Papers by Massimiliano Masullo
International journal of environmental research and public health, 2013
Preserving the soundscape and geographic extension of quiet areas is a great challenge against th... more Preserving the soundscape and geographic extension of quiet areas is a great challenge against the wide-spreading of environmental noise. The E.U. Environmental Noise Directive underlines the need to preserve quiet areas as a new aim for the management of noise in European countries. At the same time, due to their low population density, rural areas characterized by suitable wind are considered appropriate locations for installing wind farms. However, despite the fact that wind farms are represented as environmentally friendly projects, these plants are often viewed as visual and audible intruders, that spoil the landscape and generate noise. Even though the correlations are still unclear, it is obvious that visual impacts of wind farms could increase due to their size and coherence with respect to the rural/quiet environment. In this paper, by using the Immersive Virtual Reality technique, some visual and acoustical aspects of the impact of a wind farm on a sample of subjects were assessed and analyzed. The subjects were immersed in a virtual scenario that represented a situation of a typical rural outdoor scenario that they experienced at different distances from the wind turbines. The influence of the number and the colour of wind turbines on global, visual and auditory judgment were investigated. The main results
In the last years the global installed capacity of the renewable energy grew at very rapid rates.... more In the last years the global installed capacity of the renewable energy grew at very rapid rates. Among renewable energy wind energy is one of the typologies with the most significant growth. However the Wind Farms (WF) entail environmental impact problems specially on people. The major reasons of complaints are the acoustic and visual impact. Recent researches have concluded that noise annoyance from WFs was higher than from several other noise sources at comparable noise levels. Even though the sound levels, as heard by resident, are generally lower than 50 dB(A), many people oppose to WF concluding that they have health problems caused directly by wind turbines.
Limited traffic zones LTZ are strategies that municipalities adopt to improve environmental quali... more Limited traffic zones LTZ are strategies that municipalities adopt to improve environmental quality. In recent years a wide increase of LTZ has been registered in Europe. Although the main aim is to tackle air pollution, they impact also on noise pollution which is a big problem in many cities, despite legislation limits are imposed and/or suggested at national and international level. Recently the municipality of Naples is implementing the LTZ in different areas, within a wider program of interventions aimed at urban renewal and conservation of cultural heritage. In a study dated years ago the authors were involved in a field survey performed before and after the implementation of LTZ in Naples. The survey was based on the acquisition of environmental parameters influencing the human perception and on in situ interviews. The survey confirmed the multidimensional nature of the environmental perception according to a Soundscape approach. Despite a not really significant decrease of sound levels, the variation of the "quality of sound" after LTZ implementation was evaluated globally positive by a significant percentage of subjects. In this paper further measurements, interviews and analysis are presented in order to confirm the above tendency and/or identify possible modifications of judgements.
The noise impact assessment of new infrastructures is strongly correlated with the environmental ... more The noise impact assessment of new infrastructures is strongly correlated with the environmental context where they are built in. The observers are influenced mainly by two types of stimuli: audio and visual. These stimuli are perceived simultaneously and both contribute to the noise impact annoyance. Different studies have found out that the visual stimuli, such as colour and movement, can influence the auditory perception (e.g. loudness).
The aim of the Auralization process is to create audible sound files from numerical data, which c... more The aim of the Auralization process is to create audible sound files from numerical data, which can be simulated, measured or synthesised [1]. This process has been used for the simulation of indoor sound since the 1960’s, while, due to the complexity of predicting sound in an outdoor environments, for these contexts, has only recently gained attention of experts. Moreover recently this process is even more frequently used in combination with visual scenarios. Today, even though the computing power and data storage allows a better managing and processing of the information, Outdoor Auralization remains still demanding. In order to reduce the computation load needed for the auralization of outdoor environments, the efforts of experts are oriented to reach a perceptually correct or plausible auralization rather than a physically correct auralization [2]. The concept of plausibility is often referred to as the perceived agreement with the listener’s expectation towards a corresponding ...
