Crowd Noise Research Articles

Acoustic Competition for the Golden Medal of Crowd Noise Level: Insights on the Stadia and Sport Buildings in Ancient Times

Acoustic Competition for the Golden Medal of Crowd Noise Level: Insights on the Stadia and Sport Buildings in Ancient Times

The interplay of perceptual processing demands and practice in modulating voluntary and involuntary motor responses.

Understanding how sensory processing demands affect the ability to ignore task-irrelevant, loud auditory stimuli (LAS) during a task is key to performance in dynamic environments. For example, tennis players must ignore crowd noise to perform optimally. We investigated how practice affects this ability by examining the effects of delivering LASs during preparatory phase of an anticipatory timing (AT) task on the voluntary and reflexive responses in two conditions: lower and higher visual processing loads. Twenty-four participants (mean age = 23.1, 11 females) completed the experiment. The AT task involved synchronizing a finger abduction response with the last visual stimulus item in a sequence of four Gabor grating patches briefly flashed on screen. The lower demand condition involved only this task, and the higher demand condition required processing the orientations of the patches to report changes in the final stimulus item. Our results showed that higher visual processing demands affected the release of voluntary actions, particularly in the first block of trials. When the perceptual load was lower, responses were released earlier by the LAS compared to the high-load condition. Practice reduced these effects largely, but high perceptual load still led to earlier action release in the second block. In contrast, practice led to more apparent facilitation of eyeblink latency in the second block. These findings indicate that a simple perceptual load manipulation can impact the execution of voluntary motor actions, particularly for inexperienced participants. They also suggest distinct movement preparation influences on voluntary and involuntary actions triggered by acoustic stimuli.

Crowd noise spectra for the calculation of the speech transmission index for public address systems

Crowd noise spectra for the calculation of the speech transmission index for public address systems

Separately measuring home‐field advantage for offenses and defenses: A panel‐data study of constituent channels within collegiate American football

Separately measuring home‐field advantage for offenses and defenses: A panel‐data study of constituent channels within collegiate American football

Graduate acoustics at Brigham Young University

Graduate studies in acoustics at BYU prepare students for industry, research, and academia by complementing in-depth coursework with publishable research. Coursework provides students with a foundation in acoustical principles, practices and measurement skills, including a experimental techniques and technical writing. Labs across the curriculum cover calibration, directivity, scattering, absorption, laser Doppler vibrometry, experimental methods for dynamic structures, lumped-element mechanical systems, equivalent circuit modeling, arrays, filters, room acoustics, active noise control, and near-field acoustical holography. Recent thesis and dissertation topics include active noise control, directivity, room acoustics, energy-based acoustics, time reversal, nondestructive evaluation, vibration and acoustics of aerospace vehicles, biomedical applications, flow-based acoustics, voice production, aeroacoustics, sound propagation modeling, nonlinear propagation, high-amplitude noise analyses, machine and deep learning applied to ambient noise level prediction, crowd noise interpretation, and underwater acoustic source localization, and ocean environment classification. Graduate students are expected to present research at professional meetings and publish in peer-reviewed acoustics journals. Graduate students often serve as peer mentors to undergraduate students on related projects and may participate in field experiments to gain additional experience. @BYUAcoustics

Data-driven decomposition of crowd noise from indoor sporting events

Separating crowd responses from raw acoustic signals at sporting events is challenging because recordings contain complex combinations of acoustic sources, including crowd noise, music, individual voices, and public address (PA) systems. This paper presents a data-driven decomposition of recordings of 30 collegiate sporting events. The decomposition uses machine-learning methods to find three principal spectral shapes that separate various acoustic sources. First, the distributions of recorded one-half-second equivalent continuous sound levels from men's and women's basketball and volleyball games are analyzed with regard to crowd size and venue. Using 24 one-third-octave bands between 50 Hz and 10 kHz, spectrograms from each type of game are then analyzed. Based on principal component analysis, 87.5% of the spectral variation in the signals can be represented with three principal components, regardless of sport, venue, or crowd composition. Using the resulting three-dimensional component coefficient representation, a Gaussian mixture model clustering analysis finds nine different clusters. These clusters separate audibly distinct signals and represent various combinations of acoustic sources, including crowd noise, music, individual voices, and the PA system.

