Non-auditory factors affecting urban soundscape evaluation

The aim of this study is to characterize urban spaces, which combine landscape, acoustics, and lighting, and to investigate people's perceptions of urban soundscapes through quantitative and qualitative analyses. A general questionnaire survey and soundwalk were performed to investigate soundscape perception in urban spaces. Non-auditory factors (visual image, day lighting, and olfactory perceptions), as well as acoustic comfort, were selected as the main contexts that affect soundscape perception, and context preferences and overall impressions were evaluated using an 11-point numerical scale. For qualitative analysis, a semantic differential test was performed in the form of a social survey, and subjects were also asked to describe their impressions during a soundwalk. The results showed that urban soundscapes can be characterized by soundmarks, and soundscape perceptions are dominated by acoustic comfort, visual images, and day lighting, whereas reverberance in urban spaces does not yield consistent preference judgments. It is posited that the subjective evaluation of reverberance can be replaced by physical measurements. The categories extracted from the qualitative analysis revealed that spatial impressions such as openness and density emerged as some of the contexts of soundscape perception.     

城市历史街区声景观及视听感知实验研究

城市历史街区声景观是空间环境的重要内容,直接影响人们的感知体验。论文以济南老城泉水街区为例研究城市历史街区的声景观并进行视听感知实验。结果表明,现场声元素喜好度显著高于实验室单听评价。鸟鸣、鹅叫声在现场和实验室评分都较高,大流速流量水景声在现场评分高而实验室评分低,小流速流量水景声在实验室和安静环境中评分较高,在吵闹环境中评分较低;声环境满意度与视觉景观优美度、声源组成喜好度、安静度之间存在显著正相关关系,与环境声压级存在显著负相关关系,但当较高的环境声压级主要由水声贡献时,声环境满意度明显提高;应从提高景观优美度、优化声源组成、降低环境声压级等方面进行声景观设计。论文为声元素喜好度和声环境满意度研究提供参考。     

Modelling the soundscape quality of urban waterfronts by artificial neural networks

The renewal of the urban waterfronts has become a major focus of attention for politicians and decision makers in the city’s management programs. The recognition of the patterns that define the waterfronts’ identity is essential to select new strategies of intervention for the environmental recovery. In order to create adequate environments for everyday life within a sustainable development, new links between human senses, human perception and design need to be created. Within this wide approach, the landscape and the soundscape play a significant role and can become a key driving force in the implementation of the changes. New techniques have to be tested to identify the sonic and visual parameters capable to explain the specificity of a waterfront. With this purpose, an artificial neural network (ANN) was developed, and the relative importance of the input variables was evaluated. The collected database was also analysed by multiple linear regression (MLR) to compare the outcomes of both models. The urban waterfront of Naples (Italy) was chosen as case study. The results obtained show that the performance of the neural network is better than the one of the linear regression (rANN = 0.949, rMLR = 0.639). The interpretation of the relative importance method is also quite satisfactory in the ANN.     

Acoustical characteristics of water sounds for soundscape enhancement in urban open spaces

The goal of the present study is to characterize water sounds that can be used in urban open spaces to mask road traffic noise. Sounds and visual images of a number of water features located in urban open places were obtained and subsequently analyzed in terms of psychoacoustical metrics and acoustical measures. Laboratory experiments were then conducted to investigate which water sound is appropriate for masking urban noise. The experiments consisted of two sessions: (1) Audio-only condition and (2) combined audio-visual condition. Subjective responses to stimuli were rated through the use of preference scores and 15 adjectives. The results of the experiments revealed that preference scores for the urban soundscape were affected by the acoustical characteristics of water sounds and visual images of water features; Sharpness that was used to explain the spectral envelopes of water sounds was proved to be a dominant factor for urban soundscape perception; and preferences regarding the urban soundscape were significantly related to adjectives describing "freshness" and "calmness."     

森林公园声景对心理恢复效益的影响——以福州国家森林公园为例

声景是森林公园恢复性环境的重要组成部分。该研究以福州国家森林公园为例，其20个森林公园环境视听视频为研究材料(有声视频和无声视频各10个)，借助短版修订恢复量表和声景感知评价问卷探究森林公园声景对心理恢复效益的影响。结果表明：不同森林公园环境心理恢复效益不同，在综合恢复性评价、认知和行为维度上有显著差异；除谈话声和儿童嬉戏声较突出的样地(S5)外，视听组合刺激促进心理恢复的能力均比单一视觉刺激强；声景感知与综合恢复性评价及情感、认知和行为维度的最优尺度回归模型具有统计学意义，鸟鸣声、蝉鸣声、流水声等自然声是心理恢复效益的重要预测变量，对心理恢复有积极影响。基于研究结果提出森林公园恢复性声景设计策略，为森林公园恢复性声环境的优化设计提供参考思路。     

