Last Updated: 20050817, mei
P19 - Psychoacoustics, Perception, Listening Tests
Monday, October 10, 1:00 pm — 3:30 pm
Chair: Bozena Kostek, Gdansk University of Technology - Gdansk, Poland, and Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw, Poland
P19-1 Automatic Evaluation of Musical Sound Separation Quality—Marek Dziubinski, Bozena Kostek, Gdansk University of Technology - Gdansk, Poland
This paper addresses the problem of evaluating effectiveness of musical sound separation algorithms. The standardized procedure for evaluating separation quality does not exist. The most convincing and typical way to do this is by carrying out subjective listening tests. However, subjective tests need a solid statistical validation, which means that many experts should take part in such tests, the room characteristics should be adequate, and what is also important, such tests are time consuming. Thus this paper attempts to show that it is possible to carry out the evaluation tests in an automatic way, by employing an Artificial Network System (ANN), which is further justified by experts’ opinion.
Convention Paper 6625 (Purchase now)
P19-2 Internet-Based Automatic Hearing Assessment System—Andrzej Czyzewski, Gdansk University of Technology - Gdansk, Poland; Bozena Kostek, Gdansk University of Technology - Gdansk, Poland, and Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw, Poland; Henryk Skarzynski, Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing - Warsaw, Poland
In this paper the Internet-based system that allows for automatic testing of hearing is described. Hearing impairment is one of the fastest growing diseases of modern society. Therefore it is very important to organize mass screening tests to identify people suffering from this kind of impairment. The described application provides a test that uses automatic questionnaire analysis, standardized audiometric tone test procedures, and assessment of speech intelligibility in noise. When all the testing is completed, the system automatically analyzes the results for each person examined. Based on the number of incorrect answers, the decision is made automatically by the expert system. Persons whose hearing impairment is confirmed are referred to treatment in rehabilitation centers. All these centers are connected via the Internet and are provided with special distributed database access allowing them to automatically register and track the patient discovered during the remote screening.
Convention Paper 6626 (Purchase now)
P19-3 Constructing Individual and Group Timbre Spaces for Sharpness-Matched Distorted Guitar Timbres—Atsushi Marui, William Martens, McGill University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
In a previous study on predicting timbral variation resulting from distortion-based effects processing, two types of direct ratings were collected from a large group of naïve subjects (approximately 50) for a set of sharpness-matched guitar timbres; first on a dissimilarity scale and then on 11 bipolar adjective scales. For the current study, similar data were collected from five trained subjects to allow for a comparison between results derived for each of the trained subjects and the previously reported group results. To investigate differences in how individuals might describe these distorted guitar timbres, the trained subjects’ adjective ratings were submitted separately to analysis using a method inspired by the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT), as well as being submitted for external multidimensional unfolding (MDU) analyses.
Convention Paper 6627 (Purchase now)
P19-4 Physiological and Content Considerations for a Second Very Low Frequency Channel for Bass Management, Subwoofers, and LFE—Robert (Robin) Miller III, FilmakerTechnology - Bethlehem, PA, USA
By convention, frequencies below 90 Hz produce no interaural cues useful for spatial sound or localization. Yet some claim they are able to hear a difference between a single subwoofer channel (whether or not to more than one subwoofer) and two (“stereo bass”). Reported research supports the Jeffress model of interaural time difference (ITD) determination in brain structures and extending the accepted lower frequency limit of interaural phase difference (IPD). Meanwhile, uncorrelated very low frequencies (VLF <100 Hz) exist in nearly all existing multichannel music and movie content. The audibility, recording, and reproduction of uncorrelated VLF are explored in theory and experiments.
Convention Paper 6628 (Purchase now)
P19-5 Individual Vocabulary Profiling of Spatial Enhancement Systems for Stereo Headphone Reproduction—Gaëtan Lorho, Nokia Corporation - Helsinki, Finland
This paper presents an audio descriptive analysis experiment employing an individual vocabulary development approach. The aim of the study was to compare the perceptual characteristics of spatial enhancement systems for stereo headphone reproduction. Five musical programs were selected and processed with two subsets of algorithms representing different approaches to spatial enhancement for headphones, including stereo enhancement systems and Virtual Home Theatre systems for headphone reproduction. Ten listeners were selected based on their discriminative and descriptive skills. Each subject developed his or her own set of attributes in three hours and performed a comparative evaluation of seven series of eight stimuli. The methods employed for the descriptive analysis process and for the analysis of this individual vocabulary profiling data are presented and some results from the perceptual evaluation are reported.
Convention Paper 6629 (Purchase now)