A Spiritual Exploration of Exotic Wandering Female—On the Acoustic Narrative Strategy of "Miss Brill"

The medium of sound is often found in the narratives of modernist writers, and Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill" is an excellent modernist masterpiece, rich in sound elements: the conversations of the neighbors, the crowd noise in the park, the varied orchestra music ... sounds in the novel plays an important role in the development and advancement of the narrative. From the perspective of acoustic narrative, this essay explores how Mansfield transforms the protagonist's inner consciousness and external environment through the construction of auscultation and soundscapes, thus enabling the reader to deeply experience the richness of an exotic wandering woman's heart in the dynamic world of the novel. The soundscapes not only add to the poetic beauty of the novel, bringing a vivid sensory experience to the reader, but also more relevantly express the subjectivity of the female characters who struggle and struggle in the face of existential adversity.

Prolonged cognitive effort impairs inhibitory control and causes significant mental fatigue after an endurance session with an auditive distractor in professional soccer players

BackgroundThroughout official soccer matches, the presence of cheer by the crowd could be considered a critical auditive distraction that could further impair the cognitive interference control system, multiple object tracking (MOT) skill, heart rate variability (HRV), and increase mental fatigue. As the resource is not immediately replenished, the impairment of the cognitive interference control system may be delayed following a soccer game. Then, evaluating the recovery time course of the cognitive interference control system, MOT skill, HRV, and mental fatigue after prolonged tasks combining physical, endurance, and cognitive effort are essential. PurposeWe aimed to analyze the acute effect of cognitive effort and auditive distractor with 24-h follow-up throughout a prolonged endurance session on inhibitory control, subjective mental fatigue, MOT skill, and HRV in professional soccer players. MethodsTwenty professional male soccer players were recruited (23.56 ± 3.8 years, 78.1 ± 6.9 kg, 1.77 ± 0.06 m, and 12.5 ± 5.3% body fat). The sessions were performed in a randomized and counterbalanced crossover design, divided into four experimental conditions: endurance, endurance + MOT, endurance + MOT + AD, and endurance + AD. The soccer players completed the incongruent Stroop task utilizing an eye-tracker to assess cognitive effort. MOT task, subjective mental fatigue, and HRV were evaluated before the endurance training (60%Δ of maximal aerobic velocity during 40-min) and after 30-min and 24-h of recovery. These sessions were designed to investigate the acute effect of prolonged cognitive effort (repeated MOT throughout the endurance task) and AD (constant crowd noise and coach's voice each 15–40 s, totalizing = 80 voices) on inhibitory control, MOT skills, HRV, and subjective mental fatigue after a fixed endurance training session. ResultsThere was no condition × time interaction for accuracy of inhibitory control (p > 0.05, ηp2 = 0.001). There was a significant condition × time interaction for inhibitory control response time (p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.16). A higher response time of inhibitory control was found for the endurance + MOT + AD and endurance + MOT experimental sessions (p < 0.05). There was a significant condition × time interaction for subjective mental fatigue (p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.46). A higher subjective mental fatigue was found for the endurance + MOT + AD and endurance + MOT experimental sessions (p < 0.05). There was no condition × time interaction for HRV (p > 0.05, ηp2 = 0.02). ConclusionWe concluded that cognitive effort throughout a prolonged endurance session impaired inhibitory control and increased mental fatigue without promoting greater MOT skill and HRV changes in professional soccer players.

