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It is well known that acoustical factors explain only partly the human perception of aircraft noise. In order to truly understand annoyance ratings, acoustical and non-acoustical factors have to be taken into consideration, making it often complex to analyze studies that treat only one side of the issue. While field studies give a good insight of long-term annoyance in realistic living conditions, laboratory tests are commonly used as means to understand the impact of acoustic factors on noise annoyance and unpleasantness while usually smoothing inter individual differences. A French project (CIGALE) has set a goal of creating a frame of reference making it possible to include non-acoustical factors into laboratory studies. After an extensive field study and focus groups in the first part of the project resulting in six different profiles of residents, the second part comprises a vast laboratory test campaign in Toulouse and Paris region aiming at evaluating the impact of these profiles on the perception of two common acoustical factors in an ecological experimental setup. Overall more than 300 residents of the Toulouse Blagnac airport area and the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport area participated in the CIGALE listening test. Participants were asked to read novels while seated in a listening room with a 3D audio simulation of an everyday soundscape. They were asked to rate their perception of four 15 minutes sequences randomly presented in which the number of aircraft flyovers and the maximum A-weighted sound level of each flyover were varied. Four different scales were used: task interference, mental effort, annoyance and comfort. The results support the hypothesis that profile type and noise sensitivity have an impact on annoyance ratings. The collected data also highlighted different response strategies regarding acoustical factors that need to be further investigated., Il est bien connu que les facteurs acoustiques n'expliquent qu'en partie la perception humaine du bruit des avions. Afin de bien comprendre une évaluation de gêne, les facteurs acoustiques et non acoustiques doivent être pris en compte, ce qui rend souvent complexe l'analyse d'études qui ne traitent qu'un aspect du problème. Alors que les études sur le terrain donnent un bon aperçu de la gêne à long terme dans des conditions de vie réalistes, les tests en laboratoire sont couramment utilisés pour comprendre l'impact des facteurs acoustiques sur la gêne et le désagrément liés au bruit, tout en atténuant généralement les différences interindividuelles. Un projet français (CIGALE) s'est fixé pour objectif de créer un référentiel permettant d'intégrer des facteurs non acoustiques dans les études en laboratoire. Après une vaste étude de terrain et des ateliers participatifs dans une première partie du projet aboutissant à six profils d'habitants différents, la seconde partie comprend une vaste campagne de tests en laboratoire à Toulouse et en région Parisienne visant à évaluer l'impact de ces profils sur la perception de deux facteurs acoustiques communs dans un montage expérimental écologique. Au total plus de 300 habitants de la région aéroportuaire de Toulouse Blagnac et de celle de Roissy Charles de Gaulle ont participé au test d'écoute CIGALE. Les participants ont été invités à lire des romans assis dans une salle d'écoute avec une simulation audio 3D d'un paysage sonore représentant une situation sonore rencontrée au quotidien. On leur a demandé d'évaluer leur perception de quatre séquences sonores de 15 minutes présentées au hasard dans lesquelles le nombre de survols d'aéronefs et le niveau sonore maximal de chaque survol étaient modifiés. Quatre échelles différentes ont été utilisées : l'interférence sur la tâche, l'effort mental, la gêne et le confort. Les résultats soutiennent l'hypothèse selon laquelle le type de profil et la sensibilité au bruit ont un impact sur les notations de gêne. Les données collectées ont également mis en évidence différentes stratégies de réponse concernant les facteurs acoustiques qui doivent être étudiées plus en détail.

