Orientador: Stelamaris Rolla Bertoli / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T04:56:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Smiderle_Roberta_M.pdf: 26489976 bytes, checksum: 44609708b319cf198f5a0772379f7c32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A inteligibilidade acústica se faz necessária para várias finalidades em diferentes tipos de ambientes. Dentre esses ambientes as igrejas católicas são locais com ampla variedade de atividades relacionadas à fala e música que requerem inteligibilidade acústica adequada. O comportamento acústico de igrejas é um tema que vem sendo estudado há algum tempo devido ao fato de serem ambientes que agregam diferentes tipos de eventos, missa, culto, palestras, concertos e outras atividades relacionadas ou não à religião, exigindo estudos que levem em conta essa flexibilidade. Ao longo da História do catolicismo, a Igreja, como instituição, passou por diversas mudanças que modificaram o modo como à celebração deveria ser conduzida e também os tipos de atividades, alterando o desempenho acústico requerido nos edifícios. Baseado nessas premissas verifica-se que a qualidade acústica de tais ambientes é de complexa variabilidade. Nesta dissertação foram avaliadas acusticamente seis igrejas católicas na cidade de Campinas, a Basílica Nossa Senhora do Carmo, Catedral Metropolitana de Campinas Nossa Senhora da Imaculada Conceição, Igreja de Sant'Ana, Igreja de Nossa Senhora das Dores, Igreja de Santa Rita de Cássia e Igreja de São Paulo Apóstolo. As igrejas avaliadas não foram escolhidas aleatoriamente, mas escolhidas em relação ao período de construção e a tipologia arquitetônica de cada uma das igrejas. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar o desempenho acústico das igrejas considerando as diversas combinações de fontes e receptores sonoros que podem ocorrer no interior da edificação, e buscar relacionar o desempenho acústico com suas características arquitetônicas. A avaliação acústica das igrejas foi feita por meio da análise dos resultados da medição dos parâmetros acústicos Tempo de Reverberação (TR), Tempo de Decaimento Inicial (EDT), Clareza (C80), Definição (D50) e Índice de Transmissão da Fala (STI). Os procedimentos das medições acústicas foram feitas baseadas na norma ISO 3382-1:2009, considerando que os edifícios podem ser considerados como ambientes de performance de acordo com a tipologia e uso, garantindo que os dados obtidos sejam passíveis a comparações em análises com outros estudos. Os resultados obtidos foram analisados de acordo com padrões propostos na literatura para avaliação de desempenho acústico qualificando o comportamento acústico das igrejas para as atividades desenvolvidas em cada uma delas. Tais resultados demonstraram, em grande maioria, que as igrejas estudadas apresentam parâmetros acústicos de valores inadequados para as atividades desenvolvidas hoje em dia. No entanto, têm-se também em alguns casos, parâmetros adequados a situações específicas, como na Catedral, onde a fonte de orquestra, posicionada sob a cúpula apresenta excelentes valores de Clareza, qualidade de valores também alcançados pelas igrejas de São Paulo Apóstolo e Sant'Ana em posições de coro original. Muito dos reposicionamentos de fonte sonora ocorridos no interior das igrejas, de acordo com as novas atividades, apresentou valores inferiores aos medidos em posição original, como se pode perceber na igreja de Nossa Senhora das Dores e na Basílica do Carmo, nas quais as novas posições de coro têm parâmetros acústicos com valores inferiores aos adequados à Clareza. Este estudo trouxe como contribuição o levantamento das características acústicas dessas igrejas, tornando possível a análise e comparação dos dados obtidos com relação a trabalhos posteriores. Sendo possível analisar não apenas os valores para os parâmetros acústicos avaliados, mas também como as características da arquitetura de cada edificação fizeram com que o comportamento acústico se desenvolvesse de tal modo no interior das igrejas / Abstract: Acoustic Intelligibility is one of the great important subjects for the performance of many environments such as catholic churches. Such places are used for many types of performances requiring adequate intelligibility for speech and clarity for music. The acoustic performance of worship places has been studied for a while because such places can accommodate not only religious events but also different kinds of events related or not to religion. Along Catholicism history, the church as an institution has been changing over the years the procedure of its rituals such as the mass and opening their temples to other kinds of performances making the acoustic performance of such environments require great deal of complexity. This research analyzed six catholic churches in the city of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Churches were chosen according its period of construction and architectural typology. The objective of this research is to study the acoustic performance of these churches and establish a relationship with the architectural characteristics of the temple. Measurement of acoustic parameters such as Reverberation Time (RT), Early Decay Time (EDT), Clarity Index (C80), Definition (D50) and Speech Transmission Index (STI) were used to analyze the acoustic performance of the churches. Measurements were done according to ISO 3382-1:2009. Churches can be considered performance spaces due to its broader possibilities of use, making it possible to compare its data with other similar researches. Results were also analyzed according to procedures specifically proposed for those spaces found in the literature making it possible to qualify the acoustic behavior of churches for each specific use and allowing further studies and comparisons / Mestrado / Arquitetura e Construção / Mestra em Engenharia Civil

