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Strict lockdown strategies to stop the spread of COVID-19 have caused a decrease in environmental noise levels and introduced new noise conditions in dwellings. The present study has investigated the impact of the forced lockdown in Turkey on noise annoyances due to traffic, neighbors, and personal dwellings, as well as the concern of being heard by neighbors, and overall dwelling satisfaction in an online questionnaire. The stress and anxiety levels of respondents were also investigated. The survey obtained 1053 respondents. Additionally, environmental noise levels were measured over 24-h at two locations and compared with results before the pandemic. The results clearly exhibit that environmental noise levels and annoyance due to the noise levels dropped significantly. The annoyance drop was larger in previously noisier environments than previously tranquil locations. Noise annoyance due to neighbor noise did not change significantly; however, noise annoyance due to one's own dwelling increased. The results also confirmed an overall increase in dwelling satisfactions indicating a correlation between dwelling satisfaction and lower environmental noise levels. Although the results confirmed that noise annoyance was positively correlated with stress and anxiety levels, the change of annoyance between before and during lockdown was shown to be independent from the stress and anxiety level.

Objectively determined single-number-quantities (SNQs) describing the airborne sound insulation of a facade should correspond to the subjective perception of annoyance to road traffic sounds transmitted through a facade. The reference spectra for spectrum adaptation terms C and Ctr in standard ISO 717-7 (International Organization for Standardization, 2013) are not based on psycho-acoustic evidence. The aim of this study is to develop reference spectra which result in SNQs that explain the subjective annoyance of road traffic sounds transmitted through a facade well. Data from a psycho-acoustic experiment by Hongisto, Oliva, and Rekola [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 144(2), 1100–1112 (2018)] were used. The data included annoyance ratings for road traffic sounds (five different spectrum alternatives) attenuated by the facade (twelve different sound insulation spectrum alternatives), rated by 43 participants. The reference spectrum for each road traffic spectrum was found using mathematical optimization. The performance of the acquired SNQs was estimated with nested cross-validation. The SNQs determined with the optimized reference spectra performed better than the existing SNQs for two road traffic spectra out of five and for an aggregate of the five road traffic sound types. The results can be exploited in the development of standardized SNQs.

Peru declared a state of emergency on March 16 in order to prevent SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) transmissions; thus, the International Airport was closed and the soundscape of urban zones under the flight tracks have been changed in view of the fact that airplane traffic was suspended. The authors have been conducting noise monitoring since February and because of that sufficient noise data for knowing the soundscape before and during the lockdown were obtained. This article presents a case of aircraft annoyance noise in one of Lima's city districts, which is near the aircraft climbing curve, toward the ocean on departure from Lima.

The European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) recently published revised recommendations for transportation noise exposure intended to limit adverse health effects. WHO's newly recommended "safe" limit for aircraft noise exposure is about an order of magnitude lower than the limits currently adopted by most European countries. WHO defines "safe exposure" as the level corresponding to an annoyance prevalence rate of 10% highly annoyed. The revised recommendations are based on a limited selection of post-2000 publications. About half of the cited studies rely on nonstandard questionnaires, respondent selection, and definitions of annoyance prevalence rates which over-estimate annoyance. A re-analysis of a larger and more representative selection of studies that relies on standard procedures shows that no meaningful changes in prevalence rates of high annoyance with aircraft noise have occurred and that existing evidence does not support WHO's revised recommendations.

The research reported is part of a larger effort to develop models to predict community response to transient sounds, including sonic booms. Such models can be used along with aircraft sound predictions to guide the design of supersonic aircraft to produce generally acceptable sounds. A test was conducted to examine the influence of low frequencies on people's responses to recorded and simulated booms and other environmental transients, heard indoors over earphones. The results of this test and a companion test conducted in a sonic boom simulator were compared to see if the playback environment affected responses. Annoyance models were also examined. E-weighted Sound Exposure level (ESEL) was the sound metric most highly correlated to mean annoyance with B-weighted Sound Exposure Level (BSEL) and Perceived Level performing similarly. Predictions were improved by including Heaviness, Duration, and rate of change of Loudness in models with a loudness metric. Models were also estimated by using the average responses from both tests and metrics generated from outdoor versions of the sounds. These models also produced accurate annoyance predictions. BSEL was the best single-metric predictor, with ESEL close behind. Including Heaviness, Duration, and rate of change of Loudness resulted in R2 values as high as 0.90.

Noise from a tactical aircraft can impact operations due to concerns regarding military personnel noise exposure and community annoyance and disturbance. The efficacy of mission planning can increase when the distinct, complex acoustic source mechanisms creating the noise are better understood. For each type of noise, equivalent acoustic source distributions are obtained from a tied-down F-35B operating at various engine conditions using the hybrid method for acoustic source imaging of Padois, Gauthier, and Berry [J. Sound Vib. 333, 6858-6868 (2014)]. The source distributions for the distinct noise types are obtained using different sections of a 71 element, ground-based linear array. Using a subarray close to the nozzle exit plane, source distributions are obtained for fine-scale turbulent mixing noise and broadband shock-associated noise, although grating lobes complicate interpretations at higher frequencies. Results for a subarray spanning the maximum sound region show that the multiple frequency peaks in tactical aircraft noise appear to originate from overlapping source regions. The observation of overlapping spatial extent of competing noise sources is supported by the coherence properties of the source distributions for the different subarrays.

