The Influence of Visual Information on Assessment of Wind Turbine Noise
Invited paper
Institute of Acoustics, Adam Mickiewicz University
Monday 1 june, 2015, 12:00 - 12:20
0.6 Madrid (49)
Abstract:
Current research into soundscape is carried out without taking into account the
sense of sight. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that at the higher levels of the
nervous system all the information coming from the different senses is merged
together, integrated and analysed. The aim of this paper is to examine the
influence of visual information on wind turbine noise assessment. A set of 10
different soundscapes and 7 landscapes, including both views of wind turbines
and their noises, were recorded with an ambisonic microphone and high-definition
video camera. The experiment took place in an anechoic chamber, appropriately
adapted to present ambisonic recordings, with a set up of 25+1 speakers arranged
in a cubic form, and also a large screen for video presentation. The experiment
was divided into three parts, namely: auditory, visual, and audio-visual. In
each part of the experiment the ICBEN scale (0-10) was used to rate the
presented stimuli. In the first part, audio stimuli were presented randomly at 5
different levels: LAeq = 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 dB, and subjects were asked to rate
the sound annoyance. Additionally, after that part of the experiment subjects
were asked to listen again to the set of sounds and write the names of the
identified (recognized) sound sources in each presented soundscape. In the
second part of the experiment, participants were asked to rate how pleasant the
presented landscapes were. Finally, in the last part of the experiment
participants were presented with a compatible and incompatible mix of audio and
visual stimuli and asked to rate the annoyance. The obtained results should
provide an answer to the question of whether it is reasonable to analyse wind
turbine noise without taking into account the sense of sight.