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A human factors experiment was conducted to assess whether a reduction in noise at the ear would cause an improvement in speech intelligibility, an improvement in cognitive performance, and/or a reduction in subjective mental workload. Modified Rhyme Test (MRT) stimuli were used to determine intelligibility and specific tests within the Complex Cognitive Assessment Battery (CCAB) were used to assess cognitive performance. The tests chosen from the CCAB were: Tower Puzzle, Logical Relations, and Numbers and Words. These tests were chosen because of the specific set of cognitive functions that they measure which corresponded to command and control tasks. Participants performed the MRT and CCAB tests simultaneously in a 114 dBA noise environment at two speech levels, 83 dB (linear) and 96 dB (linear), using two communication microphones, Gentex Model 1453 and a prototype communication microphone developed by Adaptive Technologies Inc. (ATI). The noise used in the experiment was from a recording made inside a US Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Subjective mental workload was assessed using the NASA-TLX and Modified Cooper-Harper (MCH) immediately after the experiment. Results indicated that the communication microphone developed by ATI reduced the noise level at the ear better than the current Gentex microphone. However, the Gentex microphone produced significantly higher speech intelligibility scores at the 96 dB speech level. Cognitive performance scores significantly improved with increasing speech level for both communication microphones, with the ATI microphone having the advantage at 83 dB and the Gentex at 96 dB. The results also indicated that the main effects of speech level and communication microphone did not have an effect on subjective mental workload. A correlation analysis revealed that there was a positive relationship between the two workload measurement tools, indicating that either scale may be used to assess mental workload. Therefore, it was concluded that the MCH could have been used instead of the NASA-TLX, since the overall workload score was of interest. / Ph. D.

Speech intelligibility tests using three headset systems, two passive and one with active noise reduction technology, were conducted. Nine listeners, six males and three females, responded to 180 50-word Modified Rhyme Word Lists presented under two noise conditions, two conditions of bilateral phase reversal of the speech signal, and the three headset systems. These three independent variables were studied in a full factorial within-subjects design. The noise conditions were pink noise and recordings from the troop carrying compartment of a U.S. Army M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle (tank noise having substantial low-frequency energy). Phase reversal of the speech signal was also tested for its effect on speech intelligibility. The three headset systems were the David Clark Noise Attenuating Aviation Headset, and the Bose Aviation Headset used in both its passive and active mode. Active noise reduction technology employs the physical principle of constructive and destructive interference by creating signals which are identical to the noise under the earmuff but out of phase by 180 degrees. This technology is most effective at frequencies below 1000 Hz. Results showed that the Bose headset in its active mode required a significantly higher speech-to-noise ratio in both noise environments than the two passive headset systems to achieve the 70% level of speech intelligibility, the dependent variable in this study. The mean speech level under the Bose headset in its active mode was 2.8 dB higher in tank noise and 3.5 dB higher in pink noise than under the David Clark headset. The Bose headset in the active mode, however, provided a greater degree of broadband attenuation especially in the lower frequency range, e.g. < 630 Hz. Phase reversal proved to be of no benefit to performance in either noise environment. The pink noise proved to be the harsher environment for speech intelligibility than did the tank noise, primarily due to the increased levels in the speech bandwidth. Articulation Index scores for the three headset systems evidenced that the differences in performance among the three headset systems were in part the result of better earphone response characteristics in the principal speech bandwidth (600 - 4000 Hz) in conjunction with the strong attenuation performance of the David Clark headset in that same range. It is suggested that, in the absence of better earphone response characteristics and a broader bandwidth of active noise reduction performance, speech intelligibility is no better under active noise reduction headsets than under quality passive headsets. Further, the levels of speech intelligibility attained by active noise reduction headsets are at a cost of increased signal strength and higher purchase price. / Ph. D.