This paper demonstrates the use of two Bayesian statistical models to analyze single-event sonic boom exposure and human annoyance data from community response surveys. Each model is fit to data from a NASA pilot study. Unlike many community noise surveys, this study used a panel sample to collect multiple observations per participant instead of a single observation. Thus, a multilevel (also known as hierarchical or mixed-effects) model is used to account for the within-subject correlation in the panel sample data. This paper describes a multilevel logistic regression model and a multilevel ordinal regression model. The paper also proposes a method for calculating a summary dose-response curve from the multilevel models that represents the population. The two models' summary dose-response curves are visually similar. However, their estimates differ when calculating the noise dose at a fixed percent highly annoyed.

Personal Audio refers to the generation of spatially distinct sound zones that allow individuals within a shared space to listen to their own audio material without affecting, or being affected, by others. Recent interest in such systems has focussed on their performance in public spaces where speech privacy is desirable. To achieve this goal, speech is focussed towards the target listener and a masking signal is focussed into the area where the target speech signalcould otherwise be overheard. An effective masking signal must substantially reduce the intelligibility in this region without becoming an annoyance to those nearby. To assess these perceptual requirements, listening tests were carried out using two examples of loudspeaker arrays with different spatial aliasing characteristics, to determine the impacts of different masking signal spectra on speech intelligibility and subjective preference. The results of these tests were used, alongside objective and subjective metrics, to form a design specification for private personal audio systems.

Amplitude modulation exists in many environmental noise types. A penalty has been suggested for legal noise assessment to such sounds, but the scientific evidence is limited. The purpose of this research was to determine the annoyance penalty of amplitude modulated (AM) sound as a function of the modulation frequency fm and depth Dm. A psychoacoustic laboratory experiment was conducted with 40 participants to explore how subjective loudness and annoyance of AM sound depends on fm (from 0.25 to 16 Hz), Dm (from 1 to 14 dB), and overall spectrum (two alternatives). The sounds consisted of both AM sounds and reference sounds without amplitude modulation. The AM sounds were played at 35 dB LAeq, which is typical for environmental noise both indoors and in residential yards. The annoyance penalty increased with increasing fm and Dm. The penalties varied from 4 to 12 dB, when Dm ranged from 4 to 14 dB and fm ranged from 1 to 16 Hz. For the lowest fm= 0.25 Hz, and Dm = 1 dB, no penalty could be suggested. The results suggest a potential need for a penalty for low-level AM sounds for certain ranges of fm and Dm, applied for the periods with AM sound.

Social survey data sets of large numbers of individual respondents' opinions are generally viewed as supporting reliable inferences of relationships between the prevalence of noise-induced annoyance and noise exposure levels. The current analyses identify conditions under which noise dose distributions and acoustic measurement uncertainty lead to appreciable mis-estimation of the slopes of empirical dose-response relationships with respect to those of true slopes in exposure ranges of interest. These findings were revealed by Monte Carlo methods for creating simulated data sets with varying exposure ranges and degrees of dose uncertainty. These simulated data sets support quantitative comparisons of dose-response relationships between empirical outcomes and known (assumed) relationships. The effect of noise dose uncertainty is appreciable for dose uncertainties with standard deviations greater than about 2 decibels. Limited dose ranges as well as haystack-shaped (non-uniform) dose distributions magnify the biasing effect of dose uncertainty on the slopes of observed relationships. Narrow exposure ranges can also create a false asymptotic behavior in the relationship. These phenomena are well documented in the non-acoustic literature.

This paper presents results from a one-year study of indoor annoyance and self-reported sleep times for two participants located near different wind farms. Continuous measurements of outdoor and indoor noise and meteorological conditions were taken at each location for the duration of the study. In at least 50% of the annoyance recordings, participants described noise as “swish” or “swoosh.” Furthermore, the majority of the annoyance recordings occurred at nighttime and in the early morning. The third quartile of A-weighted indoor sound pressure level [SPL(A)], between 27 and 31 dBA, was associated with an 88% increased probability of annoyance compared to the lowest reference quartile, which was between 12 and 22 dBA [odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals, 7.72 (2.61,22.8), p < 0.001]. The outdoor SPL(A) was also predictive of annoyance but only between 40 and 45 dBA. The outdoor prevalence of amplitude modulation (AM), defined as the percentage of time that AM was detectable by an algorithm for each annoyance period, was also associated with annoyance. Self-reported sleep efficiency (time spent asleep relative to time in bed available for sleep) was significantly associated with nighttime annoyance (β = −0.66, p = 0.02) but only explained a small fraction of the variance (R2 = 5%).

Carr, Davies, Loubeau, Rathsam, and Klos [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 148, 414–429 (2020)] found that indoor annoyance caused by sonic booms may be predicted from the A-weighted sound exposure level and the heaviness of the booms. Moreover, they suggest that, irrespective of the outdoor-to-indoor sound reduction, indoor annoyance may be predicted from outdoor sound levels. The present paper shows that their data to some extent also support a model in which the contribution of heaviness is level-dependent and that data reported in the literature point out that it is unlikely that indoor annoyance is independent of the degree of facade attenuation.

International audience; The RUMBLE project aimed to quantify the effects of low sonic boom exposure on human responses, in situations representative of the daily life of European citizens, so as to inform policy, establish standards and develop protection concepts for a new generation of supersonic commercial aircraft that should emit a reduced but perceivable boom (a ‘low boom’) while flying overland. Two low boom simulators were affixed to the bedrooms’ windows of a house located on our university campus. The simulators allowed us to study indoor the participants’ responses to realistic “outdoor” booms. Testing took place in both the living room and kitchen because the booms caused different intensities of rattle noise in those two rooms. Participants performed a communication task, a working memory task, a drawing task, and an automatic evaluation task. They also had three mandatory rests. We used questionnaires to assess the booms’ perception and annoyance as well as their influence on participants’ mood. The booms were rated unpleasant, especially with rattle, and more disturbing during the rests than during the tasks. The booms made the rests less relaxing and impaired short-term cognitive performance. [This research was conducted as a part of Rumble - EU Grant Agreement 769896.]

