Next generation soundscape design using virtual reality technologies

Abstract

Sound quality has been demanded by the community as part of the smart city initiatives to enjoy a real liveable environment. While a lot of governments pay attention to environmental issues such as air quality and waste, those who care about the sonic environment still rely primarily quantitative levels for either compliance or improvement. Sound quality is most likely ignored. There is at present the international standard ISO 12913-1:2014 providing the definition and the conceptual framework of soundscape. Despite the situation, sound quality is a subjective matter after all and relies very much on human perceptions, as well as the contextual environment. Sound walk, questionnaire, and lab test are common tools used in soundscape studies. These tools allow a good understanding of the perception of the prevailing sonic environment. To figure the sound quality of different design options, though, we can immerse the participants in a virtual, but photorealistic environment, so that they can perceive, compare, and give feedback as if they were in the real environment. A mobile VR application has been developed for iterating soundscape design and fine-tuning. This paper presents this application with case studies.