Elite darts performance and the social influence of real crowds and simulated crowd noise

While the effect of missing audiences has been studied numerously in team sports with diverse effects, studies on individual performances are rare. The current investigation analyzes performances of professional dart players in (a) the absence of spectators, (b) the presence of real crowds, and (c) artificial crowd noise (simulated crowds) substituting live spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical evidence suggests that performances in coordination-based accuracy tasks are negatively impacted by the presence of others. Therefore, we hypothesize that performance of elite darts players deteriorates in the presence of a real audience (RA) in comparison to no audience (NA) and simulated audience (SA). https://dartsorakel.com provided the data of professional tournaments played from 2018 to 2021, which included N = 26,724 individual performances from k = 442 players (98.8% male). How RA and SA impacted checkout percentage (CP) and three-dart average (3DA) was analyzed using separate multilevel models, adding various control variables. Competing with audiences (SA and RA) resulted in decreased CP with an effect of βstand_real = − .20, p < .001, and βstand_sim = − .14, p < .001. 3DA increased with SA, βstand_sim = .08, p < .001, and decreased with RA, βstand_sim = − .07, p < .001. The results show that real crowds appear to have a negative impact on darts performance, yet effect sizes are small.

A Study on the Impact of Lombard Effect on Recognition of Hindi Syllabic Units Using CNN Based Multimodal ASR Systems

Research work on the design of robust multimodal speech recognition systems making use of acoustic and visual cues, extracted using the relatively noise robust alternate speech sensors is gaining interest in recent times among the speech processing research fraternity. The primary objective of this work is to study the exclusive influence of Lombard effect on the automatic recognition of the confusable syllabic consonant-vowel units of Hindi language, as a step towards building robust multimodal ASR systems in adverse environments in the context of Indian languages which are syllabic in nature. The dataset for this work comprises the confusable 145 consonant-vowel (CV) syllabic units of Hindi language recorded simultaneously using three modalities that capture the acoustic and visual speech cues, namely normal acoustic microphone (NM), throat microphone (TM) and a camera that captures the associated lip movements. The Lombard effect is induced by feeding crowd noise into the speaker’s headphone while recording. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models are built to categorise the CV units based on their place of articulation (POA), manner of articulation (MOA), and vowels (under clean and Lombard conditions). For validation purpose, corresponding Hidden Markov Models (HMM) are also built and tested. Unimodal Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems built using each of the three speech cues from Lombard speech show a loss in recognition of MOA and vowels while POA gets a boost in all the systems due to Lombard effect. Combining the three complimentary speech cues to build bimodal and trimodal ASR systems shows that the recognition loss due to Lombard effect for MOA and vowels reduces compared to the unimodal systems, while the POA recognition is still better due to Lombard effect. A bimodal system is proposed using only alternate acoustic and visual cues which gives a better discrimination of the place and manner of articulation than even standard ASR system. Among the multimodal ASR systems studied, the proposed trimodal system based on Lombard speech gives the best recognition accuracy of 98%, 95%, and 76% for the vowels, MOA and POA, respectively, with an average improvement of 36% over the unimodal ASR systems and 9% improvement over the bimodal ASR systems.

Effect of Audio–Visual Factors in the Evaluation of Crowd Noise

A crowd can be both a sound source and an absorber. The sound of human voices significantly impacts evaluations of acoustic indicators in urban public spaces. This study aimed to investigate whether human sound impacts evaluations of the overall environment from both visual and auditory aspects. Primary sound sources and scenes in Harbin, China urban public space served as the research object. Four sets of sound sources and six sets of images were collected in situ in urban public spaces. A subjective evaluation of both visual and auditory aspects was then performed in the laboratory. The results showed that when different types of sounds in urban public spaces are superimposed with human sound, the volume of human sound (45.6 dBA, 55.6 dBA, and 65.6 dBA) significantly affects the acoustic evaluation of the environment. When the superimposed sounds were birds and music, the evaluation of the environment decreased with the human voice increasing in volume. Crowd density and the surrounding visual environment also influence evaluations of the overall sound environment. In this study, the sound preference and acoustic comfort of birdsong and music decreased as the human sound volume increased. The effect of human sound combined with traffic sounds significantly decreased the scores for sound preference and acoustic comfort at higher volumes. The results of the experiments on audio–visual interactions in which people evaluated visual scenes showed that the influence of the visual density of a crowd on assessments of the sound environment is negatively related to the magnitude of the sound of the crowd. When human voices are at 45.6 dBA and 65.6dBA, there is a significant effect on the evaluation of visual scenes for high-density people. When the sound pressure level of human voices is the same, changes in the visual environment are more likely to affect people’s evaluation of the overall sound environment.