‘Being annoyed’ is emblematic of modern environments where individuals are exposed to all kinds of unpleasant sensations: olfactory, acoustic, visual, tactile or kinaesthetic. This phenomenon refer...

Annoyance due to urban road traffic noise combined with aircraft noise was studied using both laboratory and field survey data. Laboratory data were used to propose (i) partial annoyance models considering psychoacoustic indices and noise sensitivity, and (ii) total annoyance models considering noise indices or partial annoyance models. To predict partial and total annoyance in field, a methodology was proposed to estimate the different psychoacoustic indices, involved in annoyance models, from Ldenvalues. This methodology, interesting from a practical point of view, and the proposed annoyance models enable a good prediction of the field partial and total annoyance ratings compared to models based on Lden only. These results show that there is a need to develop the methodology of psychoacoustic index estimation from noise map Lden and also partial and total annoyance models.

Helicopter noise exhibits distinctive acoustical characteristics (e.g., pulsation) compared to noise from propeller-driven aircraft which contains tonal components. Whereas, at comparable sound exposure levels (LAE), annoyance reactions to these sources might be different, knowledge of potential annoyance differences is scarce. This paper reports a comparison between short-term annoyance reactions to noise from light-weight helicopters and propeller-driven aircraft in a laboratory setup. Stimuli were presented with a 3D sound reproduction system in a listening test facility based on field recordings of takeoffs and landings. Propagation filtering and amplitude changes were carried out to simulate various propagation distances and source levels, covering a reasonable LAE range from 64 to 85 dB(A) for a stimuli length of 24 s. Fifty-six subjects rated their short-term annoyance reactions on the ICBEN 11-point numerical scale. Associations between design variables (source type, procedure, and LAE) and short-term annoyance were explored by means of a linear mixed-effect model. LAE was found to be the major predictor. For the major range of LAE, no significant difference was found between annoyance to noise from the two aircraft types. Observed level differences at equal annoyance ratings were below 1 dB. Furthermore, helicopter landings were found slightly more annoying than helicopter takeoffs.

It has been long recognized that the single-number quantities presented in the standard ISO 717-2 [(2013) International Organization for Standardization] do not correlate especially well with the subjective judgment of living impact sound sources directed to the floors. The aim of this study was to find single-number quantities which are well associated with the subjective annoyance caused by different impact sounds. Experimental data of laboratory measurements of impact sound insulation of floors and a psychoacoustic experiment was used [Kylliainen et al. (2017). Acta Acust. Acust. 103, 236–251]. The five studied impact sound types were walking with hard shoes, socks, and soft shoes, super ball bouncing, and chair moving. A fundamental requirement was that the single-number quantities can be expressed as the sum of L′n,w or L′nT,w and a spectrum adaptation term. Reference spectra were derived by the means of a mathematical optimization method. Reference spectra for each sound type were defined separately. An optimized reference spectrum based on all five sound types explained the annoyance of these sound types reasonably well (r2 = 0.93) and better than any of the standardized single number quantities (e.g., r2 = 0.86 for L′n,w + CI,50-2500).It has been long recognized that the single-number quantities presented in the standard ISO 717-2 [(2013) International Organization for Standardization] do not correlate especially well with the subjective judgment of living impact sound sources directed to the floors. The aim of this study was to find single-number quantities which are well associated with the subjective annoyance caused by different impact sounds. Experimental data of laboratory measurements of impact sound insulation of floors and a psychoacoustic experiment was used [Kylliainen et al. (2017). Acta Acust. Acust. 103, 236–251]. The five studied impact sound types were walking with hard shoes, socks, and soft shoes, super ball bouncing, and chair moving. A fundamental requirement was that the single-number quantities can be expressed as the sum of L′n,w or L′nT,w and a spectrum adaptation term. Reference spectra were derived by the means of a mathematical optimization method. Reference spectra for each sound type were defined separately...

This paper studies the effect of human perception of visual and audio settings in an urban environment on annoyance. Video clips were projected onto a window panel of a living room to simulate neighborhood views containing different percentages of sea, mountain greenery, and road. These video clips were combined with audio stimuli corresponding to the congruent traffic and sea sounds. 246 participants were presented with 11 audio-visual stimuli and requested to respond to questions after the presentation. The collected responses were used to formulate a multivariate ordered logit model to predict the probability of evoking a high annoyance response. The findings revealed that views embracing mountain greenery close-by could enhance annoyance, which is contrary to other findings that greenery could always moderate noise annoyance. In addition, a 60% sea view was found to be able to yield 1 dB equivalent reduction in total sound pressure level. The trade-off was comparable to that achieved by having sea sound at a level 5 dB higher than road traffic noise. Exposure to road traffic noise level being 3 dB higher than sea sound level (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio = -3) together with a 60% sea view could provide an additional 1.5 dB equivalent reduction.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies are rapidly advancing due to the unlimited number of\ud applications from parcel delivery to people transportation. As the UAV market expands, community\ud noise impact will become a significant problem for public acceptance. Compact drone architectures\ud based on contra-rotating propellers bring significant benefits in terms of aerodynamic performance\ud and redundancy to ensure vehicle control in case of component failure. However, contra-rotating\ud propellers are severely noisy if not designed appropriately. In the framework of a perceptioninfluenced design approach, this paper investigates the optimal rotor spacing distance configuration\ud to minimise noise annoyance. On the basis of a series of psychoacoustic metrics (i.e. loudness,\ud fluctuation strength, roughness, sharpness and tonality) and psychoacoustic annoyance models, the\ud optimal rotor axial separation distance (expressed as a function of propeller blade diameter) is at a\ud range of 0.2 to 0.4. This paper also discusses the performance of currently available psychoacoustic\ud models to predict propeller noise annoyance, and defines further work to develop a psychoacoustic\ud annoyance model optimised for rotating systems.