城市公园声景观危险度评价研究

针对城市公园声景观易受周围环境影响而损耗其景观价值这一问题,应用模糊层次分析法,通过自然、生活和机械3个准则层因素和17个指标层因素构建城市公园声景观危险度评价体系,以福州市闽江公园为例,研究城市公园声景观受负面影响因子损耗的可能性大小。结果表明,闽江公园声景观危险度总体评价结果为中度危险Ⅲ。指标层中,隶属极度危险Ⅴ的指标为修建施工声;隶属重度危险Ⅳ的为电闪雷鸣声;隶属中度危险Ⅲ的有:清洁机器声、大雨瓢泼声、车辆交通声、说话嬉戏声、狂风呼啸声、猫叫犬吠声、鞭炮烟花声、跳舞音响声和练嗓唱歌声;其余指标危险度均低于中度危险Ⅲ。评价结果符合实际,为今后城市公园声景观危险度研究提供了有效方法。     

喷泉视听感知对城市开放空间声景评估的影响

为了更好地指导在城市开放空间中通过设计和运用喷泉来改善声景,有必要深入理解喷泉视听感知对声景评估的作用机制.因此,该研究通过在一个带有中央喷泉的典型开放空间(伦敦罗素广场)中进行实地调查,探索了喷泉视听感知对空间整体声景评估的影响及其在空间上的差异.水景和水声分别为喷泉的视觉和听觉刺激.喷泉视听感知包含"感"(水景在多...     

Towards standardization in soundscape preference assessment

The study of soundscapes involves diverse fields of practice, diverse approaches and diverse disciplinary interests. The field overlaps with the much larger and established field of environmental noise management, and also intersects, to various degrees, with other areas of acoustics such as sound quality, human acoustic comfort in buildings, and music—and also with non-acoustic fields such as wilderness and recreation management, urban and housing design, and landscape planning and management. Working Group 54 of ISO/TC 43/SC 1 has been formed with a remit of standardization for perceptual assessment of human sound preference (in outdoor space) using questionnaires. The working group began its work in 2009, with considerable and wide-ranging discussion amongst its members. This paper makes a range of observations, and sometimes suggestions, on matters pertinent to eventual definition of the soundscape; on outcomes of interest arising from experience of a soundscape; on the role of context in assessment; on sound sources in different places; and on relevant lessons for soundscape assessment from experience of questionnaire measurement of noise annoyance. It represents a personal view, though informed by a range of opinions from the Working Group meeting and from literature.     

水滴声台阶声景观软件模拟实验*

国内外发现了一种能够将脚步声或拍手声转变成类似水滴声的水滴声台阶。为科学保护和实现主动设计这种水滴声台阶声景观,该文基于声学仿真软件对天子冢和天元山水滴声台阶声场特征进行模拟,讨论了模拟的精确性和水滴声台阶形成的复杂性。结果表明:当忽略台阶物理属性影响时,可以模拟出台阶几何形式对声音频谱有一定的筛选作用,模拟出的台阶上的声场特征与实地测试结果基本一致,但是无法准确模拟台阶上"水滴声"频谱的主导频率大小。最后提出水滴声台阶保护和设计建议。     

哈尔滨5个宗教建筑广场声景评价中宗教信仰的影响*

为探究宗教信仰是否影响人对宗教建筑广场声景的心理感受,该研究基于声景生态学对声景元素的分类,通过模糊层次综合评价法构建由地球物理声、生物声和人工声3个准则层元素和16个指标层元素组成的宗教建筑广场声景评价体系。以哈尔滨市的5个教堂为例,对有宗教信仰和无宗教信仰的游客和居民进行调查。结果表明：有无宗教信仰的受访者对宗教建筑广场声景总体评价的结果分别为很好和较好;在准则层中,地球物理声的评价结果皆为较好,生物声的评价结果皆在一般及以上,而人工声则与生物声相反;有宗教信仰的受访者对除昆虫鸣叫声外的生物声景的评价等级均比无宗教信仰的受访者高一级,对广场广播声的评价等级比无宗教信仰的受访者低一级,其余指标的评价结果均一致。评价结果符合实际,为今后宗教建筑广场声景评价研究提供了有效方法。     

Perception of sinewave vowels

There is a significant body of research examining the intelligibility of sinusoidal replicas of natural speech. Discussion has followed about what the sinewave speech phenomenon might imply about the mechanisms underlying phonetic recognition. However, most of this work has been conducted using sentence material, making it unclear what the contributions are of listeners' use of linguistic constraints versus lower level phonetic mechanisms. This study was designed to measure vowel intelligibility using sinusoidal replicas of naturally spoken vowels. The sinusoidal signals were modeled after 300 /hVd/ syllables spoken by men, women, and children. Students enrolled in an introductory phonetics course served as listeners. Recognition rates for the sinusoidal vowels averaged 55%, which is much lower than the ～95% intelligibility of the original signals. Attempts to improve performance using three different training methods met with modest success, with post-training recognition rates rising by ～5-11 percentage points. Follow-up work showed that more extensive training produced further improvements, with performance leveling off at ～73%-74%. Finally, modeling work showed that a fairly simple pattern-matching algorithm trained on naturally spoken vowels classified sinewave vowels with 78.3% accuracy, showing that the sinewave speech phenomenon does not necessarily rule out template matching as a mechanism underlying phonetic recognition.     

