Product Sound Design Research Articles

How a Technology Identity Can Enhance the Diffusion of Good Design Practices in Product Sound Design

People are plugged into an intangible sound universe. But only a tiny part of the sounds we are exposed to have been purposefully designed. Recently, designers are bashfully approaching these intangible products’ quality. Product Sound Design represents, in fact, a promising research field still scarcely explored. The design community is answering this concern through new design methods. An Italian university developed a patented method-and-tool, conceived to collect, analyze, and recreate various sounds to develop a new generation of products with designed mechanical (and, eventually, digital) sounds. Spreading this innovation within the design community is fundamental to stimulate future more focused and aware practices. As well as all new technologies, the new patent didn’t have its own identity from the beginning. Extensive work conducted with the scientific approach has therefore been undertaken to redesign its identity to make its disruptiveness intelligible and understandable.

Methods for product sound design: a correlation between annoyance and sound quality of noise emitted by household appliance

The sound quality analysis, used as a tool for the product design, has been defined and described in the literature and the characteristics describing the type of sound have been identified. However it is often not known how the subjective assessments and the human factor are taken into account in the procedure governing the studies of sound quality. Today making a product as quiet as possible is one of the most captivating challenge for the industrial sector, especially if it is for a household appliance. This case study show how the consumer perception of product sound quality is a fundamental variable to define the sound character. The classification of sound quality is based on the correlation between an objective measurement and the subjective judgment result. Psychoacoustic metrics like Loudness, Sharpness and Roughness, and the combinations of them into more sophisticated models, like annoyance, pleasantness and powerfulness are commonly used for analysis and prediction of product sound quality. However, some problems arise when the sounds are analyzed by different consumers. It is assumed that the reason for this is the human not ability to understand the difference between noise and annoyance and to focus consciously or unconsciously on the sound emitted by the appliance. For this reason the aim of this work is to validate a method to calculate a sound quality index applicable to the sounds produced by five kitchen hoods in a real installation condition.

Influence of Color on Loudness Perception of Household Appliances: Case of a Coffee Maker

Previous studies have investigated the effect of color on the assessment of loudness in various cases, such as cars, trains, and concert halls. This study sets out to explore the influence of color on the loudness perception of household appliances, in particular in the case of coffee makers. To this end, images of a coffee maker colored in black, red, dark green, light blue, light green, and white were displayed to participants during a magnitude estimation task. In a repeated measures design, the sound of a coffee maker was used synchronously as a stimulus presented in different sound levels (74, 78, 82, and 86 dB LAeq). The sample of participants was selected to be gender balanced and unfamiliar with similar experiments. Statistical analysis suggested that the color of the visual stimulus had no influence on loudness judgments. However, a gender-based statistically significant influence regarding the color of the coffee maker on loudness evaluation was found for females. An interpretation of the results is attempted in the discussion. The results of this study suggest that since there is the possibility of gender differences in the assessment of loudness for household appliances, special care should be taken in similar studies to account for these effects. Finally, these gender differences could possibly be utilized for product sound design and product marketing where the appropriate use of color has been found to be effective.

Designing Sound for Social Robots: Candidate Design Principles

How can we use sound and music to create rich and engaging human-robot interactions? A growing body of HRI research explores the many ways in which sound affects human-robot interactions and although some studies conclude with tentative design recommendations, there are, to our knowledge, no generalised design recommendations for the robot sound design process. We address this gap by first investigating sound design frameworks in the domains of product sound design and film sound to see whether practices and concepts from these areas contain actionable insights for the creation of robot sound. We then present three case studies, detailed examinations of the sound design of commercial social robots Cozmo and Vector, Jibo, and Kuri, facilitated by expert interviews with the robots’ sound designers. Combining insights from the design frameworks and case studies, we propose nine candidate design principles for robot sound which provide (1) a design-oriented perspective on robot sound that may inform future research, and (2) actionable guidelines for designers, engineers and decision-makers aiming to use sound to create richer and more refined human-robot interactions.

