Specific outcomes from the project

Application and evaluation

Evaluation of display and analysis methods

Summary

The display and analysis methods developed above were evaluated through use by the experimenters and through evaluation by the industrial collaborators.

Detail

A range of methods for displaying and analysing the output from the binaural hearing model has been developed, as discussed above. This includes an animation of the perceived auditory source width of the sound across frequency over time, and an interactive display of the loudness, width and position of the sound in a number of frequency bands over time. An evaluation of the effectiveness of these output methods for quantifying the spatial properties of live and reproduced sound was conducted, in collaboration Adrian James Acoustics.

It was found that the animated plots were good for gaining an intuitive overview of the spatial properties of the measured signals, and for demonstrating effects to clients who do not necessarily have a detailed understanding of spatial perception or objective measurement. The ability to combine the original sound file with a real-time animation is a very important factor in the intuitiveness of this output method. However, it was found that it was difficult to investigate the results in a detailed manner through the use of an animation. For detailed analyses, a static plot was developed that allows the user to select the time segments and frequency bands of interest. This allows the user to examine the data in more detail, and spot small but important effects that may be missed in the animated output. In addition, the use of a static display allows for the results to be included in published reports. It was concluded that the output methods created include a good mix of intuitiveness and detail, and will be useful for analysis of the performance of live and reproduced sound fields.

Reference

[To be reported]

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