Listener perception of changes in historically informed performance of solo Baroque music due to room acoustics

This paper reports on a study of passengers' perception of train interior noise, aiming at determining acoustic thresholds for different passengers' activities. In fact, one of the main advantages of railway transportation is that it allows passengers to engage in a variety of activities during a train journey: reading, working, watching movies, etc. Accordingly, train operators and manufacturers should guarantee that the background noises created by train operation do not prevent passengers to conduct these activities. Therefore, we set out to determine acoustic thresholds by conducting an experiment in which participants were seated in a mock-up of a high-speed train and performed tasks common to first-and second-class passengers (watching a TV series and reading a text). We played back different background noises while they were performing the tasks and they assessed how much the noises had impacted their activities (acceptability ratings). The results showed that, overall, reading a text requires a quieter environment than watching a movie, and quantified the difference. Interestingly, the results also showed that only the loudness of the sounds impacted the participants' judgements when their attention was drawn away from the sounds by the tasks; in contract, our previous work with similar sounds had shown that perception was also impacted by other, different sound characteristics when their attention was focused toward the sounds. Using a more ecological setting such as in this experiment seems therefore more appropriate to determine which aspects of the train noise are important to consider.

Deliverable 3.7 is focusing on novel methods to account, measure and possibly understand and explain people���s annoyance from airport activities that produce noise. We focus on the ability to calculate two types of information that would help the assessment of the annoyance. We firstly work on the calculation of dynamic noise maps, acoustic maps that illustrate in real time the temporal change of noise levels. We introduce in these noise maps calculations that are based on the mobility patterns of the individuals. In this deliverable, different ways of collecting human mobility patterns will be explained in more details along with the methodology used to incorporate it into dynamic noise maps. Furthermore, a real case study conducted within the ANIMA project, based on the one-year air traffic data, sheds light on the benefits of using this new approach and demonstrate how daily movements influence the estimated population noise annoyance around an airport. The work uses daily mobility patterns to assess the impact on people and more specifically the number of people that have been annoyed /affected on a daily basis. Real world scenarios for Ljubljana and Heathrow airports are considered and discussed. The Heathrow airport case study described in Annex 1 is confidential and will be publicly available upon publication of these results. On the other hand, we try to measure and understand the annoyance as it is expressed by people who are living in the area on social media posts. We capture and analyse millions of such posts and classify them based on their polarity. It is by itself an interesting research problem to be able to define the notion of positive (no or minimal annoyance) and negative (high levels of annoyance) sentiments that people carry in those posts. We exploit in this study the ability to capture a significant amount of information, which has the potential to allow us to break free from the limitations of traditional surveying methods. On the other hand, further research is necessary into accounting for the biases already existing on the internet. Thus, in this part of the study, we restrict ourselves into conclusions that can be drawn by comparing the collected data after the classification process (aka among itself) and no generalization to the general public is attempted. The study aims to create a prototype and assess the feasibility of the task of understanding people���s annoyance based on social media posts and it does not try to provide final conclusions on this. We do this by relying to a set of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, which we train and use to learn from the data. While the main goal of the current work is to explore the sentiment as positive or negative, the effort could be further expanded to extract additional semantics. Furthermore, the work described here is based on two independent methods to assess social media posts in both real-time and offline. We plan to release these tools as a comprehensive open-source toolkit to be usable by any researcher. The advances in computational technology and the advanced ability to capture data, being mobility habits or social media activity, provide us with a unique environment that allows to better understand the effect of airport related activities to the life of people in a non-intrusive and scientifically sound way. This deliverable captures two such efforts, supported by diverse case studies in different countries and demonstrates that additional insights are possible., This document is the public version of deliverable D3.7 which contains an additional annex. Results introduced in this annex are not public up to their forthcoming publication in a peer-review journal.

A common strategy for analyzing music performances is to extract a high number of low-level features followed by dimensionality reduction. While this can be an effective way of identifying differences in performances, interpreting these differences in a musically meaningful way is difficult. An alternative strategy is to select or design features which are appropriate for the task at hand, however, this must be done carefully and in accordance with musicological principles. In this study, a custom feature set was designed to capture baroque expressiveness in music performances, motivated by principles of historically informed performance practice. This feature set was verified on a small set of annotated performances then applied to a larger group of recordings of historically informed solo baroque performances in two halls, one historically appropriate and one modern. These features were examined to study the effect of room acoustics on the baroque expressiveness of the performances in order to gain insight into the role of acoustics in historically informed performances.