Many environmental sounds contain significant energy in the infrasonic and low-frequency (ISLF) ranges that have been associated with cases of annoyance and noise complaints. This study assessed the effect of sound duration on audibility and loudness of ISLF sounds. A first experiment evaluated detection thresholds for tones of 4, 16, and 32 Hz with durations up to 4000 ms. Furthermore, equal-loudness-level contours (ELCs) were obtained as function of duration up to 2000 ms. Tones of 1000 Hz were also included here. Results displayed the known pattern of general sound level decrease with increasing duration up to several hundred milliseconds. ELCs stabilized slightly earlier than thresholds, but after 1000 ms, levels remained roughly constant for both measures except for 4-Hz tones, where the decrease continued up to the longest durations tested. As 4-Hz cycles are perceptually resolved as separate pressure pulses, the authors hypothesized their duration dependence would resemble that of pulse trains. Hence, a second experiment evaluated pulse-train thresholds (1000-Hz carrier) for durations up to 4000 ms. For both pulse repetition rates of 4 and 32 Hz, threshold stabilized after 1000 ms as for tones ≥16 Hz, suggesting the continuing threshold decrease for a 4-Hz tone is specific to infrasound.

This paper investigates multidimensional characteristics of tonal noise from heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, besides loudness and tonality, to improve prediction of annoyance. Two studies were conducted: multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis to determine what other perceptual signal characteristics are important and perceptual weight analysis (PWA) to understand the impact of multiple tones in a signal. In the MDS study, paired comparison tasks were conducted to gather similarity and annoyance data. Results show that the latent perceptual dimensions are related to the signal's tonality, loudness, sharpness, and roughness. Including metrics for these perceptions, except roughness, improves the performance of earlier annoyance prediction models. Including both sharpness and tonal audibility does not further improve prediction performance, though. In the PWA study, noise stimuli with five-tone complexes between 125 Hz and 2 kHz were generated for subjective testing to obtain a perceptual weighting function. The levels of each tone were randomly adjusted for every trial, and both harmonic and inharmonic tone complexes were utilized. The PWA result was applied as a spectral weighting function to calculate a proposed weighted-sum tonal audibility metric. Utilizing the proposed metric instead of the traditional tonal audibility metric improves annoyance prediction to a similar degree as including sharpness.

The application of sound quality in household appliances has gradually increased in recent years. In addition to modeling algorithms, appropriate acoustic metrics that characterize product sounds also play an important role in developing models. In this study, an artificial neural network based sound quality model for range hood noise was established with the combination of prior metric selection by multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis of perceptual dissimilarities. First, sounds in different environments, speeds, and positions were recorded, and their annoyance was evaluated by grouped anchor semantic differential subjective jury testing. Then, the timbre space underlying dissimilarity judgments were analyzed by CLASCAL, an accurate MDS algorithm. Each dimension of the space was well explained by some metrics through stepwise regression. Finally, a sound quality model was established based on a back propagation neural network (BPNN). Results show that the combination of BPNN and CLASCAL can address the interpretation of the sound quality model and the ability to model nonlinearity for high accuracy. In addition, the application of noise control on range hoods showed that passive and active noise control (ANC) measures improve sound quality, especially ANC systems.

Sound insulation in a building facade plays a key role in the control of road-traffic noise. Facade performance can be described using various internationally standardized single-number quantities (SNQs) with different frequency weightings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how 25 different SNQs explain the subjective ratings of spectrally different road-traffic sounds transmitted through a facade. Forty-three participants took part in a psychoacoustic laboratory experiment. The task was to evaluate five spectrally different road-traffic sound types transmitted through 12 simulated facade constructions. The participants rated both the loudness and the annoyance of 60 sounds. The playback levels were between 12 and 46 dB LAeq, covering the essential range of road-traffic noise usually measured inside residential dwellings. Linear correlations were determined between the SNQ values of the facades and the subjective ratings. Rw + C50–3150 explained the subjective ratings best when the five sound types were equally considered. It was also the most suitable SNQ for the standard road-traffic spectrum of ISO 717-1. The results of this study can be useful in the development of future standards.Sound insulation in a building facade plays a key role in the control of road-traffic noise. Facade performance can be described using various internationally standardized single-number quantities (SNQs) with different frequency weightings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how 25 different SNQs explain the subjective ratings of spectrally different road-traffic sounds transmitted through a facade. Forty-three participants took part in a psychoacoustic laboratory experiment. The task was to evaluate five spectrally different road-traffic sound types transmitted through 12 simulated facade constructions. The participants rated both the loudness and the annoyance of 60 sounds. The playback levels were between 12 and 46 dB LAeq, covering the essential range of road-traffic noise usually measured inside residential dwellings. Linear correlations were determined between the SNQ values of the facades and the subjective ratings. Rw + C50–3150 explained the subjective ratings best when the five sound type...

Abend’s paper is a gift for any author wanting a summary of where conflict theory (sometimes called “classical theory” by those who don’t embrace it, much to the annoyance of those who do and hear,...