DOES ELECTRIC-MOBILITY SOUND FUTURISTIC? CONCEPTUALIZATION DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR THE AUDITORY VEHICLE ALERTING SYSTEM (AVAS)

Today, electric cars are quieter than the traditional internal combustion vehicles. The lack of noise is a good achievement from the environmental point of view; nevertheless, electric vehicles pose a risk for pedestrians and road vulnerable users due to their low detectability. From 2021, the implementation of an additional exterior Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) in every new electric vehicle and hybrid vehicle will be mandatory. Designing exterior sounds for quiet vehicles is an unexplored ground and an unprecedented challenge in the field of sound design. Therefore, a balance between the road users’ safety, car manufacturers interests, the sonic driving experience and the environmental noise, have to be considered as part of the design process. This paper summarizes the users’ needs related to e-mobility design and the role of sound design in order to improve road user’s safety but also the brand identity in the driving experience. It also introduces the sound strategies followed by automotive brands until the date; and presents the design guidelines to be addressed for the conceptualization process of the AVAS. To conclude, some future lines of work and research are identified to guide the sound conceptualization as part of the design process. Keywords: sound design, product sound design, warning design, auditory messages, vehicle design, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, automotive design, conceptualization design.

Progress in product sound quality

R.H. Lyon was a pioneer in several areas of acoustics, vibrations and noise control. His development of sound quality as an integral part of noise control engineering and product sound design is just one of many examples of his significant contributions to areas of importance in noise control engineering. In this presentation an overview of the Product Sound Quality workshops he organized in 1997 and 2002 will be given together with a summary of how the field has developed over the last 20 years, due, in no small part, to his leadership. The presentation will conclude with some personal memories of working with him.

Product Sound Design as a Valuable Tool in the Product Development Process

Product sound design is a current topic in the field of product design. It proposes the study and application of sound as one of the essential configurable parameters in the product design process, given its potential to communicate relevant and complex information to the user. In this article, we describe some of the basic principles of this discipline based on different examples and reflect on the importance of implementing specific design methodologies available for product design teams. Finally, we propose possible lines of work that can contribute to new knowledge and facilitate access to future work in this field.

A cross-university massive open online course on communication acoustics

Four of the nine big Technical Universities in Germany, together with Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, have developed a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the subject of Communication Acoustics. The idea is to foster education on the late Bachelor or early Master level by joining the expertise available at individual universities and by creating an online course offered both to local as well as remote students. The course started in winter term 2016 and is hosted on the EdX platform. It is offered in English language and roughly divided into two parts: The first part covers basics on acoustics, signal processing, human hearing, speech production, as well as electroacoustics and psychoacoustics. The second part introduces selected applications, such as sound recording and reproduction, sound fields and room acoustics, binaural technology, speech technology, as well as product sound design. The course material consists of explanatory videos and text as well as audiovisual material, exercises, and self-assessments. The final examination takes place as a written or online exam, with physical presence at the contributing sites. The talk will provide insights into the experiences we made, and illustrates how we overcame the obstacles inherent to cross-university education.

Assessment of changes in preference ratings of auralized engine sounds caused by changes in frequency resolution of transfer functions

Auralization facilitates aural examination of contributions from different sound sources, individually and as parts of a context. Auralizations can be created by filtering sounds of perceptually salient sources through binaural transfer functions (BTFs) from source positions to a listening position. When such auralizations are used for product sound design it is essential to know that they are of sufficient quality. A basic requirement is that preference ratings are unaffected by the quality of the auralizations. The objective of this study was to measure changes in preference ratings of auralized engine sounds caused by changes in frequency resolution of used BTFs. Auralizations of engine sounds were created by filtering source sounds through BTFs measured from source positions to a driver’s position inside a truck cabin. The BTFs were altered by lowering the frequency resolution and by smoothing in the frequency domain. Preferences for the auralizations were compared using a modified version of the MUlti Stimulus test with Hidden Reference and Anchor, MUSHRA (ITU-R BS.1534-1). Since the use of a reference is only appropriate when a reference known to be most preferred exists the reference was removed, resulting in a MUlti Stimulus Test with Hidden Anchors (MUSTHA). For assessment of the differences between the auralizations a statistical method commonly used for assessing agreement between methods of clinical measurement was adopted. The lowest frequency resolutions resulting in acceptable agreement between preference ratings of auralizations made with high frequency resolution (1Hz) BTFs and auralizations made with simplified BTFs were 32Hz frequency resolution or smoothing with either 1/24 octave bandwidth filters or 63Hz absolute bandwidth filters.

