The NFL team Atlanta Falcons were fined $350,000 for playing artificial crowd noise into the Georgia stadium.
Read the article on the NFL.com web site.
Distortion important for determining distance of noise source
Researchers at University of Connecticut Health Center, the University of Rochester, and University of Louisville have published a paper in the Journal of Neuroscience, investigating the ability of a rabbits to determine the distance of a noise source depends on the modulation of the sound. The researchers inserted tiny microphones inside rabbits’ ears to record the sounds played at several locations. They used these recordings to simulate modulated or unmodulated noise coming from different distances away from the rabbit. Then they played the simulated sounds back to the rabbit, and measured the responses of neurons in the rabbit’s inferior colliculus (IC), a region of the midbrain known to be important for sound perception. When the rabbit heard the simulated sounds, certain types of IC neurons fired more when the sound was closer and the depth of modulation was higher – that is, when there was a bigger difference between the sound’s maximum and minimum amplitude. The neurons fired less when the sound source was further away.
Read the full article on the UConn Today web site.
Virtual noise simulation of Heathrow’s third runway
An acoustic consulting company ARUP has created a 3D virtual sound simulation of the proposed Heathrow’s third runway in their facility called SoundLab. The room is lined with acoustic material to reduce reflections and 12 loudspeakers are positioned on the surface of an imaginary virtual sphere, which are used to generate sound from any direction.
Read the full article on wired.co.uk.
History of binaural recordings
The verge.com has a great article on the history of binaural recordings. A binaural recording is similar to a stereo recording using two microphones, only the microphones are placed within the ears of an anatomically accurate human manikin.
Sound design of a BMW car door closing
Find out how the sound of the door closing of a BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe was designed on the BMWBLOG.
VocalZoom creates new optoacoustic microphone for better noise rejection
A company called VocalZoom has created an optical microphone sensor that can be used on phones to enhance the pickup of voice, and claims to increase noise rejection by 40dB.
Motorola Solutions has made a venture capital investment into VocalZoom, as reported on the IWCE’s Urgent Communications web site.
Siemen’s easyTek hearing aids
Siemen’s showed off their easyTek hearing aid system at the CES 2015 show this month, where one can change the directivity of the hearing aid microphones using the easyTek smartphone app for Apple iphones or Android devices. The plastic disk shown in the image connects the hearing aid to a bluetooth device such as a phone, MP3 player, TV etc, and permits the audio from the media player to be fed directly to the hearing aid.
A cone of silence that works
You may remember the TV series Get Smart and the cone of silence that never worked. Well a company called Selentium demonstrated a new product called the Comfort-Shell at the CES 2015 show that uses active noise control to create a zone of quiet within a device that looks like one-quarter of sphere.
Read the press release on the Selentium web site, and images of the device are on theverge.com web site.
New Loudspeakers
The CES 2015 show starts this week and there is sure to be a bevy of new audio gadgets.
Samsung will be showing off their new WAM 6500 and WAM 7500 loudspeakers.
Samsung WAM 6500
Samsung WAM 7500
Some other new freaky-shaped loudspeakers that are on the market include the Om One and the Mars.
The Om One from Om Audio is a levitating loudspeaker is available for pre-order for $US 199. Apart from playing music from a bluetooth device, it can also be used as a speakerphone.
Om One from Om Audio
You can watch a promo video on the development of the Om One on youtube.
Another similar levitating speaker product is from Crazybaby in Hong Kong that has developed the Mars loudspeaker. The base station houses a sub-woofer, the floating disc that radiates sound is water-proof. The device has some nifty features that can be used for conference calls, and will automatically adjust the volume depending on the proximity of your bluetooth source from the base station. The loudspeaker is available for pre-order at $US 189 from the Crazybaby web site.
Mars levitating loudspeaker
Review of sound level meter smartphone apps
An article in The Journal of Acoustical Society of America describes the scientific review of 10 iOS and 4 Android smartphone apps for measuring sound levels. Although 130 iOS apps were evaluated, only 10 apps met their selection criteria, and only 4 out of 62 Android apps were tested. Only a few apps were available on the Windows phone platform, but none met their selection criteria. As a result, no testing was conducted on Windows-based devices or apps.
The results were that
the SPLnFFT app had the best agreement, in unweighted SPLs, with a mean difference of 0.07 dB from the actual reference values. The SoundMeter app had the best agreement, in A-weighted sound levels, with a mean difference of −0.52 dBA from the reference values. For unweighted sound level measurements, NoiSee, SoundMeter, and SPLnFFT had mean differences within the ±2 dB of the reference measurement. For A-weighted sound level measurements, Noise Hunter, NoiSee, and SoundMeter had mean differences within ±2 dBA of the reference measurements.
Read the full paper on the The Journal of Acoustical Society of America web site.