In December 2014, a new terminal building was opened at the Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport (HNBIA) with two runways, causing a 20%–30% increase in the number of flights. Three socio-acoustic surveys were conducted in August–September 2014, February–March 2015, and August–September 2015, to contribute not only to the environmental impact assessments and aircraft noise policies in Vietnam but also to more global intervention studies. Because of the change of runway use, in addition to the increased number of flights, noise exposure at each site changed considerably among the surveys. Changes in the noise exposure from the first to the second or third survey (ΔLden and ΔLnight) were used as a measure of exposure change. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that ΔLden has a significant positive effect on annoyance regardless of ΔLden ranges, but the effect of ΔLnight on insomnia was significant only for ΔLnight > 0. Annoyance increase in the overall ΔLden range may be caused by the respondents' r...

Previous studies have shown that identifiability of sound sources influence noise annoyance levels. The aim of the present experiment was to additionally study the effects of actively performing a task versus a less active pastime on noise annoyance. This was done by asking participants to perform a task (task condition) or read a magazine of their choice (no-task condition), while listening to identifiable and unidentifiable samples of transportation noise at varying sound exposure levels (55-85 ASEL). Annoyance was higher for identifiable samples (recordings) than for unidentifiable transformed samples (with equal spectral energy and envelope). Although there was no main effect of activity type on noise annoyance, for the transformed samples, an interaction was found between activity type and sound exposure levels: annoyance started lower in the no-task condition, but rose more steeply with ascending exposure levels than was the case during task performance (large effect). When assessing order effects, it was found that annoyance was higher when the task condition came first, especially for lower sound exposure levels (large effects). It is therefore concluded that the type of activity and the condition order do influence noise annoyance but in interaction with exposure levels, the type of noise and habituation. © 2018 Acoustical Society of America.

This study examined the relationship between noise annoyance and sound pressure levels in indoor environments due to various modes of transportation including road traffic, railways, and aircraft. ...

There is a large amount of evidence to suggest that people’s reactions to annoying sounds are moderated by the presence of other background sounds. One of the mechanisms of this moderation is auditory masking: when the annoying sound simply cannot be heard over the background. This presentation outlines a construction for computing a predictor of annoyance in the presence of masking. The construction is demonstrated by producing an augmentation of the common sound exposure level noise metric using one-third octave band data sampled at 2 Hz. These data allow an estimation of the probability of masking within each band at each time step. The acoustic energy within a masked band can be ‘discounted’ by this estimation before being summed in the usual equal-energy way and with the typical A-weighting corrections. In this way, backgrounds that only provide partial masking in frequency and time will produce predictions of annoyance that fall between the unmasked sound exposure value and negative infinity (the result if there was a certainty of complete masking). The application of this concept to the noise of multirotor air vehicles is discussed.

The acoustics of an open-office environment play an important role in people’s working performance. This study was conducted to investigate how task performance is affected by two simulated office noise environments: (1) recorded HVAC noise and (2) a series of intermittent noises, e.g., conversations, phone ringing, etc. These conditions were reproduced over a 32-loudspeaker array in an anechoic chamber to include realistic spatial placement of sound sources. Each subject was seated at the center of the array and asked to perform five cognitive tasks to evaluate effects on memory, reasoning, planning, and attention. The tasks were digit span, grammatical reasoning, tower of London, attention network test, and mental arithmetic. After each noise condition, the participants rated several items including annoyance and perceived performance. Heart rate variability (HRV) was also recorded using ECG sensors as a physiological measure of arousal. Baseline measurements were first obtained in silence, followed by a task training set in silence, and an actual test set in silence. A statistical analysis was used to investigate possible correlations between the acoustic conditions and the cognitive task results, perceptual ratings, and HRV data, respectively. Study details and the findings will be presented.

The degree of insensitivity to atmospheric turbulence was evaluated for five metrics (A-, B-, E-weighted sound exposure level, Stevens Mark VII Perceived Level, and NASA's Indoor Sonic Boom Annoyance Predictor) that correlate to human annoyance from sonic booms. Eight N-wave shaped sonic booms from NASA's FaINT experiment and five simulated "low-boom" sonic booms were turbulized by Locey's ten atmospheric filter functions. The B-weighted sound exposure level value changed the least due to the turbulence filters for twelve of thirteen booms. This makes it the most turbulence stable metric which may be useful for quiet supersonic aircraft certification.

The A-weighted sound pressure level (SPL) is commonly used to assess the effect of noise reduction measures on noise-induced annoyance. While for road traffic noise loudness seems to be a better descriptor of annoyance, for railway noise a systematic investigation seems to be lacking. Thus, in this study, the relation between annoyance and perceptually motivated descriptors was investigated for various conditions of binaural recordings of pass-bys of cargo and passenger trains. The conditions included free field and spectral mitigations caused by a 4 m high noise barrier, a 1 m high noise barrier close to the track, and rail dampers. Forty listeners performed a free magnitude estimation of annoyance for different presentation levels and the ratings were fit to various models. Further, level changes required to evoke a noticeable change in annoyance (annoyance thresholds) were acquired. The models based on the A-weighted SPL explained the ratings and thresholds better when the reduction measure was explicitly provided as a parameter. However, the optimal models were loudness-level-based models, which were able to better describe the annoyance, even independently of the reduction measure. Both experiments underline the effectiveness of loudness when describing the annoyance in the area of railway noise reduction.

The importance of non-acoustical factors including the type of visual environment on human noise perception becomes increasingly recognized. In order to reveal the relationships between long-term noise annoyance and different types of neighborhood views, 2033 questionnaire responses were collected for studying the effect of perceptions of different combinations of views of sea, urban river, greenery, and/or noise barrier on the annoyance responses from residents living in high-rise apartments in Hong Kong. The collected responses were employed to formulate a multivariate model to predict the probability of invoking a high annoyance response from residents. Results showed that views of sea, urban river, or greenery could lower the probability, while views of noise barrier could increase the probability. Views of greenery had a stronger noise moderation capability than views of sea or urban river. The presence of an interaction effect between views of water and views of noise barrier exerted a negative influence on the noise annoyance moderation capability. The probability due to exposure to an environment containing views of noise barriers and urban rivers would be even higher than that due to exposure to an environment containing views of noise barriers alone.