Research into historical instruments, repertoire, playing technique, and compositional styles has formed the basis the historically informed performance (HIP) movement, however, the importance of the performance space has not been widely studied. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the effect of the room and its acoustics on the performance of musicians specializing in baroque performance. Ten solo musicians, performing on period instruments (or facsimiles), performed in two small chamber halls, one from the Baroque era (the Salon des Nobles at the Château de Versailles) and the other contemporary (the amphitheater at Cité de la Musique). The effect of these halls on musician performance was analyzed through objective performance parameters extracted from recordings and on-site subjective questionnaires.

Cette présentation est consacrée à une étude portant sur la détermination de seuils de bruit intérieur des trains en fonction de l’activité des passagers. Dans ce cadre, une expérience a été menée au cours de laquelle des sujets étaient assis dans une maquette de train à grande vitesse. Ils devaient réaliser des tâches représentatives des activités des passagers de première et seconde classes (lecture de texte, et visualisation de vidéos), tout en étant soumis à différents bruits. Pour chacun d’eux, les sujets devaient évaluer à quel point le bruit les gênait dans ces activités (jugement d’acceptabilité). Un des principaux résultats de cette étude est que la lecture d’un texte nécessite un environnement significativement plus silencieux que pour le visionnage d’une vidéo, à gêne équivalente. Un autre résultat intéressant est que le jugement des participants est principalement influencé par le niveau global du bruit lorsque leur attention est détournée de l’écoute par la réalisation d’une tâche (écoute distraite). Ce résultat diffère de la conclusion d’une précédente étude menée sur l’évaluation de sons similaires, qui avait montré que d’autres caractéristiques du bruit influencent également le jugement des sujets lorsque leur attention se porte spécifiquement sur l’écoute des sons. Cette apparente contradiction montre l’importance qui doit être accordée à la validité écologique du protocole de ce type d’expérience pour ne pas en biaiser les conclusions.

International audience

Aircraft noise is the most significant impact on communities residing near airports. But in addition to acoustical factors, non-acoustical factors also contribute to noise annoyance. In the ANIMA project, relevant indicators influencing the quality of life of residents living near airport are identified. Literature studies, but also focus group meetings and workshops, and online survey for communities near altogether nine different European airports are performed to understand the role of the airport and the implications on the well-being of citizens. Furthermore, it is intended to study what current communication strategies of the airports are and how they influence the impact of aircraft noise on residents’ annoyance response and well-being. A detailed literature study as well as a re-analysis of data has been carried out to develop awakenings indicators for nocturnal fly-overs, as noise-induced sleep disturbance has been linked to adverse health effects and is also associated with annoyance. Another study will be conducted to understand human visual perception of aircraft and their noise levels using a noise simulator with Virtual Reality glasses, where different aircraft types and their noise impact will be compared in a laboratory study and later in an “in situ” experiment. Finally, people’s perception of environmental sound near the airport and the relation with land use planning will be evaluated by developing a mobile application to be used around Heathrow and Ljubljana Airport. Together with a carefully crafted social media study, data on property-value and movement of people throughout the day, we hope to establish more evidence on the relationship between land-use planning, noise perception and quality of life. The outcomes of all studies will be tested later in intervention studies and, or integrated into a Best-Practice portal that will be available for airports, governments, communities, and other stakeholders

International audience; Aircraft noise annoyance has been studied for more than 50 years, asking people to rate their annoyance on a unidimensional scale. The importance of non-acoustic factors shows that a more global approach could help to understand how people perceive their acoustic environment. Inspired by the soundscape studies, and in the frame of the ANIMA European project on the impact of aviation noise, an Experience Sampling Method with signal-contingent sampling is chosen to question people in their daily live about the quality of their acoustic and visual environment, and not on the annoyance. A dedicated mobile application is developed, which collects data each hour of a day (night periods are excluded). The experiment lasts two or three weeks depending on the number of notifications per day the participant found acceptable. After the notification, participants are asked to record acoustic measurements (third octave bands, each second during one minute). After the questionnaire, participants are asked to take a picture of the environment. Summary questionnaires are filled at the end of each week, and a global questionnaire is filled at the end of the experiment. This paper focuses on a pilot study whose aim is to evaluate the acceptability of the method by participants.

