Effect of local architectural acoustics on dyadic conversations over short distances

当地建筑声学对短距离对话的影响

• 批准号: 503914237
• 负责人: Dr. Manuj Yadav, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lehrstuhl und Institut für Hörtechnik und Akustik (IHTA)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/503914237?language=en
• 关键词: Effect; local; architectural; acoustics; dyadic

Dyadic (two-person) conversations represent the simplest form of verbal communication. Within built spaces, it involves talking-listeners hearing their own and each other’s voices, room reflections, and background sounds. Compared to the Lombard effect wherein talking-listeners systematically raise their voice intensities (sound pressure levels (SPLs)) accompanied by spectral and prosodic changes with increasing background noise, studies of voice regulation due to room acoustics report subtler and inconsistent findings. The contributing factors include weak voice support (own voice reinforcement due to reflections) in typical rooms, and larger effects of background noise and the communication context. Yet, understanding basic factors underlying voice regulation during conversations is important. Recent findings indicate that strong voice support from local surfaces can reduce talkers’ voice intensities, hence reducing speech transmission to the surroundings. Retroreflective architectural surfaces, which reflect sound back to the source, have exhibited exciting prospects in providing such strong and local voice support, i.e., from nearby surfaces such as ceiling, wall treatments, etc., over short distances, compared to global voice support from room boundaries. However, the architectural design principles to effectively provide local voice support using retroreflectors are not fully understood. Nor do we know whether local voice support has beneficial effects during conversations.This project aims to (a) characterise voice regulation due to local voice support during dyadic conversations and, in turn, (b) optimise local voice support using retroreflecting and similar architectural surfaces. Aim (a) involves studying the linguistic-acoustic changes in interlocutor’s voices for short-distance dyadic communication scenarios for room acoustics and background noise variations, and for variations in voice support by combining physical (i.e., using fabricated retroreflectors) and/or virtual acoustics methods. Aim (b) includes studying physical acoustics of retroreflection using numerical simulations to characterize voice support as a function of architectural design aspects, room acoustics, background noise, and talker distances. Aim (b) informs the experimental design within (a) and is in turn informed by these findings to optimise voice support using retroreflection in an iterative manner. The project’s output will include predictive models of voice regulation due to factors in aims (a) and (b); and development of novel retroreflection and similar anomalous sound reflection phenomena within these factors. The expected speech SPL reduction due to local voice support – a positive behavioural effect of architectural acoustics – represents an innovative method of noise reduction in multi-talker areas including classrooms, offices, where traditional sound absorption methods are notoriously ineffective against speech distraction from nearby talkers.

二人对话是最简单的口头交流形式。在建筑空间内，它涉及谈话-听众听到自己和彼此的声音，房间反射和背景声音。与伦巴第效应相比，其中说话的听众系统地提高他们的声音强度（声压级（SPL）），伴随着频谱和韵律的变化，随着背景噪声的增加，由于室内声学的声音调节的研究报告微妙和不一致的结果。影响因素包括典型房间中的弱语音支持（由于反射而导致的自身语音增强），以及背景噪声和通信环境的较大影响。然而，了解对话中语音调节的基本因素是很重要的。最近的研究表明，来自局部表面的强语音支持可以降低说话者的语音强度，从而减少语音传输到周围环境。将声音反射回声源的回射建筑表面在提供如此强的本地语音支持方面展现出令人兴奋的前景，即，从诸如天花板、墙壁处理等的附近表面，与来自房间边界的全球语音支持相比，然而，使用后向反射器有效地提供本地语音支持的架构设计原理尚未完全理解。我们也不知道本地语音支持在对话中是否有有益的影响。该项目旨在（a）在二元对话中消除本地语音支持引起的语音调节，并反过来（B）使用回射和类似的建筑表面优化本地语音支持。目的（a）涉及研究针对室内声学和背景噪声变化的短距离二元通信场景的对话者语音的语言声学变化，以及通过结合物理（即，使用制造的回射器）和/或虚拟声学方法。目的（B）包括使用数值模拟来研究回射的物理声学，以表征作为建筑设计方面、房间声学、背景噪声和说话者距离的函数的语音支持。目的（B）通知（a）内的实验设计，并且反过来由这些发现通知以迭代方式使用回射来优化语音支持。该项目的产出将包括由于目标（a）和（B）中的因素而产生的声音调节的预测模型;以及在这些因素中开发新的回射和类似的异常声音反射现象。由于本地语音支持（建筑声学的积极行为效应）而导致的预期语音SPL降低代表了在包括教室、办公室在内的多说话者区域中降噪的创新方法，其中传统的吸声方法对于来自附近说话者的语音分心是众所周知的无效。