Behaviors related to positive, neutral, or negative valence in Odocoileus virginianus in below-ground-level or ground-level exhibitor and influx of visitors

The frequency of behaviors related to positive, neutral, or negative emotional valence in Odocoileus virginianus in two zoos was compared, with below-ground-level (3 m) (BGe) or ground-level (Ge) exhibitor during days of no, low, and high influx of visitors. In BGe, 11 deer with visual barriers and 4 m from visitors were used and in Ge 18 deer without visual barriers and 2 m from visitors. The rest-relaxed, rest-alert, rest-on feet, and grooming were considered behaviors of positive valence. Trophic behaviors interaction, elimination, intake of feed, and intake of water as neutrals. The alarm-head posture, alarm-body posture, flight, and interruption as behaviors of negative valence. Scan sampling observations were performed in both zoos on alternate days, 6 days per week. During each week, a day of no, low, and high influx was used to determine the number of visitors and crowd noise (in decibels). The weekly observations were performed three times on each exhibitor 14 days apart. The medians of visitors’ affluence were compared using Mann–Whitney test and the means of crowd noise with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Tukey HSD. A one-way multivariate ANOVA was used to identify which of the observed behaviors were sensitive to the exhibitor type or influx. Post hoc median comparisons served to establish differences between significant behaviors. In addition, Χ2 tests served to compare the cumulative frequencies of positive, neutral, and negative behaviors between exhibitors for the same influx. A different number of visitors was confirmed (P < 0.05) between low and high influx in both exhibitors but similar (P > 0.05) between exhibitors at the same influx. In BGe, the crowd was higher than in Ge only during no influx (P < 0.05), more visitors were not translated on significant higher crowd. On decrease order, the behavior displayed was positives > neutral > negatives that confirm the good general conditions in both exhibitors. Flight, intake of feed and water, and rest of feet resulted affected by the exhibitor type. During the absence of visitors, a lower frequency of intake of feed was observed in BGe and lower frequency of rest-relaxed in both exhibitors, probably due to a silent environment that demands on prey animals, higher levels of alertness, but also habituation could be involved. Positive behaviors were more frequent during low and high influx in both exhibitors suggesting habituation, probably stronger on Ge.

Listening Difficulty of Public Announcement at Subway Platform with Long Reverberation Time

The subway platform is a unique spaces where the reverberation time (RT) is extended depending on the distance from the sound source. Moreover, various noise sources is being occurred at the subway platform such as the train approaching noise, crowd noise, and so on. The purpose of this study is to determine which factor affects the listening difficulty of announcement through listening test based on the acoustical data from on-site measurements. The results of listening test show that the difference according to the types of noise sources, S/N ratio, and RT was found to be significant. In particular, the difference between RT of 2.2 s and 3.6 s showed the largest difference of up to 65.1 % in listening difficulty rating. In addition, the influence of noise type on listening difficulty rating was found in the condition of RT 2.2 s, but not in RT 3.6 s. Announcement combined with the crowd noise was to be the most difficult to listen to among noise types in the better acoustical condition.

Interoceptive differences in elite sprint and long-distance runners: A multidimensional investigation.

