, which consists of assessing how a pedestrian evaluates the overall pleasantness of a sound environment that varies along the walking trip. In this work, the results of two laboratory experiments and one field experiment are discussed, which were designed to assess the overall evaluation of the sound environment along an urban walk. Physical and perceptive measurements at specified positions or continuously along a series of tested routes are available, in addition to a global evaluation of the route. A comparison between the results of the three experiments provides a rich source of information to understand how the sound pleasantness of a pedestrian walk is evaluated. The main conclusion is that for short walks (of about 1 minute), a recency effect is observed, which tends to disappear when the duration of the walk increases

Plastic modes of listening: affordance in constructed sound environments

This thesis is concerned with how the ecological approach to perception with the inclusion of listening modes, informs the creation of sound art installation, or more specifically as referred to in this thesis as constructed sound environments. The basis for the thesis has been a practiced based research where the aim and purpose of the written part of this PhD project has been to critically investigate the area of sound art, in order to map various approaches towards participating in and listening to a constructed sound environment. The main areas has been the notion of affordance as coined by James J. Gibson (1986), listening modes as coined by Pierre Schaeffer (1966) and further developed by Michel Chion (1994), aural architects as coined by Blesser and Salter (2007) and the holistic approach towards understanding sound art developed by Brandon LaBelle (2006). The findings within the written part of the thesis, based on a qualitative analysis, have informed the practice that has resulted in artefacts in the form of seven constructed sound environments that also functions as case studies for further analysis. The aim of the practice has been to exemplify the methodology, strategy and progress behind the organisation and construction of sound environments The research concerns points towards the acknowledgment of affordance as the crucial factor in understanding a constructed sound environment. The affordance approach govern the idea that perceiving a sound environment is a top-down process where the autonomic quality of a constructed sound environment is based upon the perception of structures of the sound material and its relationship with speaker placement and surrounding space. This enables a researcher to side step the conflicting poles of musical/abstract and non-musical/realistic classification of sound elements and regard these poles as included, not separated elements in the analysis of a constructed sound environment

The Pedagogical Potential of Auditory Culture

The article reveals the pedagogical potential of the auditory culture, gives definitions of the terms ‘auditory social culture’ and ‘auditory personal culture’, and explores the significance of the auditory culture in harmonizing the sound environment. The author outlines the structure and the content of pedagogical approach required to develop auditory culture of elementary students.     Keywords: sound environment, auditory culture, pedagogical potential of auditory culture, formation of auditory culture, teaching methodology, junior school childre

Comparison between audio and tactile systems for delivering simple navigational information to visually impaired pedestrians

Many of the current GPS (Global Positioning Systems) navigation aids use an audio method to deliver navigation information to the user. For the visually impaired person this method can be problematic. The visually impaired pedestrian relies heavily on information contained within the ambient sound environment; for location and orientation information, navigation information, and importantly, safety information. In this paper we present the design of an innovative tactile interface and verification of results obtained through experimental trials. This pilot study compared the efficiency of the tactile interface, to an audio method of delivering simple navigational information. The findings indicate that the tactile interface could be used successfully by blind and sighted pedestrians and may offer advantages over auditory interfaces

Effect of children on the sound environment in fast-food restaurants

While an increasing number of studies are examining the effect of the sound environment in restaurants, this study is the first to examine the effect of children on the sound environment of dining areas. We measured children's behaviour and the sound pressure level in a dining area and investigated acoustic comfort and sound source to ascertain the influence of the number of children, behaviour, and gender combinations while playing on the sound environment of a typical fast-food restaurant in Harbin City, China. The results demonstrate that, first, with fewer than four children, the sound pressure level (SPL) increases significantly when the number of children increases (e.g., by 2.8dBA per child). However, when the number of children exceeds four, the SPL is almost stabilised. Second, sound sources heard by people in the dining area can also be influenced by the number of children; the sound of communication among children increased by 12% and then decreased by 20% as the number of children increased. Finally, the number of children affects acoustic comfort by 2.2 (on a 5 point scale) due to the duration of the Max SPL, and by 1.0 due to the percentage of screaming and communicating. These results demonstrate that the sound environment can be improved by changing the number of children and their combination groups