AES Warsaw 2015
Paper Session P13
P13 - (Lecture) Perception—Part 2
Saturday, May 9, 14:30 — 18:00 (Room: Belweder)
Chair:
Hyunkook Lee, University of Huddersfield - Huddersfield, UK
P13-1 Elicitation of the Differences between Real and Reproduced Audio—Jon Francombe, University of Surrey - Guildford, Surrey, UK; Tim Brookes, University of Surrey - Guildford, Surrey, UK; Russell Mason, University of Surrey - Guildford, Surrey, UK
To improve the experience of listening to reproduced audio, it is beneficial to determine the differences between listening to a live performance and a recording. An experiment was performed in which three live performances (a jazz duet, a jazz-rock quintet, and a brass quintet) were captured and simultaneously replayed over a nine-channel with-height surround sound system. Experienced and inexperienced listeners moved freely between the live performance and the reproduction and described the difference in listening experience. In subsequent group discussions, the experienced listeners produced twenty-nine categories using some terms that are not commonly found in the current spatial audio literature. The inexperienced listeners produced five categories that overlapped with the experienced group terms but that were not as detailed.
Convention Paper 9307 (Purchase now)
P13-2 Towards Unification of Methods for Speech, Audio, Picture, and Multimedia Quality Assessment—Slawomir Zielinski, Bialystok University of Technology - Bialystok, Poland; Francis Rumsey, Logophon Ltd. - Oxfordshire, UK; Søren Bech, Bang & Olufsen a/s - Struer, Denmark; Aalborg University - Aalborg, Denmark
The paper addresses the need to develop unified methods for subjective and objective quality assessment across speech, audio, picture, and multimedia applications. Commonalities and differences between the currently used standards are overviewed. Examples of the already undertaken research attempting to “bridge the gap” between the quality assessment methods used in various disciplines are indicated. Prospective challenges faced by researchers in the unification process are outlined. They include development of unified scales, defining unified anchors, integration of objective models, maintaining “backward comparability,” and undertaking joint standardization efforts across industry sectors.
Convention Paper 9308 (Purchase now)
P13-3 An Investigation of the Relationship between Listener Envelopment and Room Acoustic Parameters–The Influence of Varied Direct Sound Levels and Onset Times of Late Reverberation on Listener Envelopment—Mai Ishida, Tokyo University of the Arts - Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Toru Kamekawa, Tokyo University of the Arts - Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Atsushi Marui, Tokyo University of the Arts - Tokyo, Japan
It is proposed that the late reflection energy from 80 ms after the direct sound contributes to listener envelopment (LEV). According to previous research, 80 ms is not necessarily the most suitable onset-time of late reverberation for predicting LEV. In addition to this, LEV tends to increase if C80 decreases. However, it is possible for LEV to be low for very low early energy with relatively higher late energy. In this study the LEV for stimuli of varied direct sound levels and onset-times of late reverberation was investigated. As a result, it is suggested that as the direct sound level increases, the LEV increases. Additionally, we confirmed that LEV increased as C10 increased.
Convention Paper 9309 (Purchase now)
P13-4 The Development of a Sound Wheel for Reproduced Sound—Torben H. Pedersen, DELTA SenseLab - Hørsholm, Denmark; Nick Zacharov, DELTA SenseLab - Hørsholm, Denmark
Sound quality is an important aspect in many sound reproduction applications. In recent years sensory evaluation techniques have been gaining popularity for the detailed perceptual assessment of device sound characteristics. From the literature, hundreds of descriptors can be found to describe the nature of sound quality and this often becomes the focus of debate among researchers, rather than the product development itself. In an effort to shift the focus back to the areas of importance, i.e., the product, this study seeks to define a common terminology, a lexicon, for the characterization of sound quality in loudspeakers, headphones, or other sound reproduction systems. The study summarized the gathering of descriptors for sound character from the literature and then experimental leading to a structure protocol of perceptual sound quality attributes for this domain of application. A structured sound wheel is presented comprising of different layers of attributes. For each attribute, definitions have been developed with associated sound samples for training. The paper presents the on-going development process, including validation of attributes and their definitions.
Convention Paper 9310 (Purchase now)
P13-5 How Much Is the Use of a Rating Scale by a Listener Influenced by Anchors and by the Listener's Experience?—Nadja Schinkel-Bielefeld, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS - Erlangen, Germany; International Audio Laboratories - Erlangen, Germany; Anna Katharina Leschanowsky, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS - Erlangen, Germany
It has been postulated that anchors in multi-stimulus listening tests for audio quality evaluation should have an item-independent quality, as listeners will likely shift their rating scale if the quality of the anchor varies. However, expert listeners have a very stable internal rating scale, which can be seen from the repeatability of their results when performing the same test multiple times. So they may stick to their usual scale even if the anchor varies. We find that listeners do not shift their rating scale by the full amount the anchor is shifted but only up to 60% of that. Nevertheless this makes quantitative comparisons between different test results difficult even if the anchor varies only by 5 Mushra points.
Convention Paper 9311 (Purchase now)
P13-6 Quantifying Auditory Perception: Dimensions of Pleasantness and Unpleasantness—Judith Liebetrau, Fraunhofer IDMT - Ilmenau, Germany; Thomas Sporer, Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT - Ilmenau, Germany; Marius Becker, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Thanh Phong Duong, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Andreas Ebert, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Martin Härtig, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Phillip Heidrich, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Jakob Kirner, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Oliver Rehling, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Dominik Vöst, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Roberto Walter, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Michael Zierenner, Technische Universität Ilmenau - Ilmenau, Germany; Tobian Clauß, Fraunhofer IDMT - Ilmenau, Germany
Psychoacoustic attributes like roughness, sharpness, tonality, and fluctuation strength are often used to explain and calculate major properties of sound. While in general these properties are well understood, the concept of “pleasantness” depends on several factors. Investigating the underlying dimensions of pleasantness was the goal of the presented studies. The perception of psychoacoustic attributes was assessed for 22 different audio stimuli by more than 15 listeners. In addition the perception of pleasantness and unpleasantness for these items was evaluated. All tests were conducted in laboratory as well as home environment. The results showed that a link between psychoacoustic attributes and concept of pleasantness could be established. Surprisingly, the relation between the single attributes and pleasantness changed dependent on the applied analysis method.
Convention Paper 9312 (Purchase now)
P13-7 Audio Quality Moderates Localization Accuracy: Two Distinct Perceptual Effects?—PerMagnus Lindborg, Nanyang Technological University - Singapore; Nicholas A. Kwan, Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
Audio quality is known to cross-modally influence reaction speed, sense of presence, and visual quality. We designed an experiment to test the effect of audio quality on source localization. Stimuli with different MP3 compression rates, as a proxy for audio quality, were generated from drum samples. Participants (n = 18) estimated the position of a snare drum target while compression rate, masker, and target position were systematically manipulated in a full-factorial repeated-measures experiment design. Analysis of variance revealed that location accuracy was better in wide target positions than in narrow, with a medium effect size; and that the effect of target position was moderated by compression rate in different directions for wide and narrow targets. The results suggest that there might be two perceptual effects at play: one, whereby increased audio quality causes a widening of the soundstage, possibly via a SMARC-like mechanism, and two, whereby it enables higher localization accuracy. In the narrow target positions in this experiment, the two effects acted in opposite directions and largely cancelled each other out. In the wide target presentations, their effects were compounded and led to significant correlations between compression rate and localization error.
Convention Paper 9313 (Purchase now)