Interoception, the process of detecting and interpreting bodily sensations, may facilitate self-regulation and thereby play a crucial role in achieving elite performance in competitive sports. However, there is a lack of research conducted in world-class athletes. In the present research, two studies examined self-reported (interoceptive sensibility) and behavioural (interoceptive accuracy) interoception in elite (top 100 ranking) sprint and long-distance runners, and non-athletes. Study 1 used the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Questionnaire. Sprinters reported having better regulation of attention to internal sensations, greater emotional awareness, better self-regulation, and reported a greater propensity to listen to their body for insight, than distance runners. Compared to non-athletes, sprinters and distance runners had more bodily trust, attention regulation, and self-regualtion. Additionally, elite athletes reported lower emotional awareness, self-regulation, and body listening. Study 2 examined cardioception using two tasks: The Heartbeat Counting Task, and The Heartbeat Detection Task. Elite and non-elite runners performed the tasks under two conditions; in silence, and whilst listening to pre-recorded crowd noise that simulated the live sounds of spectators during a sporting event. Sprinters and distance runners were able to maintain heartbeat detection accuracy when distracted, whereas non-athletes could not. Across both tasks, compared to non-athletes, sprinters and distance runners were more confident than non-athletes in their interoceptive percept. Additionally, elite athletes compared to non-elite athletes were less accurate when counting their heartbeat and were characterised by a higher interoceptive prediction error. Athletic populations have altered interoceptive abilities.

Prediction model of crowd noise in large waiting halls.

Crowd noise is usually the primary noise in large waiting halls, and it is difficult to predict because it is influenced by several factors such as room acoustics and crowd characteristics. This study developed a crowd noise prediction model based on the superposition of direct and reverberant sound energy using the factors of the spatial layout of waiting halls, number and distribution of crowds, behavior ratio (ratio of vocal passengers to the total number of passengers), and average crowd sound power. To verify the model, on-site measurements were conducted in two large waiting halls to obtain the necessary input parameters. The crowd noise levels in one of the waiting halls were obtained from 1-s noise level data after excluding broadcast periods. A method for determining an individual's average sound power based on the model was also presented and found to be approximately 70.6 dB. Finally, the model was verified using measured data, and it showed that the model could accurately predict the average crowd noise level and changing trend of crowd noise in temporal and spatial dimensions with an average R-square of approximately 0.55 and average difference of approximately 1.1 dBA between the predicted and measured results.

Spectral-based cluster analysis of noise from collegiate sporting events

This paper presents on studies to characterize crowd response from recordings taken from 30 collegiate sporting events. Inferring crowd response from raw acoustic signals is challenging because they contain complex combinations of acoustic sources including crowd noise, music, individual voices, and PA system. First, the distributions of recorded half-second interval overall sound pressure levels from basketball and volleyball games, both men’s and women’s, are analyzed with regard to crowd size and venue. Using 24 one-third octave bands between 50 Hz and 10 kHz, half-second spectral levels from each type of game are then analyzed. Based on principal component analysis, 87% of the spectral variation in the signals can be represented with three principal components, regardless of sport, venue, or crowd composition. Using the resulting three-dimensional component coefficient representation, clustering analysis (using Gaussian mixture models) then finds nine different clusters. These clusters separate audibly distinct signals and represent various combinations of acoustic sources, including crowd noise, music, individual voices, and PA system.