Nowadays the involvement of passengers in acoustic discomfort assessment in public transportation... more Nowadays the involvement of passengers in acoustic discomfort assessment in public transportation systems becomes more and more frequent. Two approaches are usually used: onfield and laboratory studies. On-field studies are characterized by direct interviewing passengers during trips. Instead, laboratory studies consist of listening sounds recorded in real transportation systems, sometimes combining it with still or moving images reproduction. The aim of this research is to compare two different noise assessment methods: Audio-only vs Audio+Video. In Audio-only condition participants listened to the sound patterns of metros, whereas in Audio+Video condition participants listened to the same sounds while were fully immersed in virtual metros. Afterwards, they filled out a questionnaire about the sounds they noticed and reported also the degree of their annoyance/pleasantness. The results showed that noise impact on annoyance/pleasantness was modulated by the presence of visual stimuli. This seems to indicate that acoustic discomfort assessment with unimodal technique is inadequate to capture the complexity of sound perception in an ecological way.
Considering the wide growth of the wind turbine market over the last decade as
well as their incr... more Considering the wide growth of the wind turbine market over the last decade as
well as their increasing power size, more and more potential conflicts have arisen in society
due to the noise radiated by these plants. Our goal was to determine whether the annoyance
caused by wind farms is related to aspects other than noise. To accomplish this, an auditory
experiment on the recognition of wind turbine noise was conducted to people with long
experience of wind turbine noise exposure and to people with no previous experience to this
type of noise source. Our findings demonstrated that the trend of the auditory recognition is the
same for the two examined groups, as far as the increase of the distance and the decrease of the
values of sound equivalent levels and loudness are concerned. Significant differences between
the two groups were observed as the distance increases. People with wind turbine noise
experience showed a higher tendency to report false alarms than people without experience.
Cognitive processing, 2012
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a wind farm on individuals by means of an audio... more The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a wind farm on individuals by means of an audio-visual methodology that tried to simulate biologically plausible individual-environment interactions. To disentangle the effects of auditory and visual components on cognitive performances and subjective evaluations, unimodal (Audio or Video) and bimodal (Audio ? Video) approaches were compared. Participants were assigned to three experimental conditions that reproduced a wind farm by means of an immersive virtual reality system: bimodal condition, reproducing scenarios with both acoustic and visual stimuli; unimodal visual condition, with only visual stimuli; unimodal auditory condition, with only auditory stimuli. While immersed in the virtual scenarios, participants performed tasks assessing verbal fluency, short-term verbal memory, backward counting, and distance estimations (egocentric: how far is the turbine from you?; allocentric: how far is the turbine from the target?). Afterwards, participants reported their degree of visual and noise annoyance. The results revealed that the presence of a visual scenario as compared to the only availability of auditory stimuli may exert a negative effect on resource-demanding cognitive tasks but a positive effect on perceived noise annoyance. This supports the idea that humans perceive the environment holistically and that auditory and visual features are processed in close interaction.
Noise Control Engineering Journal, 2009
School gymnasia and swimming pools are generally environments affected by poor acoustic condition... more School gymnasia and swimming pools are generally environments affected by poor acoustic conditions due to absence of sound absorbing materials, noisy sport activities, presence of many students at the same time and intensive use of blowing whistles to enforce the communication. The consequence is that physical education teachers can not only show long term stress but they can also be exposed to noise risk to noise-induced hearing loss. Investigation has shown that the problem is quite large as 20-25% of physical education teachers can be affected by a noise exposure higher than acceptable limits. It is then necessary to analyze in detail all factors that can influence the noise in these special school environments in order to develop simple acoustical guidelines useful for school officials for stress management and hearing conservation programs. © 2009 Institute of Noise Control Engineering.
This paper reports the acoustic evolution of the "Large Theatre" of Pompeii: during the Greek-Hel... more This paper reports the acoustic evolution of the "Large Theatre" of Pompeii: during the Greek-Hellenistic and Roman period, and through to the present time. Initially the style of the theatre was Greek-Hellenistic with an elongated U shape and a cavea built into the top of a hill. During the Roman period the theatre shape was changed with a larger scene and a summa cavea added to accommodate about 5.000 spectators. After being recovered from under the Vesuvius lava it was partially reconstructed. Most recently the original grass-covered cavea has been paved with bricks and today the theatre provides a venue for a variety of types of performance. Its acoustic characteristics have been analysed using a virtual model for the Greek-Hellenistic and Roman period, and then, for the later configurations, when the cavea was grass-covered and then paved with bricks, with acoustic measurements
Preliminary studies on the relation between the audio-visual cues' perception and the approaching speed of electric vehicles
For decades, quiet and zero emission vehicles have been considered the challenge for researchers ... more For decades, quiet and zero emission vehicles have been considered the challenge for researchers and for the industry. Today, despite the great results obtained in the fields of air and noise pollution, the electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) have raise an important question regarding the pedestrian safety. At the speeds permitted in urban areas (<50 km/h) these vehicles are considerably quieter than the traditional ones powered by gasoline or diesel. Nevertheless the amount of auditory cues associated to the approaching of these vehicles can be reduced. This can determine an increase of the risk of accidents for the pedestrians. Even though the recent studies on this problem are focused, mainly, on the minimum sound levels and on the spectral content of the approaching vehicles, further aspects of the semantic content's change of the event should be considered. In this paper a preliminary investigation on the relationship, and possible incoherence, among the approaching speed of the vehicles, the auditory cues and the semantic content was performed, and results are presented. For the investigation, an immersive virtual reality environment was used.
