Employees contribute to University of Salford study exploring how humans perceive sound
The London office of Sandy Brown (UK independent acoustic consultancy) recently became the setting for a unique research initiative as University of Salford PhD researcher Matt Torjussen visited to conduct a series of psychoacoustic experiments.
Over the course of the study, several colleagues volunteered to participate in listening sessions, providing subjective feedback on a range of environmental and technical sounds. The research forms part of Matt’s doctoral project, “Psychoacoustic Modelling for Complex Soundscapes,” which is being undertaken in collaboration with HEAD Acoustics and supervised by Professor Antonio J. Torija Martinez and Dr Zuzanna Podwinska.
The project aims to improve understanding of how people perceive complex sounds and to develop more accurate methods of assessing acoustic environments. Current sound evaluation techniques often rely on traditional sound pressure level measurements, which can overlook important aspects of human perception. By combining advanced computational modelling with human listening studies, the research seeks to create validated psychoacoustic models that better reflect how sounds are experienced in real-world settings.
Participants in the London office experiments helped contribute to this objective by describing their perceptions of different sounds, providing valuable data that will be used to compare subjective human responses with model predictions.
The research focuses on the development of standardised approaches for measuring sound characteristics such as sharpness and impulsiveness, areas that currently lack universally accepted perceptual metrics. By bridging the gap between physical sound measurements and human experience, the findings could ultimately influence future approaches to sound assessment across a range of industries.
Potential applications include urban planning, environmental policy, product development and noise management, helping organisations create environments that are both acoustically effective and more responsive to human wellbeing.
As innovation is one of Sandy Brown’s five core values, they were delighted to support this important research and provide an opportunity for colleagues to contribute directly to a project with the potential to shape future industry standards.
