Basic study on voice evacuation guidance system using precedence effect in virtual space with wall reverberation

Abstract

We have studied voice evacuation guidance system using a precedence effect, which was a psychoacoustic effect. This system can be realized rapid evacuation to the safety area in the environment with poor visibility such as smoke and dust, because it uses voice announcements to guide evacuation. A basic design of construction of sound space suitable for the system and sound adjustment in the field, such as speaker position and sound pressure level setting is required, when applying this system to a building. In this research, we propose to support the basic design for constructing the above system by using VR (Virtual Reality) technology. If the basic design can be performed in the virtual space using VR technology, the time required for the design can be significantly reduced, because there is no need to experimentally design. In this report, we constructed a virtual space that reproduced the wall reverberation in the real space, and compared the evaluation characteristics of the preceding sound effect between the real space and the virtual space. As a result, we confirmed that we could obtain the same level of evaluation characteristics of precedence sound effect in real and virtual spaces.