Preserving the soundscape and geographic extension of quiet areas is a great challenge against th... more Preserving the soundscape and geographic extension of quiet areas is a great challenge against the wide-spreading of environmental noise. The E.U. Environmental Noise Directive underlines the need to preserve quiet areas as a new aim for the management of noise in European countries. At the same time, due to their low population density, rural areas characterized by suitable wind are considered appropriate locations for installing wind farms. However, despite the fact that wind farms are represented as environmentally friendly projects, these plants are often viewed as visual and audible intruders, that spoil the landscape and generate noise. Even though the correlations are still unclear, it is obvious that visual impacts of wind farms could increase due to their size and coherence with respect to the rural/quiet environment. In this paper, by using the Immersive Virtual Reality technique, some visual and acoustical aspects of the impact of a wind farm on a sample of subjects were assessed and analyzed. The subjects were immersed in a virtual scenario that represented a situation of a typical rural outdoor scenario that they experienced at different distances from the wind turbines. The influence of the number and the colour of wind turbines on global, visual and auditory judgment were investigated. The main results
Science of The Total …, Feb 15, 2013
Noise annoyance is considered as the main effect of noise, it is a complex and multifaceted psych... more Noise annoyance is considered as the main effect of noise, it is a complex and multifaceted psychological concept dealing with immediate behavioral and evaluative aspects. In the last decades the research has intensely investigated the correlation between noise exposure and noise annoyance, nevertheless recent studies confirm that non-auditory factors influence the noise perception of individuals. In particular audio–video interaction can play a fundamental role. Today Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) systems allow building laboratory test providing realistic experiences of the surrounding environment to detect more accurate information about the reactions of the local population.
Regarding the interventions for environmental noise control the barriers represent the main solution; however some aspects related to their visual characteristic have to be further investigated.
This paper presented a case study, where a sample of residents living close to a railway line assessed noise-related aspects for several barriers with different visual characteristics in an IVR laboratory test. In particular, three main factors were analyzed: the barrier type concerning the visibility of the noise source through the screen, the visual aspect of the barrier concerning some aesthetic issues and the noise level at the receiver concerning the acoustic performance of the barrier and the magnitude of the sound source. The main results of the ANOVA analysis showed that for transparent barriers Perceived Loudness and Noise Annoyance were judged lower than for opaque barriers; this difference increased as noise level increased.
Highlights
► The Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technique allows to involve the local community. ► IVR is used to test noise perception of railway noise in the presence of screens. ► Loudness and Annoyance are judged lower for transparent screens than for opaque ones. ► Perception gaps between opaque and transparent screens increase with noise level.
The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a wind farm on individuals by means of an audio... more The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a wind farm on individuals by means of an audio-visual methodology that tried to simulate biologically plausible individual-environment interactions. To disentangle the effects of auditory and visual components on cognitive performances and subjective evaluations, unimodal (Audio or Video) and bimodal (Audio + Video) approaches were compared. Participants were assigned to three experimental conditions that reproduced a wind farm by means of an immersive virtual reality system: bimodal condition, reproducing scenarios with both acoustic and visual stimuli; unimodal visual condition, with only visual stimuli; unimodal auditory condition, with only auditory stimuli. While immersed in the virtual scenarios, participants performed tasks assessing verbal fluency, short-term verbal memory, backward counting, and distance estimations (egocentric: how far is the turbine from you?; allocentric: how far is the turbine from the target?). Afterwards, participants reported their degree of visual and noise annoyance. The results revealed that the presence of a visual scenario as compared to the only availability of auditory stimuli may exert a negative effect on resource-demanding cognitive tasks but a positive effect on perceived noise annoyance. This supports the idea that humans perceive the environment holistically and that auditory and visual features are processed in close interaction.