This document gives account for the laboratory and in-situ experiments conducted in order to probe the relevance of an auralization and visualization tool for providing credible communication and engagement with communities around airports. Lab studies are dedicated to assess the validity of the Virtual Community Noise Simulator (VCNS) developed by the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR). Then,in-situ experiment tried to evaluate the advantage of the use of the VCNS compared to a classical communication campaign about a real change in approach procedure. The experiment was organized by Cergy University in Beauchamp (Val d’Oise, France, 25km far from Roissy Charles de Gaulle) where a continuous descent approach should be applied to all flyovers in 2023.

Euronoise 2021 : European Congress on Noise Control Engineering, MADERE, PORTUGAL, 25-/10/2021 - 27/10/2021; The CENSE project, funded by the French Research National Agency from 2017 to 2021, aimed at proposing a new methodology for the production of more realistic noise maps. CENSE stands for ?Characterization of urban sound environments: Modelling, noise sensors network and open data?. The project relied on a dense network of low-cost sensors deployed in an experimental site in the city of Lorient (France), and data assimilation techniques between simulated and measured data. Beyond the production of physical indicators, the project was also positioned on the characterization of sound environments. The project, which is drawing to a close, has produced advances on noise modelling, low-cost sensor network technologies, data assimilation techniques applied to sound levels prediction, urban sound recognition, and perception. This first presentation, of a series of five, will give a general overview of the project comprehensive approach and framework, and its operational outcomes

International audience; Acoustic comfort arouses interest in sociology, psychology and building industry since the sixties. It can be defined in first approach as the absence of unwanted sounds and the presence of adapted sounds while doing an activity. Comfort is influenced by the acoustic performances of building, by the various types of sound sources, and by individual attitudes (sociological background, musical preferences etc.). In this study, the impact of sound sources on the pleasantness of typical domestic ambiances is investigated using a ?sound design? approach when a composition of sounds is listened coming from three distinct spatialized channels (from outside, from inside the room and from the neighbor). Via a computer interface, 65 people had to adjust the level of the three channels while keeping the overall equivalent level constant at 40 dB(A) in order to design optimized sound scenes. The compositions of the most pleasant sound environments were obtained in reducing SPLs of the neighbor sounds in most situations (TV. documentary, children, work, and party). Two sound masking strategies were revealed. One group preferred to increase the ventilation noise level in the room by 1.5 dB(A), the other group increased sound levels from outside by 2 dB(A). Alternative strategies are found for the two types of musical sounds coming from the neighbor. For classical music, most participants increased in average its sound level by 2 dB(A) Regarding Pop. music, sound preferences lead to 3 sound strategies. People who like Pop. music increased the sound level of this sound source by 3dB(A) in average. One group mixed it with the ventilation in the room, the other with sounds from the outside of the building. People who dislike the Pop music stimulus reduced its sound level by 4.5 dB(A) in average and increased the sound level of the sources coming from the outside.

International audience; Acoustic comfort defined in first approach as the absence of unwanted sounds and the quality of desired sounds while doing an activity arouses a growing interest in sociology, psychology and building industry. Comfort is influenced by the acoustic performances of building, by the various types of sound sources, and by individual aspects (sociological background, musical preferences etc.). A study based on three perceptive tests aims to address these aspects. The first perceptive test consists in the evaluation of pleasantness for various sound sources according to their semantic content and their origin (from the neighbor, the outside, or the room). Thus, 67 focused listeners rated the pleasantness of every stimulus. Statistical analysis showed a consensus on intrusive sounds coming from outside, people preferring bird songs and rejecting site work sounds. For intrusive sounds coming from neighbors, there is also a consensus, people preferring classical music and rejecting human sounds. Participants can be clustered in two groups, one preferring nature sounds and the other preferring music sounds. Moreover, the ratings of the human sound pleasantness (diner, laughs, etc.) are influenced by the sound sensitivity of the participant, the more sensitive the less pleasant the sound.

