A new objective evaluation method of wind noise in a car based on human hearing properties

Abstract

This paper describes a new method for objective evaluation of wind noise in the passenger compartment of a car. The perception of wind noise is affected by the masking effect by other noise and the particular source direction of the wind noise. Therefore, the human hearing properties of masking and sound localization should be taken into account when evaluating wind noise. The proposed evaluation method is based on these human hearing properties. The method can estimate the loudness and direction of noise in each frequency band by performing a masked frequency spectrum analysis and a cross correlation analysis based on a binaural signal processing model. Therefore, those wind noise components that are annoying to the passengers or those wind noise components whose source location can be determined by the human listener can be identified objectively. Furthermore, the total loudness of wind noise as determined by a jury of human listeners can be estimated quite precisely by adding the loudness of the frequency bands for noise emanating from the direction of the side window.