Noise Control Engineering …, Nov 1, 2011
Abstract:
Research on acoustics conditions inside transport systems have demonstrated that the n... more Abstract:
Research on acoustics conditions inside transport systems have demonstrated that the noise in metros trains can reach levels comparable with those of industrial activities. These sound levels can affect the acoustic comfort, reducing significantly the speech communication between passengers and influencing behaviour and habits during the performance of secondary activities. On the other hand, the proliferation of the personal music players (PMPs) and the wide spread daily use of these devices by the new generations can be the reason for hearing loss when the music listening takes place in noisy environments. In this study the results of a survey on the listening habits of PMPs users interviewed on board of a metro and the measurements of the maximum output levels of the most commonly used PMPs are presented. The results of a laboratory test, which aim was to analyse the listening levels of a group of subjects during a simulation of the PMPs listening in the different metros' acoustic environment, are also presented. The results of the tests were then processed to evaluate the noise exposure levels and the hearing loss risks.
Acta Acustica united …, 2012
In this paper an investigation about the influence of noise on speech intelligibility (SI) inside... more In this paper an investigation about the influence of noise on speech intelligibility (SI) inside metros under two different driving conditions (running in tunnel straight route (TS) and in curve(TC)),for female and male speakers with four voice levels (normal, raised, loud and shout)ispresented. Perceptual laboratory tests were carried out where the noise of 11 metros wasmixed with words of Italian language. The noise wasalways reproduced with the same level, while the speakers' voice amplitude differed, thus permitting to evaluate several signal-tonoise ratio (SNR)c onditions to findo ut the SNR providing best intelligibility aboard. SI wasq uantified as the percentage of disyllabic words correctly understood (%WCU). Results showed, that %WCU washighly correlated with SNR. Poor intelligibility rates corresponded to "normal" voice condition. Fair SI can be guaranteed for SNR values greater than -6 dB in TC up to -3 dB in TS. Considering the use of raised vocal effort of 68,3 dB, the target noise levelaboard, providing good SI, should be less than 71 dB. Besides, the results showed that the %WCU wasinfluenced by the route conditions (driving in TC resulted in lower SI), the voice amplitude (%WCU rose with the increasing of the speech volume), the metro sound characteristics (SIscores differed in diverse metros), the gender of speakers (the voices of male speakers generally were more intelligible than female ones)and by the interaction of all the considered factors. PACS no. 43.50.Rq, 43.71.Gv Received12September 2011, accepted 3April 2012. ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Maffei et al.:S peechintelligibility in metros Vol. 98 (2012)
Acoustic 08, Jul 29, 2008
Many surveys and researches have underlined that the acoustic characteristics of classrooms are s... more Many surveys and researches have underlined that the acoustic characteristics of classrooms are strictly connected to performances of students and to the stress of the teachers during lessons. In standard classrooms sound quality can be easily reached without sound amplification but introducing appropriate sound absorbing/scattering materials at the ceiling and/or at the vertical walls. Nevertheless in historical buildings with vaults or trusses, high walls and many architectural restrictions imposed by district superintendent, it could be very difficult to achieve good acoustics standards with widespread solutions. In this paper the acoustic performances of different classrooms in an historical Monastery actually center of the Faculty of Architecture of the Second University of Naples are analyzed. After these analyses, compatible architectural and acoustic solutions to improve the sound quality were developed and tested in laboratory measurements and then applied in some classrooms to verify the benefits.
Noise Control Engineering Journal, Jan 1, 2009
School gymnasia and swimming pools are generally environments affected by poor acoustic condition... more School gymnasia and swimming pools are generally environments affected by poor acoustic conditions due to absence of sound absorbing materials, noisy sport activities, presence of many students at the same time and intensive use of blowing whistles to enforce the communication. The consequence is that physical education teachers can not only show long term stress but they can also be exposed to noise risk to noise-induced hearing loss. Investigation has shown that the problem is quite large; as many as 20-25% of physical education teachers can be affected by a noise exposure higher than acceptable limits. It is then necessary to analyze in detail all factors that can influence the noise in these special school environments in order to develop simple acoustical guidelines useful for school officials for stress management and hearing conservation programs.
