Product sound quality significantly shapes consumer perception and user experience. Thus, the assessment of perceptual sound quality holds particular relevance for the industry. Sound quality assessment in listening laboratories utilizing binaural recordings facilitates realistic sound reproduction. However, such conditions do not adequately capture potential audio-visual interactions and environmental influences on sound quality ratings. To address […]

Room acoustic simulations usually assume the acoustic impedance of surfaces to be independent from wave incidence angle - in other words locally reacting. For most materials this is a valid assumption. Some porous absorber structures are, however, non-locally reacting: Their surface impedance expresses a dependence on the direction of an incident wave - more exactly […]

Adequate room acoustic conditions are crucial for creating comfortable communication, learning, or working environments. While acoustic simulations are an established tool for the prediction of the acoustic conditions in a room, the input data describing the acoustic properties of the surfaces and objects in rooms comes with uncertainties. In this thesis work, standardized and non-standardized […]

In primary schools, various activities can be conducted during classes. To improve the quality of communication, it was aimed to understand children's listening effort during different types of activities. In this thesis, the measurements were conducted in first and fourth grade in primary schools. Listening effort was assessed subjectively by the children in the means […]

Audiovisual listening experiments are crucial for understanding acoustical noise and human sound perception. However, traditional VR setups are limited by the need for expensive equipment and time-consuming laboratory sessions. As a result, interest in online experiments has been growing, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, these experiments have been restricted to basic setups lacking […]

The working memory plays an important role in completing everyday tasks and is influenced by irrelevant sound when it comes to serialization of information. While this phenomenon, the irrelevant sound effect, is well known for phonological cognition, the influence and constraints for visuo-spatial cognition are yet to be fully explored. To serve this endeavor and […]

This study conforms an investigation on auditory memory, particularly in the field of room acoustics. Based on the research on short term memory, especially in the auditory field, this work intends to test individuals' room acoustics discrimination capabilities under different conditions; in particular, retention interval, excitation signal and room similarity. Using binaural auralizations of spatial […]

Hearing loss is a prevalent issue that impairs the quality of life of those affected. Simulating this condition allows for further investigation of its perceptual aspects and improvement of existing hearing models. This study examines the effects of simulated sensorineural hearing loss on the ability to localize sound, a crucial aspect of auditory perception. Using […]

Acoustic virtual reality (AVR) is a helpful tool that it is being used for different purposes. In architecture the use of AVR has been very advantageous for room acoustic simulation in different environments. In this work, the potential to simulate walking paths across connected rooms using AVR is analyzed, this research considers Johannes church in […]

Noise is very common in real life, an efficient acoustic propagation model also helps in noise control. Sound propagation changes with environmental factors, which can be complex in real life. COMSOL simulations, using finite or boundary element methods, are widely validated for replicating real-world conditions. The Image Edge Model (IEM), based on the Uniform Theory […]

The irrelevant sound effect (ISE) is a popular topic in cognitive psychology, referring to the phenomenon where hearing sounds unrelated to a memory task disrupts recall during task performance. Research on the ISE can deepen understanding of the human brain's information processing mechanisms, thereby making contributions to advancements in the medical field while also providing […]

It is broadly recognized that noise pollution is widespread, especially in urban areas, and can cause long-term psychological effects and health issues. Road traffic noise is a major contributor to noise pollution in residential areas and affects the well-being of a significant number of people. Auralization, the process of making acoustic environments virtually audible through […]

This research focuses on simulating road traffic soundscapes using auralization techniques. A structured workflow for urban traffic auralization is developed by integrating SUMO traffic flow data with acoustic simulation tools such as RAVEN and Pigeon. To generate plausible traffic simulations, a custom script is implemented to produce representative vehicle trajectories. Additionally, parameters such as crossfading […]

The RAVEN room acoustic software was benchmarked against measurements of the loudspeaker orchestra conducted by Pätynen et al. in the Gasteig concert hall, Munich. The specific source arrangement used in the study plays a crucial role, as it diversifies the direct and reflected sound paths, significantly altering the perception compared to a single omnidirectional room […]

With the increasing usage of heat pumps in residential areas, their noise emissions have become a growing concern. One potential solution is masking, where additional sounds modify the perception of unwanted noise. This study investigated the effects of different types of maskers (pink noise, high-pass filtered pink noise, and water sound) and masker locations on […]

This study investigates how tonality influences the perceived annoyance of heat pump noise. Heat pumps produce noise mainly from fans and compressors. These noises often contain prominent tonal components that can make them particularly disturbing. In this work, four fundamental heat pump noise samples were divided into three frequency bands, and their tonal features were […]

It is well known that children are more affected by poor acoustic conditions than adults. However, the concept of listening effort has been the focus of considerable more research in adults than in children, particularly in the context of assessing listening effort with multiple measures. This study employed three measures of listening effort: a word […]

The occlusion effect occurs when the ear is completely or partially occluded, for example when wearing earphones or hearing aids. Sound transmitted through the body is amplified at lower frequencies, resulting in an altered perception of one’s own voice, often described as "hollow" or "talking into a barrel". This effect is one of the main […]

The complexity of populated real-life environments is hard to recreate in laboratory listening experiments. Using Virtual Reality (VR), this complexity can be simulated with close-to-real-life environments, while maintaining high controllability and reproducibility. However, there is a lack of guidelines which aspects of reality have to be represented in the virtual environments to ensure ecological validity. […]

High-channel-count spatial audio systems, such as Wave Field Synthesis (WFS), often rely on specialized hardware to drive the speakers. This significantly increases the costs. Furthermore, commercial audio equipment can be challenging to integrate with free and open-source software. To provide an open alternative, this thesis describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an Ethernet audio […]