DCASE 2018, Workshop on Detection and Classification of Acoustic Scenes and Events , Surrey, ROYAUME-UNI, 19-/11/2018 - 20/11/2018; Assessing properties about specific sound sources is important to characterize better the perception of urban sound environments. In order to produce perceptually motivated noise maps, we argue that it is possible to consider the data produced by acoustic sensor networks to gather information about sources of interest and predict their perceptual attributes. To validate this important assumption, this paper reports on a perceptual test on simulated sound scenes for which both perceptual and acoustic source properties are known. Results show that it is indeed feasible to predict perceptual source-specific quantities of interest from recordings, leading to the introduction of two predic-tors of perceptual judgments from acoustic data. The use of those predictors in the new task of automatic soundscape characterization is finally discussed.

International audience; Dans le cadre d’une thèse Cifre entre l’industriel Saint-Gobain Recherche (SGR) et l’Université de CergyPontoise (UCP), un laboratoire de restitution sonore écologiquement valide a été installé dans les locaux récents de la maison de la recherche à Neuville sur Oise (UCP) afin de reproduire les ambiances sonores spatialisées intérieures, typiques des logements résidentiels en ville. Ce laboratoire se situe naturellement dans un environnement très calme et dispose d’une forte isolation acoustique. L’environnement intérieur à reproduire est celui d’un salon et le système d’écoute consiste en un ensemble de 16 haut-parleurs et d’un caisson de basse contrôlés par un processeur numérique. A travers ce système d’écoute à géométrie modulable, des environnements sonores conçus pourront être restitués spatialement par la méthode VBAP ou par Ambisonied’ordre 1 ou 2 notamment. Des tests d’écoute se dérouleront dans ce laboratoire pendant toute l’année 2018 pour répondre à la problématique du confort acoustique dans le logement résidentiel. Ils visent à rendre compte de l’influence de deux facteurs distincts sur la perception du confort sonore au domicile. Le premier facteur est lié aux différents types de sources sonores qui pénètrent le logement, et le second facteur représente lesperformances acoustiques des systèmes constructifs du bâti. Pour le premier facteur, les provenances spatiales seront maîtrisées: le bruit des voisins (venant du plafond ou latéralement), des parties communes, et de l’extérieur via la fenêtre. Pour le second facteur, un filtrage multicanal sera appliqué pour simuler l’isolement des dispositions constructives choisies. Pour répondre à cette problématique, 60 participants suivront une série de trois tests perceptifs distincts. Les deux premiers tests respecteront une approche psycho-acoustique par une écoute active des participants tandis que le dernier test demandera aux participants de s’impliquer dans une tâche cognitive.

The multimedia documents of this volume may be consulted at the address: Short link : https://frama.link/WSSLong kink : https://archives.crem-cnrs.fr/archives/collections/CNRSMH_E_2018_003_001; International audience; The construction or restoration of the built heritage is currently an interdisciplinary domain that draws on the input of architects, engineers, and historians. Especially where places of worship are concerned, they work toward sound ambiance quality, which depends on the contingencies imposed by the built environment, but which also has to meet specific qualitative prescriptions that may be the result of centuries of architectural and theological theorization (…) 1. From acoustics to sound ecologies. 2. Three challengesGeneral abstract : Worship Sound Spaces unites specialists from architecture, acoustic engineering and the social sciences to encourage closer analysis of the sound environments within places of worship. Gathering a wide range of case studies set in Europe, Asia, North America, the Middle East, and Africa, the book presents investigations into Muslim, Christian and Hindu spaces. These diverse cultural contexts demonstrate the composite nature of designing and experiencing places of worship. Beginning with a historical overview of the three primary indicators in acoustic design of religious buildings, reverberation, intelligibility and clarity, the second part of this edited collection offers a series of field studies devoted to perception, before moving onto recent examples of restoration of the sound ambiances of former religious buildings. Written for academics and students interested in architecture, cultural heritage, acoustics, sensory studies and sound.The multimedia documents of this volume may be consulted at the address: https://frama.link/WSS