Graduate acoustics at Brigham Young University

Graduate studies in acoustics at Brigham Young University prepare students for industry, research, and academia by complementing in-depth coursework with publishable research. Coursework provides a solid foundation in core acoustical principles and practices and measurement skills, including a strong foundation in experimental techniques and technical writing. Labs across the curriculum cover calibration, directivity, scattering, absorption, laser Doppler vibrometry, experimental methods for dynamic structures, lumped-element mechanical systems, equivalent circuit modeling, arrays, filters, room acoustics, active noise control, and near-field acoustical holography. Recent thesis and dissertation topics include active noise control, directivity, room acoustics, energy-based acoustics, time reversal, nondestructive evaluation, vibration and acoustics of aerospace vehicles, biomedical applications, flow-based acoustics, voice production, aeroacoustics, sound propagation modeling, nonlinear propagation, high-amplitude noise analyses, machine and deep learning applied to ambient noise level prediction, crowd noise interpretation, and underwater acoustic source localization, and ocean environment classification. Graduate students are expected to present research at professional meetings and publish in peer-reviewed acoustics journals. Additionally, graduate students often serve as peer mentors to undergraduate students on related projects and may participate in field experiments to gain additional experience.@BYUAcoustics

The application of 360°VR for training sports officials: a constraints-led approach

ABSTRACT Rationale New technologies are an important tool for facilitating development of sports officials, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 360°VR presents an innovative opportunity for amateur officiating organisations to develop more game-like (i.e. representative) training opportunities outside of competition. Design This commentary paper outlines 360°VR from a constraints-led approach. Findings This article provides a practical guide of how to design, develop, and deliver this innovative technology for officials. 360°VR affords the opportunity to deliver more individualised training for officials, incorporating key environmental constraints such as crowd noise, and reproducing head movements that closely simulate scanning in a game. The rationale for 360°VR as a more representative training tool is discussed, with future avenues for applying this technology described, which include psychological training, reflective practice, and developing decision-making skills. Practical implications 360°VR is a tool that can be used in a range of areas for developing sports officiating. While there are some limitations of this technology, there are many opportunities to engage with amateur officials using this technology which is considered more enjoyable and relevant. Research contribution This commentary paper provides a theoretical rationale for using 360°VR in sports officials from a constraints-led perspective, and is the first paper to do so in sports officiating.

A multimodal Lombard speech recognition system for the confusable Hindi syllabic units

Research work on the design of robust multimodal speech recognition systems making use of acoustic and visual cues, extracted using the relatively noise robust alternate speech sensors is gaining interest in recent times among the speech processing research fraternity. The primary objective of this work is to study the exclusive influence of Lombard effect on Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems towards building robust multimodal ASR systems in adverse environments in the context of Indian languages which are syllabic in nature. The dataset for this work comprises the confusable 145 Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllabic units of Hindi language recorded simultaneously using three modalities that capture the acoustic and visual speech cues, namely Normal acoustic Microphone (NM), Throat Microphone (TM) and a camera that captures the associated lip movements. The Lombard effect is induced by feeding crowd noise into the speaker’s headphone while recording. HMM models are built to categorize the CV units based on their Place of Articulation (POA), Manner Of Articulation (MOA) and vowels (under clean and Lombard conditions). Unimodal ASR systems built using each speech cue show a recognition loss in all the systems due to Lombard effect. To overcome this loss, the complimentary speech cues taken from normal and throat microphone Lombard speech as well as from visual Lombard speech are used to build three bimodal and one trimodal ASR systems. Among the ASR systems studied, the trimodal system gives the best recognition accuracy of 98%, 95% and 76% for the vowels, MOA and POA, respectively, with an average improvement of 36% over the unimodal ASR systems and 9% improvement over the bimodal ASR systems.

What Could Ambient Noise around Campus Tell Us? A Study on Campus Crowd Noise

Urban noise is becoming more serious and increasingly concerning environmental problems. This has led to numerous study on traffic noise. However, not much studies has been done on the noise from a human perspective as they go about their daily life. In this paper we report on the study of noise level in a campus environment, in open common areas which are frequented by students. Using crowd sourcing noise data by volunteers, we are able to map out the noise across the campus from the perspective of the students. The noise level increase through the day as the student gather around popular open spaces. Our study shows that the sound level on campus are due mainly to human and mechanical noise. By mashing the noise data with Wi-Fi log data, we were able to show the good correlation between sound level and human density in an area.