The Selection of Introduced Sounds to Improve the Soundscape in the Public Spaces

Abstract

The purpose of introducing sounds is to afford a comfortable acoustic environment and to design good soundscapes. This study aims at rating the preference of subjects for the introduced sounds suitable to the public spaces and also investigates the methodology to select the sounds by subjective and objective procedures. Seventeen kinds of the introduced sounds were evaluated with nine adjectives in the presence of visual location information. Also, adequate sound levels were calculated by adjusting the volume of introduced sounds in the presence of the actual background sounds of locations and visual information. The concept of harmony with the surroundings was reviewed by analyzing the correlation among 9 adjectives which express introduced sounds. And the effectiveness of existed sound quality index was analyzed so as to select the introduced sounds quantitatively. By the evaluation of the adequate level of the introduced sounds, it is proposed that the lower introduced sound level would be better for the noisy circumstances.