Laboratory studies show that the annoyance caused by shooting sounds can be predicted from the outdoor A- and C-weighted sound exposure levels (ASELs and CSELs; LAE and LCE). For any single event, the rating sound level, Lr,s in decibel, is given by Lr,s = LAE + 12 + β(LCE − LAE)(LAE − α). On the basis of the laboratory results α = 47 dB and β = 0.015 dB−1 were recommended. In the present study, parameter values α and β are re-estimated. Subjective reactions to shooting and road-traffic sounds were determined for 400 respondents divided among 15 residential areas. Also, the noise dose for road traffic was calculated and the ammunition spent in the 12 months preceding the administration of the questionnaire was listed. Next, for all impulsive sources, the required ASELs and CSELs received in the residential areas were calculated. Based on the data from the majority of the residential areas, the estimated β in combination with α = 45 dB is equal to 0.025 dB−1. At the lower and upper limits of the 95% confid...

Some environmental sounds have strong amplitude fluctuations that may affect their perceived loudness and annoyance. This study assessed the effect of beat rate (fb) and center frequency (fc) on the loudness of low-frequency beating tones. The loudness of two-tone complexes (TTCs) with fc = 40, 63, 80, and 1000 Hz was matched with that of unmodulated tones (UTs). Frequency differences between the TTC components, corresponding to fb = 1, 2, 5, and 12 Hz, were used. To compensate for the steep decline in hearing sensitivity below 100 Hz, prior to the loudness match, subjects adjusted the relative levels (ΔL) of the TTC components to give maximum beat perception. Twenty-four normal-hearing subjects were tested. The values of ΔL giving best beats were well predicted from the transfer function of the middle ear and the estimated shapes of the auditory filters, assuming that the auditory filter whose output dominated the beat percept was centered somewhat above fc. At the same root-mean-square level and independent of fc, TTCs were perceived as louder than UTs for fb ≤ 2 Hz, had roughly equal loudness to UTs for fb = 5 Hz, and were less loud than UTs for fb = 12 Hz.

The relationship between noise exposure and the prevalence of annoyance of transportation noise in a community is commonly characterized by a so-called dose-response curve, also referred to as exposure-response curves. Such curves are generally estimated by meta-analyses of social survey findings. Large numbers of survey respondents are generally assumed to be associated with exposure-response relationships of high accuracy and precision. The community tolerance level (CTL) approach [Fidell, Mestre, Schomer, Berry, Gjestland, Vallet, and Reid (2011). J. Acoust. Soc. Am 130, 791-806] to analysis of noise-induced annoyance in communities assumes (1) that the prevalence of a consequential degree of annoyance in communities grows as does the duration-adjusted loudness of noise exposure, and (2) that this rate-of-growth function is constant for all transportation noise sources. Because CTL analysis assumes a growth function with a single parameter the entire relationship between noise exposure and prevalence of high annoyance can be described by a single quantity-a CTL value. A re-analysis of the results of about 100 social surveys shows that a sample of about 300 respondents yields results with useful precision limits for regulatory purposes.

With results from a nationwide survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, factors that affect outdoor audibility and noise annoyance of wind turbines were evaluated. Wind turbine and summer daytime median background sound levels were estimated for 1043 respondents. Wind turbine sound level was the most robust predictor of audibility yet only a weak, albeit significant, predictor of noise annoyance. For each 1 dB increase in wind turbine sound level (L1h-max), the odds of hearing a wind turbine on one's property increased by 31% [odds ratio (OR): 1.31; 95% CI (confidence interval): 1.25-1.38] and the odds of moving to the next level of annoyance increased by 9% (OR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.02-1.16). While audibility was overwhelmingly dependent on turbine sound level, noise annoyance was best explained by visual disapproval (OR: 11.0; 95% CI: 4.8-25.4). The final models correctly predict audibility and annoyance level for 80% and 62% of individuals, respectively. The results demonstrate that among community members not receiving personal benefits from wind projects, the Community Tolerance Level of wind turbine noise for the U.S. aligns with the international average, further supporting observations that communities are less tolerant of wind turbine noise than other common environmental noise sources at equivalent A-weighted sound levels.

Noise annoyance due to railway traffic is a growing issue in today's society. This annoyance may be predicted using noise-exposure relationships with mean energy-based index. However, there is room for improvement of models as other acoustical and non-acoustical factors also influence noise annoyance responses. In this paper, it is proposed to highlight annoying auditory sensations evoked by the railway noise and determine acoustical and psychoacoustical indices combined in a predictive model. A laboratory experiment involving railway pass-by noise in urban areas was carried out. Annoyance ratings, noise sensitivity ratings, and free verbalization data were gathered. The analysis underlined annoying auditory sensations caused by railway pass-by noises. Two indices were proposed to account for irregular amplitude fluctuation and noise event duration-related sensations. A multilevel regression analysis was conducted, leading to two annoyance models considering noise indices and noise sensitivity. These models were finally compared to a similarly obtained multilevel regression model related to tramway noise annoyance. The comparison was carried out as a cross-validation considering the models and the respective datasets collected in laboratory conditions for model construction. Results showed that the railway noise annoyance model led to a good prediction of tramway noise annoyance and vice versa.