J102012 ユースケースを考慮した要求・機能のモデル化による音設計プロセス(〔J102-01〕1DCAEを活用した設計と教育)

In product sound design, it is difficult to set a sound target reflecting customer demands because sound evaluation varies depending on users' subjective sensation and the situation. In this paper, we carry out the evaluation grid method assuming some use cases for product, and analyze the customer demands in order to set appropriate sound target. The demand for the product and the requirement for sound for each use case are derived. By grasping the requirement for sound of each use case, it becomes possible to set the sound target in accordance with the use case.

Using Customer Insights to Improve Product Sound Design

Using Customer Insights to Improve Product Sound Design

The next generation of artificial heads

Standardised artificial heads are vital means when it comes to describing the binaural transmission from the sound field into the ear canal or rather the eardrum. In recent years numerous fields of application were created ranging from room acoustics, to product sound design or telecommunications, all based on the well-known KEMAR standard IEC TR 959. In the meantime, however, it has become a well-known fact, that a) specific artificial heads with natural heads or replicas in hearing experiments are superior to standard artificial heads as far as the quality of spatial hearing is concerned and that b) the standardised heads do not comply with the dimensions of an average population (the standard heads are too small). In this contribution first of all today's situation will be assessed and then a possible way will be outlined that could lead to a new future artificial head standard. This includes an adequate match with adult population for various continents, and also new approaches such as children-size artificial heads to measure and fit hearing aids or for new measurement techniques for classroom acoustics.

Quantification Method of Product Emotional Quality Considering Its Diversity (Application to Quantification of Emotional Quality in Product Sound Design)

This paper describes a new quantification method of a product's emotional quality, which we call kansei quality, with attention paid to its diversity to support the affective design. The customer's sensitivity towards such a quality differs from person to person due to perception gaps and ambiguity. The proposed method helps the designer to grasp such diverse sensitivities of customers. In contrast to the conventional approach that aims to generalize human sensitivity using average results of sensory tests, the proposed method divides an emotional quality based on differences among the customers' sensitivity. We apply the proposed method for designing a machine sound in which the designer deals with the sound quality as a kansei quality. We carry out an impression evaluation experiment on human subjects using existing product sounds. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, we compare the proposed method with the conventional approach using experimental results. The comparison results show the advantages of the method, such as the avoidance of meaningless average data caused by canceling out multiple different sensitivities. Based on the proposed method, we developed a prototype system that enables the designer to evaluate the kansei qualities of created sound without conducting a sensory test.

Tone prominence ratio, error sources, and proposed solutions

Tone prominence ratio is finding increasing use as a tool for product sound design. ECMA-74 Annex D offers a procedure for calculating tone prominence ratio and qualifying tone audibility. However, there are significant potential sources of error when utilizing the ECMA-74 procedure. These include possible misidentification of tone frequency, and ambiguities about what constitutes tone audibility. Misidentification of tone frequency can occur when closely spaced tones exist in the spectrum; whereas, other errors may result from individual subjective assessment of tone audibility. The existing ECMA method does not specify how to identify the primary tone frequency when such ambiguities exist. Real-world examples of potential error sources are presented along with proposed solutions. An unambiguous peak prominence ratio value reporting system is presented along with data to support its improved relevance in terms of hearing perception and subjective annoyance.