Design and implementation of a multi-octave-band audio camera for realtime diagnosis

Noise pollution investigation takes advantage of two common methods of diagnosis: measurement using a Sound Level Meter and acoustical imaging. The former enables a detailed analysis of the surrounding noise spectrum whereas the latter is rather used for source localization. Both approaches complete each other, and merging them into a unique system, working in realtime, would offer new possibilities of dynamic diagnosis. This paper describes the design of a complete system for this purpose: imaging in realtime the acoustic field at different octave bands, with a convenient device. The acoustic field is sampled in time and space using an array of MEMS microphones. This recent technology enables a compact and fully digital design of the system. However, performing realtime imaging with resource-intensive algorithm on a large amount of measured data confronts with a technical challenge. This is overcome by executing the whole process on a Graphic Processing Unit, which has recently become an attractive device for parallel computing

Block-sparse approach for the identification of complex sound sources in a room

International audienceGeometrical acoustic softwares are necessary to produce auralizations for specific sound environment. Whether the room impulse response computation require point-source and receiver to be of omnidirectional sensitivity, the influence of their directivity on the resulting virtual audio rendering Is relevant. It is then crucial to account for when simulating accurately a calibrate acoustic model.We treats here the case of the source directivity. The use of a spherical surrounding microphone array remains the most natural way to measure it. The source is located inside the delimiting volume. The radiated pressure is sampled at fixed points. The directivity pattern is then computed in term of spherical harmonics functions. But due to hardware complexity, most of the spherical antennas in the litterature have a few number of microphones. This limits the performance of the antenna in term of resolution and bandwidth. Also, decomposition errors can appear with a possible mismatch between the acoustic center of the source and the origin of the array. An additional optimization task is required which increases the complexity of the process.In this paper, we propose a practical strategy, comprising a dedicated algorithm and an array design, to estimate the directivity pattern of complex sound sources. The study takes place in reverberant rooms.Firstly, we describe a greedy-sparse algorithm called Block Orthogonal Matching Pursuit. By this iterative approach, the identification and characterization tasks can be joint in a unique scheme. This facilitates the acoustic center research. However, under non-anechoic conditions, BlockOMP fails because of the free-field propagation assumption. Considering the first reflections to approximate the room transfer function permits to solve the inverse problem. The notion of virtual microphone arrays, based on an analogy with the Image Source Method, is introduced to extend the validity of BlockOMP. Numerical results supply a proof of the concept in a scenario including multiple acoustic sources.Secondly, a large three-dimensional microphone array is deployed. Largeness concerns here in both its dimensions and the number of microphones. The array consists of five sub-planes which surround the entire room where sources are located. The acquisition system comprises digital MEMS microphones chips. The entire signal processing chain is directly integrated on the captor. The microphones are flush mounted on the walls of the room. The true location of the sensors is known, given by an acoustic geometrical calibration step. The 1024 MEMS record synchronously the pressure signal emitted by the sources. From each harmonic spectral component, a sparse spherical harmonics decomposition of each target can be achieved.An experiment is performed to assert the efficiency of the proposed strategy. The goal is to recover the nature of two prototypes of source. They are build from an unbaffled loudspeaker, arranged to show a dipole and a quadripole behaviour. Their directivity pattern are previously measured under controlled conditions using a semi-circular array of 64 microphones. This database serves here as reference. For the experiment, they emit the same signal simultaneous. The results with our system indicates good correlations. Separating both the sound radiating contribution is well achieved. Our last study case deals with the voice directivity measurements. If the dependence with the frequency has been established, the effect of the phonema variation is rarely identified. We demonstrate here that our apparatus constitutes a powerful tool to examine this aspect

Le dimorphisme sexuel de conformation de l’os coxal humain. Bases biologiques et nouvelles applications possibles

L’importance du dimorphisme sexuel de l’os coxal humain est une propriété très abondamment exploitée pour la diagnose sexuelle du squelette. Une analyse morphométrique basée sur les concepts de la morphologie mathématique permet de mettre en évidence les zones de l’os coxal qui présentent le plus fort dimorphisme de conformation. Il s’agit essentiellement de l’ilium dans son ensemble, du plan sacré et du pubis. Le pubis est déjà très largement utilisé dans les techniques de diagnose sexuelle. Il pourrait être possible de développer et de tester des approches exploitant davantage le dimorphisme sexuel de conformation de l’ilium et de sa partie postérieure. Ceci serait un avantage pour les os coxaux fragmentaires et pourrait éventuellement être applicable à la diagnose sexuelle d’os coxaux de représentants non-modernes du genre Homo.The extent of sexual dimorphism of the human hip bone is a characteristic widely exploited in sex diagnosis of the skeleton. A morphometrical analysis based on the concepts of mathematical morphology allows clear attribution of the areas of the pelvic bone which present the greatest dimorphism in shape. These are the ilium in its entirety, the sacral plane and the pubis. The pubis is already very widely used in techniques of sexual diagnosis. It should be possible to develop and test new approaches which deal more with the conformational dimorphism of the ilium and its posterior part. This would be an advantage in the case of fragmentary pelvic bones and could possibly be used for assessing the sex of pelvic remains of non-modern fossil Homo

Obstetrical Constraints and the Origin of Extended Postnatal Brain Maturation in Hominin Evolution