Noise and air pollutants share many common sources including traffic volume. Noise pollution causes annoyance and disturbs sleep and it is the second risk factor, after air pollution, to the estimated environmental burden of disease in Europe. It can also act as a proxy for some of the air pollutants, to allow building of holistic view of environmental pollution. During the pandemic and the resulting lockdowns in cities across the world, traffic volumes reduced significantly, leading to reduced pollutant concentrations and noise levels. In this work, we present an analysis of the multiple pollutants (e.g., fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxide) and noise data that are monitored continuously during the lockdown at 15-minute resolution at a school site in the UK, which is situated next to a busy road. This talk will present trends of noise and the air pollutants during the lockdown period, explore possible relationship of noise as a proxy for air pollutants; variations between pollutants and the underlining reasons explaining the temporal variations. [This work is supported by Guildford Living Lab and INHALE (EP/T003189/1). We thank the Sandfields Primary school, its governors and the parent group for supporting this work.]

In March 2020, strict lock-down measures were imposed in response to COVID-19 pandemic. These restrictions greatly affected our lives together with our environment. While indoor activities increased, streets got tranquil. On Noise Awareness Day 2020, Turkish Acoustical Society started an online survey on noise annoyance in dwellings. 1053 People responded questions on perceived noisiness, dwelling satisfaction, and noise annoyance for two time periods: (1) before and (2) during the pandemic. Stress and anxiety at the time was also evaluated. The results showed that traffic noise annoyance decreased while annoyance due to own-dwelling noises increased. Although being higher than both, neighbor noise annoyance did not change significantly. People who perceived their environment as “noisy” were more satisfied with their dwelling during COVID-19, and those who perceived as “quiet” were less satisfied. Noise sensitivity and annoyance were positively correlated with stress and anxiety while individual changes in annoyance (Aduring–Abefore) were independent. Finally, environmental noise levels (1) before COVID-19, (2) during total lock-down and (3) partial lock-down were measured at two locations. During total lock-down noise levels dropped 7.8dB near a main road while it increased 5 dB near greenery due to human activities. During partial lock-down the levels dropped 2.4 dB and 2.1 dB respectively.

Sonic boom causing rattling and whole-body vibration in buildings can lead to human disturbance and annoyance. An overview of research on sonic boom vibration in the EU RUMBLE project is presented here. Numerical simulations are carried out for sets of buildings encompassing a variety of European building styles, and for different transmission situations such as with and without open windows. We calibrate the simulations with previous laboratory data and recorded sound and vibration data from field experiments in Tretyakov (Russia). We then use the simulation to understand how sensitive the vibrations are to various buildings and conditions. Moreover, correlations of sonic boom metrics to the measured and simulated vibrations are quantified. Two different types of vibration generation mechanisms are detected and analysed: The first one is floor vibrations being set up from the indoor sound transmitted from outdoor. The second is the horizontal motion of the whole building being set up by the outdoor sound at the lower overall resonance frequency of the building. It is found that both types of generation mechanisms can be important for sonic boom, and that they take place for different frequencies.

Due to progress in aircraft design, the sonic boom produced by supersonic aircraft may be reduced considerably in the future and the subjective response of humans to future low sonic boom signatures is currently under investigation. In the frame of the RUMBLE project, loudness and short-term ratings of different recordings and simulations of classical booms and potential future boom sounds were collected. The time signals of the signatures were differing in shape but were confined in maximum overpressure and the A-weighted sound exposure level (ASEL) to the range foreseen for future low boom aircraft. Besides a high correlation with the ASEL, the short-term annoyance ratings were also highly correlated to the loudness ratings, suggesting that loudness was the underlying factor for short-term annoyance in the laboratory experiments. Therefore, loudness values were calculated with loudness models from the current ISO 532-1 and 532-2 standard in an attempt to predict the annoyance ratings. The correlation coefficients between short-term annoyance ratings and loudness model values are similar to those between ratings and level based measures (e.g., weighted SELs). For the loudness model according to the ISO 532-1 standard, the correlation coefficient is even slightly higher that than for ASEL.

Relationships between noise exposure and transportation noise induced annoyance have been studied extensively for several decades. The annoyance due to aircraft noise exposure is in the present paper assumed to be influenced by the day-night yearly average sound level (DNL). It has long been recognized that the annoyance also depends on non-DNL factors, but this is complicated-resulting in a variety of different modeling strategies. Motivated by this, the community tolerance level (CTL) was introduced in 2011 for a loudness-based psychometric function. It is a single parameter that accounts for the aggregate influence of other factors. This paper suggests and investigates different methods for the measurement of the CTL. The methods are illustrated on data found in the literature, on recent surveys around two Norwegian airports, and on simulated data. The results from the presented methods differ significantly. An elementary method is shown to give a measurement of the CTL with smaller uncertainty, and is recommended as a replacement for the originally suggested least-squares method. Methods for evaluating the measurement uncertainty are also presented.

Current literature suggests that wind turbine noise is more annoying than transportation noise. To date, however, it is not known which acoustic characteristics of wind turbines alone, i.e., without effect modifiers such as visibility, are associated with annoyance. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate and compare the short-term noise annoyance reactions to wind turbines and road traffic in controlled laboratory listening tests. A set of acoustic scenarios was created which, combined with the factorial design of the listening tests, allowed separating the individual associations of three acoustic characteristics with annoyance, namely, source type (wind turbine, road traffic), A-weighted sound pressure level, and amplitude modulation (without, periodic, random). Sixty participants rated their annoyance to the sounds. At the same A-weighted sound pressure level, wind turbine noise was found to be associated with higher annoyance than road traffic noise, particularly with amplitude modulation. The increased annoyance to amplitude modulation of wind turbines is not related to its periodicity, but seems to depend on the modulation frequency range. The study discloses a direct link of different acoustic characteristics to annoyance, yet the generalizability to long-term exposure in the field still needs to be verified.

