Paper
What is "clarity", and how it can be measured?
Published May 14, 2013 · D. Griesinger
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
10
Citations
1
Influential Citations
Abstract
Human hearing did not evolve to detect reflections and reverberation. It is the ability to detect the direct component of a sound field that allows us to separate simultaneous signals, determine their direction, their timbre, their distance, and their importance for our attention. “Clarity” is perceived when we can separately detect direct sound. But ISO3382 measures concentrate on reflections, and are either blind to the direct component of a sound field or misinterpret its significance. They fail to predict sound quality in individual seats. We will demonstrate the vital importance of clarity through demonstrations of “clear” and “muddy” in speech and music. We will then present three physiologically based methods that measure the degree of clarity in a particular acoustic environment. The first, LOC, uses a simple nerve firing model to analyze an impulse response for the build-up of reflected energy at the onsets of sounds. The second method measures the degree of phase randomization above 1000 Hz caused by a particular impulse response. The third measure—based on a computer model of human hearing—measures clarity directly from binaurally recorded speech. All three measures predict perceived clarity with useful accuracy.
"Clarity" in speech and music is crucial for understanding and evaluating sound quality, and physiologically based methods can accurately measure it in acoustic environments.
Full text analysis coming soon...