The skin on her arms was like leather, wrinkly, so thin you could see the blood flow underneath thesurface. Ruption´s that reminded me of small universes or spider-like flowers leapt up and downher arms. She liked listening to the radio, or so I think. She was lying on the bed in the middle ofthe little house surrounded by trees. The massive furn wood dining table was tilted up against thewall, a defeeted gigant.Empty, empty, empty. Silent, silent, silent. The room was a shell, singing of what wasbefore time; a vase stood in the heart of the house, alabaster, smooth, cold holding thestill, distilled essence of emptiness, silence.-Virginia WoolfThe history of materiality can be expected because we have seen it. We can understand how it candisappear or slowly decay because we have at one point in time understood its presence. In mywork I have investigated how material and sound can help to define each other. My thoughts arethat the vase in this aspect is corpus, a recorder of its environment. The vase i.e. corpus stands forintimacy, connecting people in a home where everyday life occurs through communication. The oldvase has a presence, that presence vibrates of life that you can hint but not fully understand.Sound talks about the proportions between things in a different way by travelling between statesand time. How can we understand and access history that is invisible to the eye? GuglielmoMarconi (a pioneer in long-distance radio transmitting) believed that acoustic phenomena continuedto hang in the air. He thought of sounds as bodies of vibration whos decay extended to infinity.Marconi used a concept he called dead air, to describe silence. All sound that ever existed isaccessible to us if we know how to tune into it. What would the silence of the alabaster vase soundlike? In my examination work I have focused on sound to try and understand how it is connected tothe traces of life that are not written in history books.

Os parâmetros acústicos subjetivos são critérios que definem a qualidade acústica de uma sala de música. A apreciação musical dentro da sala é afetada por diversas impressões acústicas que ocorrem ao mesmo tempo. Cada uma dessas impressões é associada a um parâmetro acústico de natureza subjetiva que está correlacionado a uma grandeza física mensurável, constituindo um conjunto de parâmetros acústicos objetivos que formam uma base científica para a análise acústica das salas de música. Neste trabalho desenvolvemos pesquisa de âmbito teórico e experimental envolvendo a análise dos parâmetros acústicos subjetivos mais relevantes para a avaliação da qualidade acústica de salas de escuta musical. Fizemos um levantamento abrangente do material já publicado sobre o assunto, o que nos orientou a respeito das medições acústicas pertinentes à referida análise e nos permitiu formalizar as devidas conclusões. Implementamos e aplicamos a tecnologia necessária para a obtenção dos parâmetros. Determinamos a metodologia experimental mais adequada e efetuamos medições em seis importantes salas de concerto, comparando os resultados. Fizemos uma análise crítica a respeito dos parâmetros acústicos obtidos e aprofundamos a compreensão sobre seus significados e suas utilidades. Por fim, fizemos uma análise subjetiva de júri correlacionando os parâmetros acústicos medidos às respectivas impressões acústicas sobre amostras musicais gravadas nas salas. / Acoustic parameters are the criteria that define the acoustic quality of a music hall. The musical audition inside a room is influenced by a group of acoustic impressions that occur at the same time. Each one of such impressions is associated with a particular subjective parameter that is correlated to a measurable physical value. These values are taken as a set of objective parameters that constitute a scientific basis for the acoustical analysis of a music hall. In this work we have conducted both a theoretical and an experimental investigation on the analysis of the most important acoustic parameters for the evaluation of the quality of a music hall. Also, we have done an extensive research on the related bibliography to support our measurement procedures and formal conclusions. We have implemented the necessary technology to obtain the acoustic parameters. We also have determined the most efficient experimental methodology to carry out acoustic measurements and we have applied this methodology to the measurement of six important concert halls. Then we have compared the data related to each hall and performed a critical analysis of this data, increasing our understanding on the meaning and the usefulness of the acoustic parameters. Finally, we have made a subjective jury analysis, correlating the measured acoustic parameters to the impressions about music samples recorded into those concert halls.

