Perceiving Urban Soundscapes: Marc Ciufo Green Human and Machine - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Audio Lab - Department of Electronic Engineering Perceiving Urban Soundscapes: Marc Ciufo Green Human and Machine Perspectives

Key Points ❖ What is a soundscape? ❖ Human impact on the soundscapes of our lives ❖ How to measure and quantify environmental sound ❖ Human reactions to soundscapes ❖ My project - spatial soundscape analysis

Soundscape “The acoustic environment of a place, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.”

[2] Anthropocene “The age of humans”

Industrialisation of the Soundscape ❖ Immediate health effects: ❖ Hearing damage ❖ Lack of sleep ❖ Physical and emotional wellbeing ❖ More difficult to quantify ❖ Limited historical surveys https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Building_site_-_panoramio.jpg

[3] 1912 - 88 dB(A) 2017 - 115 dB(A)

Measuring Environmental Noise L Aeq Sound Pressure L evel Eq uivalent A -weighted

Measuring Environmental Noise L Aeq ❖ Simple to measure and understand. ❖ Aggregates all sound into one figure. ❖ Content of the soundscape is discarded. ❖ Soundscape content is key to human perception and reaction.

Approaches to Environmental Sound Environmental Noise Approach Soundscape Approach Sound managed as a waste Sound perceived as a resource Focus is on sounds of discomfort Focus is on sounds of preference Requires differentiation between sound Measured using L Aeq sources and human judgement Works towards wanted sounds not Managed by reducing levels being masked by unwanted sounds [5]

Soundscape Taxonomies ❖ Schafer’s Features of the Soundscape ❖ Soundecology Categories ❖ Brown’s Acoustic Environment Schema

Features of the Soundscape Keynotes Signals Soundmarks Archetypal Sounds

Features of the Soundscape Keynotes Signals Soundmarks Archetypal Sounds

Soundecology Categories Anthrophony Biophony Geophony

Normalised Difference Soundscape Index ❖ NDSI - metric to measure biophony/anthrophony ratio ❖ Recently applied to urban sound by Devos -1 +1 Anthrophony Biophony

Normalised Difference Soundscape Index ‘Computational model of auditory attention’ could improve results -1 +1 Anthrophony Biophony

Acoustic Environment Schema ❖ Anthro/Bio/Geophony given equal weight in soundecology work ❖ Urban soundscapes dominated by Anthrophony ❖ ‘Insufficient resolution’ in urban sound

Acoustic Environment Schema Biophonic wildlife Nature 3 } Sounds generated by Sounds not generated by wind human activity/facility human activity Anthrophonic Domesticated water animals 3 Geophonic thunder earth/ice Human Motorised Electro- Voice & Other movement human 6 transport movement mechanical: instrument -stationary -mobile Social/communal footsteps Amplified 4 Non-amplified non-motorized construction bells roadway traffic ventilation voice music clock chimes rail traffic agriculture speech fireworks domestic marine traffic singing azan air traffic recreation laughter alarms electrical industry installation [7]

Acoustic Environment Schema The Acoustic Environment Indoor Acoustic Outdoor Acoustic Environment Environment ditto Urban 1 Rural 1 Wilderness 2 Underwater Acoustic Acoustic Acoustic Acoustic Environment Environment Environment Environment ❖ Decouple sounds from human ditto 5 ditto ditto Biophonic wildlife Nature 3 Sounds generated by Sounds not generated by } ‘value judgements’ wind human activity/facility human activity Anthrophonic Domesticated water animals 3 Geophonic thunder ❖ Objectivity in analysis - the earth/ice Human Motorised Electro- Voice & Other movement human 6 transport movement mechanical: instrument -stationary -mobile Social/communal footsteps machine perspective Amplified 4 Non-amplified non-motorized construction bells roadway traffic ventilation voice music clock chimes rail traffic agriculture speech fireworks marine traffic domestic singing azan air traffic recreation laughter alarms electrical industry installation

EigenScape Database ❖ Spatial soundscape recordings ❖ mh Acoustics EigenMike ❖ Samsung Gear 360 Camera ❖ 8 x 8 location categories ❖ 64 ten-minute recordings

References [1] International Panel on Climate Change, “Climate Change 2013 - Summary for Policymakers” 2013. [Online]. Available: http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf [Accessed: 6th June 2017] [2] C. N. Waters et al., “The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene,” Science, vol. 351, no. 6269, p. aad2622, Jan 2016. [3] R.M. Schafer, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 1993. [4] S. Harriet and D. Murphy, “Auralisation of an urban soundscape,” Acta Acustica united with Acustica , vol. 101, no. 4, pp. 798-810, Jul 2015. [5] A. L. Brown, “Soundscapes and environmental noise management,” Noise Control Engineering Journal , vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 493 - 500, 2010. [6] J. Kang and B. Schulte-Fortkamp, Soundscapes and the Built Environment. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2016. [7] A. Brown, J. Kang and T. Gjestland, “Towards standardisation in soundscape preference assessment,” Applied Acoustics , vol. 72, no. 6, pp. 387-392, May 2011. [8] Ö. Axelsson, M. E. Nilsson and B. Berglung, “A principle components model of soundscape perception,” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , vol. 128, no. 5, pp. 2836-2846, Nov 2010.