TY - GEN
T1 - Alert sound design considering musical-chord and frequency-sweep effects
AU - Iwaya, Yukio
AU - Anbe, Takuya
AU - Cui, Zhenglie
AU - Suzuki, Yôiti
PY - 2013/1/1
Y1 - 2013/1/1
N2 - Because of the huge tsunami created by the gigantic earthquake of March 11, 2011, Japan's Tohoku District sustained widespread and severe damage. Reportedly, alert speech sounds from open- Air loudspeakers of governmental emergency radio communications systems were often not sufficiently intelligible because of the superposition of long-path echoes. A similarly huge tsunami is expected to occur about once every 1,000 years in this area, necessitating preparation for future tsunamis. Alert sounds are useful to convey specific alert signals using non-verbal sounds. Therefore, conditions to produce an alert sound that is tolerant to long-path echoes were investigated in this study, which examined musical chords for the design of alert sounds. To increase the saliency, we also applied an octave-up sweep from stationary chords. Subsequently, we investigated the influences of harmonic structure and sweeping characteristics so that an alert sound can have optimal alert impressions. The alert impression of the sounds, which consist of five tones and the fifth harmonic, was higher than those of single and second harmonic chords. That result indicates that open- Air loudspeaker systems to convey alert information must have a sufficiently broad frequency range.
AB - Because of the huge tsunami created by the gigantic earthquake of March 11, 2011, Japan's Tohoku District sustained widespread and severe damage. Reportedly, alert speech sounds from open- Air loudspeakers of governmental emergency radio communications systems were often not sufficiently intelligible because of the superposition of long-path echoes. A similarly huge tsunami is expected to occur about once every 1,000 years in this area, necessitating preparation for future tsunamis. Alert sounds are useful to convey specific alert signals using non-verbal sounds. Therefore, conditions to produce an alert sound that is tolerant to long-path echoes were investigated in this study, which examined musical chords for the design of alert sounds. To increase the saliency, we also applied an octave-up sweep from stationary chords. Subsequently, we investigated the influences of harmonic structure and sweeping characteristics so that an alert sound can have optimal alert impressions. The alert impression of the sounds, which consist of five tones and the fifth harmonic, was higher than those of single and second harmonic chords. That result indicates that open- Air loudspeaker systems to convey alert information must have a sufficiently broad frequency range.
KW - Alert sounds
KW - Frequency-sweep
KW - Long-path echo
KW - Musical chords
KW - Open- Air loudspeaker tower systems
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904498230&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84904498230&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84904498230
SN - 9781632662675
T3 - 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013, INTER-NOISE 2013: Noise Control for Quality of Life
SP - 4965
EP - 4969
BT - 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013, INTER-NOISE 2013
PB - OAL-Osterreichischer Arbeitsring fur Larmbekampfung
T2 - 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013: Noise Control for Quality of Life, INTER-NOISE 2013
Y2 - 15 September 2013 through 18 September 2013
ER -