This work investigated the effects of various stressors on auditory speech processing using speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (ABR). This work was carried out in three distinct studies: (1) the effects of stimulus rate and noise on the speech-evoked ABR, (2) the effects of direct, early, and later-arriving speech reflections on the speech-evoked ABR, and (3) the effects of self-masking and overlap masking in a reverberant environment using speech-evoked ABR. Results from the first study indicate a complex interaction of fast stimulus rate and noise on the speech-evoked ABR. In particular, dissociation was found between electrophysiological responses to the envelope and the responses to the temporal fine structure or transient waves. The main finding from the second study is that direct sound and early reflections produce similar speech-evoked ABR, while the response to late reverberation shows different characteristics. Results from the third study indicate that severe reverberation significantly weakened the ABR when compared to anechoic or moderate reverberation, while moderate reverberation significantly enhanced the ABR when compared to anechoic speech. Overall, the new findings from this research shed light on the effects of stressors such as noise, increased stimulus rate, and reverberation. Up until now, these effects have mostly been studied perceptually. Our research demonstrates that these effects can be studied electrophysiologically using speech-evoked brainstem responses. This method of investigation permits the probing of particular stages of the auditory pathway and evaluating how neural activity in response to specific elements of speech, such as the fundamental frequency and formants, is affected by different stressors.

This work is about reverberators as system for simulating space properties of sound and their implementation in game development software Unity. The goal of this thesis is to create a working plug-in module for this development software, which is capable of working in real time and also can change it's parameteres in real time.

This thesis is the final module of the Master's program in Electronics Design at Halmstad University. The Master Thesis work is a part of an ongoing development of Halmstad University's reverberation chamber (RC), which is aimed at frequencies in the low GHz range. The development process has been passing in several phases. One phase is to design a mechanical stirrer system which was done by the work presented in another thesis work. The current phase, which is done by this thesis work, is to investigate electromagnetic field uniformity and isotropy while using tuned-mode (stepped stirrer). The frequency 2.4 GHz was chosen because, from one hand, it fits the capability of the assigned equipment for this thesis (spectrum analyzer, signal generator, antennas). On the other hand, it is the operating frequency of a wide range of WIFI and BlueTooth devices that need to be tested inside the RC to comply with the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) standards. The measurement results verified, to a reasonable extent, the field uniformity and isotropy. The standard deviation of all measurements, taken from different eight positions with three different orientations of the receiving antenna, was 1.5dB. It is less than 3dB fulfilling the IEC 61000-4-21standards for frequencies above 400MGHz. Moreover, a quality factor degradation test was conducted, showing a 3.5 dB reduction of the received power when the chamber was loaded by organic material. The received power, while sweeping the bandwidth 800MHz-1.5GHz, was measured. These results indicate that at the resonance frequencies of the chamber, the received power is higher than that at non-resonance frequencies.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(工学) / 乙第13091号 / 論工博第4152号 / 新制||工||1675(附属図書館) / (主査)教授 髙橋 大弐, 教授 原田 和典, 教授 竹脇 出 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

In this thesis, a discussion on the effectiveness of acoustic design in public spaces is made. The auditory properties of a location have noteworthy implications on the success of a building's design and how a room is perceived. Depending on the requirements of each location, either a reverberant or sound-absorbing approach is best suited for the environment. Moreover, public health is negatively affected by long-term involuntary noise exposure. Because of this, there is an obvious demand for continued and expanded study in acoustic design. This thesis aims to challenge interior design choices made in four testing locations: a classroom, a musical practice room, an ambient performance space, and an office. Reverberation time is tested at each site using both a Digital Sound Level Meter application (Decibel X) and a 732A Digital Sound Level Meter paired with a series of external source sounds at set testing frequencies. Depending on the results of each trial, an evaluation of possible improvements to each location's aural properties is made.

No description available.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第24418号 / 理博第4917号 / 新制||理||1702(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)准教授 岩室 史英, 教授 嶺重 慎, 教授 太田 耕司 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

A historical review is performed to study the impact of acoustical knowledge on concert hall developments. It shows that although acoustics developed from myth to real science, there is still a gap between its fast growing knowledge and relatively slow applications to improve designs. Architectural acoustics research and education shall help populating the tacit knowledge and experience of acousticians to reduce the gap between design and knowledge. The established paradigm in this field is to identify the performance goals of concert halls, recognize the available design information in different stages, and establish models to link them together. Placed in this general picture, this thesis focuses on providing design support for preliminary stage. It develops a model to link accessible design features with the most important acoustics performance index, reverberation time. A literature review on exiting reverberation time prediction methods shows that they are based on either too demanding or over-simplified for this stage. This study intends to develop a model that makes maximum use of available information and improves prediction accuracy in comparison with existing simplified methods. Through literature survey and data analysis, three factors (geometrical shape, non-uniform material distribution and scattering effect) are recognized as significant for reverberation time prediction. This thesis developed a simplified model taking these factors into consideration and calibrated this model with empirical data through Bayesian statistical method.