The possibility that wind turbine noise (WTN) affects human health remains controversial. The current analysis presents results related to WTN annoyance reported by randomly selected participants (606 males, 632 females), aged 18-79, living between 0.25 and 11.22 km from wind turbines. WTN levels reached 46 dB, and for each 5 dB increase in WTN levels, the odds of reporting to be either very or extremely (i.e., highly) annoyed increased by 2.60 [95% confidence interval: (1.92, 3.58), p

The Community Noise and Health Study conducted by Health Canada included randomly selected participants aged 18-79 yrs (606 males, 632 females, response rate 78.9%), living between 0.25 and 11.22 km from operational wind turbines. Annoyance to wind turbine noise (WTN) and other features, including shadow flicker (SF) was assessed. The current analysis reports on the degree to which estimating high annoyance to wind turbine shadow flicker (HAWTSF) was improved when variables known to be related to WTN exposure were also considered. As SF exposure increased [calculated as maximum minutes per day (SFm)], HAWTSF increased from 3.8% at 0 ≤ SFm

ISO 717-1 [(1996). International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland] and ASTM 413 [(2010). American Society for Testing and Materials International] define various single-number quantities (SNQs) that are commonly used to rate objectively airborne sound insulation of constructions. Recent psychoacoustic evidence suggests that none of them is appropriate for a wide range of living sound stimuli. The purpose of the study was to develop an alternative compromising SNQ for the frequency range 50-5000 Hz that explains well the annoyance caused by various airborne living sounds transmitted from the neighboring dwelling. Optimal reference spectra for different living sounds were found by mathematical optimization. Experimental data from a psychoacoustic laboratory study [Hongisto, Oliva, and Keränen (2014). Acta Acust. Acust. 100, 848-863] were utilized. The subjects (n = 59) had evaluated the disturbance of living sounds that were electrically filtered to mimic transmission through commonly used wall structures. To find a high-performing reference spectrum for living sounds in general, the optimized reference spectra were averaged over all sound types. The resulting SNQ was called R

It is necessary to consider not only annoyance of interior noises but also speech privacy to achieve acoustic comfort in a passenger car of a high-speed train because speech from other passengers can be annoying. This study aimed to explore an optimal acoustic environment to satisfy speech privacy and reduce annoyance in a passenger car. Two experiments were conducted using speech sources and compartment noise of a high speed train with varying speech-to-noise ratios (SNRA) and background noise levels (BNL). Speech intelligibility was tested in experiment I, and in experiment II, perceived speech privacy, annoyance, and acoustic comfort of combined sounds with speech and background noise were assessed. The results show that speech privacy and annoyance were significantly influenced by the SNRA. In particular, the acoustic comfort was evaluated as acceptable when the SNRA was less than -6 dB for both speech privacy and noise annoyance. In addition, annoyance increased significantly as the BNL exceeded 63 dBA, whereas the effect of the background-noise level on the speech privacy was not significant. These findings suggest that an optimal level of interior noise in a passenger car might exist between 59 and 63 dBA, taking normal speech levels into account.

The world health organization recommendations related to a psychiatric ward for sound pressure level measurements overtime are not to exceed 30 and 35 dBA, respectively. However, no published study results since 1975 have reported full compliance within a hospital. Hospitals are a stressful work environment regardless of the noise level that averages between 53 and 58 dBA. Unique working solutions offered by design architects and insurance companies to reduce noise conditions in a physiological health facility are not transferable to psychiatric units that are operating as a behavioral health facility. This study reports on an exploratory analysis of the noise reduction strategies within a psychiatric ward. Architecturally and electronically implemented noise mitigation solutions are used to minimize noise annoyance, which is related to the noise sensitivity of the patient and staff. Sound mapping and noise source localization are conducted utilizing beamforming techniques. Onsite noise measurements in time and frequency domain provide design opportunities for isolating patient rooms from noise by the public and staff working areas. The impact of working solutions on speech privacy and annoyance is determined. The results contribute to a more extensive database and opportunities toward improvement in design guidelines for psychiatric wards and a positive influence on the hospital soundscape.

Impulsive components of the noise of passing vehicles can cause increased annoyance for the nearby inhabitants. For example, the periodic excitation of a damaged wheel creates a noise with a clearly noticeable fluctuation strength. This leads—in addition to the sound pressure level, which is also raised by the impulsive component—to a significant annoyance of the residents. Usually, such signals are recorded in the vicinity of the point of emission (in the distance of 7.5 m). The scope of the present study was to investigate the question to what extent the annoyance of the residents at the point of immission can be predicted by using these recorded signals. For this purpose, by means of subjective evaluations the annoyance of original signals at the point of immission was compared with that of recordings at the point of emission reduced in accordance with the distance law.

Individuals may perceive noise stimuli differently based on the content of the source, due to factors such as the frequency spectra, level, temporal characteristics, or even the dynamic range of the noise source (the range of sound levels from quietest to loudest in a given sample). Results from earlier phases of this research indicated subject preference for quieter overall environments with a larger dynamic range of noise (based on the analysis of noise Occurrence Rates within real hospital units). In this phase of the study, a subjective perceptual laboratory test was designed and administered to 33 subjects to assess the annoyance perception of noise stimuli with varying dynamic ranges. Simulated hospital environments were utilized as the source stimuli, selected to represent a “typical” hospital unit patient area. It was found that in a controlled setting, subjects perceived noise stimuli with a wider dynamic range and louder peak noise events more negatively than noise sources with more consistent sound levels.