Possibility of sound environmental design by introducing wave sound into the indoor space

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop the means of designing sound environment of waterfront area. As one of the means of improving sound environment in the campus space of our university, introducing wave sound from the adjoining seashore into campus area has been proposed and its feasibility have been studied. But wave sound reaches 300m inland at most and cannot be listened in the most of campus area outdoor. So we plan to introduce wave sound by picking up through microphone and steaming over the campus LAN. In this report, if wave sound is streamed and broadcasted to indoor spaces, the influence of wave sound as background/masking noise on the mental state of users in the space is studied. The samples of various wave sound recorded at seashore near the campus are broadcasted in indoor spaces, such as cafeteria, learning spaces etc. And subjects are asked to answer the questionnaire about preference and subjective impression for indoor environment. The results show that wave sound is almost accepted by users, but to be recognized by uses, output level must be high and could be harmful. The optimum level of wave sound in the space is discussed. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.