Adequate Sound Levels for Auditory Advertising for the Visually Impaired

Abstract

The adequate sound levels for advertising sounds for the visually impaired under the sound environment with traffic noise were measured through a psychoacoustic experiment to revel the effect of the advertising sounds, and so on. The participants were asked to adjust the playback level of the each advertising sounds to an adequate level by using the fader of the sound mixer while comparing to the back ground sound levels. The experimental results showed that the estimated adequate sound level for the auditory advertising and back ground music from shop was approximately 10 dB lower than the environmental sound level. It was revealed that few participants get information from advertising sounds. Even if such information was used, sound loudness was tuned to no higher than necessary sound level. That was different from sound relevant to safety such as vehicle noise. Actually sound level of advertising sounds used in public exceeds 15 dB above desired level by the visually impaired. These results suggest that the consideration this fact, establishment of a regulation to reduce.