Influence of soundscape and interior design on anxiety and perceived tranquillity of patients in a healthcare setting

Tranquillity characterized by a pleasant but calming environment is often to be found in natural environments where man-made noise is at a low level though natural sounds can be relatively high. Numerous studies have shown a link between such restorative environments and hospital recovery rates, stress reduction, longevity, pain relief and even how the brain processes auditory signals. In hospitals and primary care facilities there is a need to improve patient waiting rooms as current designs are largely based solely on medical need. There are often long waits in such spaces and patients are coping with the stress and anxiety caused by their medical condition. Attention should therefore be given to creating “restorative environment” as a component to their medical treatment. The study describes the effects of introducing natural sounds and large images of natural landscapes into a waiting room in a student health center. Using self reported levels of anxiety and tranquillity it was possible to assess the impact that these targeted auditory and visual interventions had in affecting the quality of the patient experience. Following the changes results show that levels of reported tranquillity were significantly improved but there were smaller change in reported reductions in anxiety.     

Computer Perception of NMR Symmetry

Computational techniques are outlined for the machine perception of NMR symmetry. The NMR symmetry is defined in terms of the permutations of the nuclei which preserve the NMR coupling network, also called the NMR graph. The automorphism group of the NMR graph is obtained using code developed in FORTRAN. The computer code is applied to several NMR coupling networks of rigid and nonrigid molecules.     

语句韵律结构知觉

以语句音节间知觉距离辨别的心理物理学实验结果为基础,用多维标度分析方法构建语句的韵律知觉结构。根据这些结构,讨论听者利用局部韵律学线索知觉全句韵律结构的能力,以及汉语中旬法和语音的界面问题。     

Perception of the sound source position

This paper presents several experiments on sound source localization. They are based on monaural click presented at different interclick intervals (ICI), from 10 to 100 ms. Trains of clicks were presented to 10 healthy subjects. At short interclick intervals the clicks were perceived as a blur of clicks having a buzzy quality. Moreover, it was proven that the accurateness in the response improves with the increase of the length of ICI. The present results imply the usefulness of the interclick interval in estimating the perceptual accuracy. An important benefit of this task is that this enables a careful examination of the sound source perception threshold. This allows detecting, localizing and dividing with a high accuracy the sounds in the environment. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Perception of intonation in Mandarin Chinese

There is a tendency across languages to use a rising pitch contour to convey question intonation and a falling pitch contour to convey a statement. In a lexical tone language such as Mandarin Chinese, rising and falling pitch contours are also used to differentiate lexical meaning. How, then, does the multiplexing of the F(0) channel affect the perception of question and statement intonation in a lexical tone language? This study investigated the effects of lexical tones and focus on the perception of intonation in Mandarin Chinese. The results show that lexical tones and focus impact the perception of sentence intonation. Question intonation was easier for native speakers to identify on a sentence with a final falling tone and more difficult to identify on a sentence with a final rising tone, suggesting that tone identification intervenes in the mapping of F(0) contours to intonational categories and that tone and intonation interact at the phonological level. In contrast, there is no evidence that the interaction between focus and intonation goes beyond the psychoacoustic level. The results provide insights that will be useful for further research on tone and intonation interactions in both acoustic modeling studies and neurobiological studies.     

Perception of across-frequency interaural level differences

The interaural level difference (ILD) is an important cue for the localization of sound sources. Just noticeable differences (JND) in ILD were measured in 12 normal hearing subjects for uncorrelated noise bands with a bandwidth of 13 octave and a different center frequency in both ears. In one ear the center frequency was either 250, 500, 1000, or 4000 Hz. In the other ear, a frequency shift of 0, 16, 13, or 1 octave was introduced. JNDs in ILD for unshifted, uncorrelated noise bands of 13 octave width were 2.6, 2.6, 2.5, and 1.4 dB for 250, 500, 1000, and 4000 Hz, respectively. Averaged over all shifts, JNDs decreased significantly with increasing frequency. For the shifted conditions, JNDs increased significantly with increasing shift. Performance on average worsened by 0.5, 0.9, and 1.5 dB for shifts of 16, 13, and 1 octave. Though performance decreases, the just noticeable ILDs for the shifted conditions were still in a range usable for lateralization. This has implications for signal processing algorithms for bilateral bimodal hearing instruments and the fitting of bilateral cochlear implants.