Study on the Acoustic Environments in Public Spaces

1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 07455231
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Architectural environment/equipment
• Research Institution: University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: TACHIBANA Hideki University of Tokyo, Institute of Industrial Science, Professor, 生産技術研究所, 教授 (80013225)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YANO Hiroo Chiba Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Associate Profess, 情報工学科, 助教授 (70114692) ; SAKAMOTO Shinichi University of Tokyo, Institute of Industrial Science, Associate Assistant, 生産技術研究所, 助手 (80282599)
• Project Period (FY): 1995 – 1996
• Keywords: public space / environmental acoustics / noisiness / sound field simulation

Research Abstract

Basic investigations on the acoustical conditions in various types of public spaces such as railway stations, airport terminals, underground commercial areas were made by field measurement and laboratory experiments. This research project started on 1995 based on the preliminary studies on acoustic environments in public spaces made for several years.
This research consists of two main contents : Physical investigations and psychological experiments. At first, the field measurements of acoustic environmental conditions were performed at three areas in the underground spaces around the JR Yokohama Station, in which the actual environmental noise was measured at daytime and the architectural acoustic indices (reverberation time, sound pressure level distribution and etc.) were measured in midnight. Based on the measurement results, the relationship between the architectural conditions and the acoustic characteristics were investigated.
In order to investigate the psycho-acoustical impression in public space, a new sound field simulation technique has been developed in this study, in which a 3-dimensional sound receiving system consisting of six directional microphones and a multi-channel reproduction system set in an anechoic room are used. By using this technique and the data obtained in the actual fields, two kinds of subjective hearing tests on noisiness and easiness of hearing of public address system were performed and the relationships between the psycho-acoustical attributes and the architectural and acoustic conditions in the spaces were investigated.