A human factors experiment was conducted to assess the intelligibility of synthesized speech under a variety of noise conditions for both hearing-impaired and normal-hearing subjects. Modified Rhyme Test stimuli were used to determine intelligibility in four speech-to-noise (S/N) ratios (0, 5, 10, and 15 dB), and three noise types, consisting of flat-by-octaves (pink) noise, interior noise of a currently produced heavy truck, and truck cab noise with added background speech. A quiet condition was also investigated. During recording of the truck noise for the experiment, in-cab noise measurements were obtained. According to OSHA standards, these data indicated that drivers of the sampled trucks have a minimal risk for noise-induced hearing loss due to in-cab noise exposure when driving at freeway speeds because noise levels were below 80 dBA. In the intelligibility experiment, subjects with hearing loss had significantly lower intelligibility than normal-hearing subjects, both in quiet and in noise, but no interaction with noise type or S/N ratio was found. Intelligibility was significantly lower for the noise with background speech than the other noises, but the truck noise produced intelligibility equal to the pink noise. An analytical prediction of intelligibility using Articulation Index calculations exhibited a high positive correlation with the empirically obtained intelligibility data for both groups of subjects. / Master of Science

The speech of a person speaking in a noisy environment can be enhanced through electronic beamforming using spatially distributed microphones. As this approach demands precise information about the microphone locations, its application is limited in places where microphones must be placed quickly or changed on a regular basis. Highly precise calibration or measurement process can be tedious and time consuming. In order to understand tolerable limits on the calibration process, the impact of microphone position error on the intelligibility is examined. Analytical expressions are derived by modeling the microphone position errors as a zero mean uniform distribution. Experiments and simulations were performed to show relationships between precision of the microphone location measurement and loss in intelligibility. A variety of microphone array configurations and distracting sources (other interfering speech and white noise) are considered. For speech near the threshold of intelligibility, the results show that microphone position errors with standard deviations less than 1.5cm can limit losses in intelligibility to within 10% of the maximum (perfect microphone placement) for all the microphone distributions examined. Of different array distributions experimented, the linear array tends to be more vulnerable whereas the non-uniform 3D array showed a robust performance to positional errors.

The main goal of this doctoral thesis was to measure differences in speech intelligibility between older and younger hearing-impaired people and to establish the factors influencing the effectiveness of the use of hearing aids in the elderly. We focused on three related areas: 1/ To measure how the magnitude of difference of hearing and speech intelligibility in silence differs between younger and older populations, with a similar degree of hearing loss, in terms of word audiometry. 2/ To establish how speech intelligibility in competitive noise differs between younger and older populations with a similar degree of auditory defect, in terms of the Czech Test of Sentence Intelligibility in Babble Noise. 3/ To establish which factors affect the effectiveness of hearing aids for seniors, the motivation for the acquisition and regular use of hearing aids, and whether these factors correlate with age or lifestyle. Methodology 1/ A group of 143 hearing aid users was divided into young (N = 60, mean age 15,9 y.) and seniors (N = 83, mean age 83,6 y.). For these two age groups we compared the differences between SRT values (understanding in word audiometry in silence, in the free field) and PTA values (hearing threshold in pure tone audiometry). 2/ A group of 423 persons, examined using the Test of...

The goal of this study was to investigate the methodology in designing a vowel intelligibility model that can objectively predict the outcome of a vowel confusion test performed with normal hearing individuals listening to a cochlear implant acoustic model. The model attempts to mimic vowel perception of a cochlear implantee mathematically. The output of the model is the calculated probability of correct identification of vowel tokens and the probability of specific vowel confusions in a subjective vowel confusion test. In such a manner, the model can be used to aid cochlear implant research by complementing subjective listening tests. The model may also be used to test hypotheses concerning the use and relationship of acoustic cues in vowel identification. The objective vowel intelligibility model consists of two parts: the speech processing component (used to extract the acoustic cues which allow vowels to be identified) and the decision component (simulation of the decision making that takes place in the brain). Acoustic cues were extracted from the vowel sounds and used to calculate probabilities of identifying or confusing specific vowels. The confusion matrices produces by the objective vowel perception model were compared with results from subjective tests performed with normal hearing listeners listening to an acoustic cochlear implant model. The most frequent confusions could be predicted using the first two formant frequencies and the vowel duration as acoustic cues. The model could predict the deterioration of vowel recognition when noise was added to the speech being evaluated. The model provided a first approximation of vowel intelligibility and requires further4 development to completely predict speech perception of cochlear implantees. / Dissertation (ME)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

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