The origin of difficult birth is still a matter of debate in obstetrics. Recent studies hypothesized that early hominins already experienced obstructed labor even with reduced neonatal head sizes. The aim of this work is to test this hypothesis using an extant obstetrical sample with known delivery outcomes. Three delivery outcomes (i.e., instrument-assisted, Caesarean section, and vaginal birth) were evaluated using a discriminant analysis based on 131 mother–baby dyads and 36 feto-pelvic variables. This obstetrical sample was compared with 20 australopithecine “dyads” generated from the combination of six pelvic reconstructions (three for Australopithecus afarensis, two for A. africanus, and one for A. sediba) and three fetal head size estimations. The obstetrical analysis revealed that dystocic births can be predicted by pelvic features such as an anteroposteriorly flattened pelvic inlet. Australopithecines shared these pelvic morphologies with humans and had eutocic birth only for infants of 110 g brain size or smaller, equaling a human-like neonatal/adult brain size ratio of 25–28%. Although birth mechanism cannot be deduced, the newborn/adult brain size ratio was likely more human-like than previously thought, suggesting that australopithecines were secondarily altricial to circumvent instances of obstructed labor and subsequently require a prolonged postnatal brain growth period, implying some aspects of life history pattern similar to modern humans

Bipédie du babouin olive (Papio anubis) : étude de la cinématique articulaire du membre inférieur au cours de l’ontogenèse

La bipédie habituelle représente un marqueur morpho- logique, fonctionnel et comportemental de la lignée humaine. Tous les primates non-humains (PNHs) pratiquent la bipédie spontanément, cependant son utilisation reste occasionnelle chez ces espèces. L’étude de la bipédie dans un cadre comparatif est donc primordiale pour comprendre notre évolution. Des études ont révélé que la fréquence d’utilisation de la bipédie semble plus importante chez les jeunes. Le sujet abordé ici est de savoir si u..

Evolution du niveau d'agglomération de nanopoudres d'aluminium : une approche rhéologique

National audienceFrom micrometric size to nanometric size, the increase of the surface energies allows the agglomeration to be preponderant and then, the risks linked to powders are changed. When the toxicity, the inflammation and explosion risks of nanoparticles are mentioned, the agglomerates must be taken into account. The effect of agglomeration in the behavior of nanopowders has been studied from experimental observation of agglomerated nanopowders of aluminum subjected to shear in a powder rheometer. In order to understand the effect of deagglomeration on the powders, the agglomerate strength has been estimated thanks to the porosity of the powder bed contained in the rheometer cell. This one is ranged between 10 kPa and 1 MPa. The rheological tests show that, compared with the micrometric aluminum, the aluminum nanopowders have a peculiar behavior in the Geldart's classification, being in both class A and C. This fact is due to the facility of nanoparticles to agglomerate and to stay agglomerated.Lorsque l'on passe de la dimension micrométrique à la dimension nanométrique, l'augmentation importante des énergies de surface rend prépondérants les phénomènes d'agglomération. Ceci modifie l'appréhension des risques liés aux poudres. Pour parler de toxicité, de risques d'inflammation et d'explosion des nanoparticules, nous devons prendre en compte la présence d'agglomérats. L'effet de l'agglomération sur la dispersibilité des nanopoudres a été étudié à partir d'observations expérimentales de nanopoudres agglomérées d'aluminium soumises au cisaillement fourni par un rhéomètre à poudres. Pour comprendre l'effet de la désagglomération sur les poudres, nous avons déjà estimé la contrainte d'agglomération mise en jeu à partir de la porosité du lit de poudres contenues dans la cellule du rhéomètre. Cette contrainte est globalement ici comprise entre 10 kPa et 1MPa. Les tests en rhéologie ont montré qu'en comparaison avec une poudre d'aluminium micrométrique, les nanopoudres d'aluminium ont un comportement particulier vis-à-vis de la classification de Geldart, appartenant à la fois aux classes A et C, ceci étant du à la facilité des nanoparticules à s'agglomérer et à le rester

The effect of agglomeration on the emission of particles from nanopowders flow

International audienceThis paper suggests an original method to evaluate the possible emission of particles from a nanopowder submitted to a shear stress in dense phase and the resulting degree of agglomeration of the particles released. The method is based upon the monitoring of the rheological signature of the nanopowders, thanks to a powder rheometer. As a function of the increasing shear rate, the powder flow will evolve from the newtonian state (dense powder) to the coulombian state (dense rheofluidified phase). If the shear rate is high enough, the powder will be set in suspension and the kinetic state (a leaner dense phase submitted to particles collisions) will be reached. The shear stress in this state is dependent on the particle or the agglomerate diameter for cohesive powders, which can be then calculated from rheograms. Carbon black and silica nanopowders have been tested and compared to other experiments carried out on non cohesive glass beads microparticles, chosen as reference. For the different glass beads powders, the average value of their 'agglomerate' diameter is 12% different of the primary diameter, indicating agglomeration of less than two particles. Nanometric agglomerates were found to be of hundred micrometers diameter. That is in line with the high tendency of the nanoparticles to agglomerate. This work can be used to evaluate the current safety tests, such as Hartmann's tube or 20 L sphere apparatuses, to verify whether the standard equipment for microparticles is suitable for the use of nanoparticles. This is linked to research projects like NanoSafe 2