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Papers by Massimiliano Masullo
well as their increasing power size, more and more potential conflicts have arisen in society
due to the noise radiated by these plants. Our goal was to determine whether the annoyance
caused by wind farms is related to aspects other than noise. To accomplish this, an auditory
experiment on the recognition of wind turbine noise was conducted to people with long
experience of wind turbine noise exposure and to people with no previous experience to this
type of noise source. Our findings demonstrated that the trend of the auditory recognition is the
same for the two examined groups, as far as the increase of the distance and the decrease of the
values of sound equivalent levels and loudness are concerned. Significant differences between
the two groups were observed as the distance increases. People with wind turbine noise
experience showed a higher tendency to report false alarms than people without experience.
Regarding the interventions for environmental noise control the barriers represent the main solution; however some aspects related to their visual characteristic have to be further investigated.
This paper presented a case study, where a sample of residents living close to a railway line assessed noise-related aspects for several barriers with different visual characteristics in an IVR laboratory test. In particular, three main factors were analyzed: the barrier type concerning the visibility of the noise source through the screen, the visual aspect of the barrier concerning some aesthetic issues and the noise level at the receiver concerning the acoustic performance of the barrier and the magnitude of the sound source. The main results of the ANOVA analysis showed that for transparent barriers Perceived Loudness and Noise Annoyance were judged lower than for opaque barriers; this difference increased as noise level increased.
Highlights
► The Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technique allows to involve the local community. ► IVR is used to test noise perception of railway noise in the presence of screens. ► Loudness and Annoyance are judged lower for transparent screens than for opaque ones. ► Perception gaps between opaque and transparent screens increase with noise level.
Research on acoustics conditions inside transport systems have demonstrated that the noise in metros trains can reach levels comparable with those of industrial activities. These sound levels can affect the acoustic comfort, reducing significantly the speech communication between passengers and influencing behaviour and habits during the performance of secondary activities. On the other hand, the proliferation of the personal music players (PMPs) and the wide spread daily use of these devices by the new generations can be the reason for hearing loss when the music listening takes place in noisy environments. In this study the results of a survey on the listening habits of PMPs users interviewed on board of a metro and the measurements of the maximum output levels of the most commonly used PMPs are presented. The results of a laboratory test, which aim was to analyse the listening levels of a group of subjects during a simulation of the PMPs listening in the different metros' acoustic environment, are also presented. The results of the tests were then processed to evaluate the noise exposure levels and the hearing loss risks.
well as their increasing power size, more and more potential conflicts have arisen in society
due to the noise radiated by these plants. Our goal was to determine whether the annoyance
caused by wind farms is related to aspects other than noise. To accomplish this, an auditory
experiment on the recognition of wind turbine noise was conducted to people with long
experience of wind turbine noise exposure and to people with no previous experience to this
type of noise source. Our findings demonstrated that the trend of the auditory recognition is the
same for the two examined groups, as far as the increase of the distance and the decrease of the
values of sound equivalent levels and loudness are concerned. Significant differences between
the two groups were observed as the distance increases. People with wind turbine noise
experience showed a higher tendency to report false alarms than people without experience.
Regarding the interventions for environmental noise control the barriers represent the main solution; however some aspects related to their visual characteristic have to be further investigated.
This paper presented a case study, where a sample of residents living close to a railway line assessed noise-related aspects for several barriers with different visual characteristics in an IVR laboratory test. In particular, three main factors were analyzed: the barrier type concerning the visibility of the noise source through the screen, the visual aspect of the barrier concerning some aesthetic issues and the noise level at the receiver concerning the acoustic performance of the barrier and the magnitude of the sound source. The main results of the ANOVA analysis showed that for transparent barriers Perceived Loudness and Noise Annoyance were judged lower than for opaque barriers; this difference increased as noise level increased.
Highlights
► The Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technique allows to involve the local community. ► IVR is used to test noise perception of railway noise in the presence of screens. ► Loudness and Annoyance are judged lower for transparent screens than for opaque ones. ► Perception gaps between opaque and transparent screens increase with noise level.
Research on acoustics conditions inside transport systems have demonstrated that the noise in metros trains can reach levels comparable with those of industrial activities. These sound levels can affect the acoustic comfort, reducing significantly the speech communication between passengers and influencing behaviour and habits during the performance of secondary activities. On the other hand, the proliferation of the personal music players (PMPs) and the wide spread daily use of these devices by the new generations can be the reason for hearing loss when the music listening takes place in noisy environments. In this study the results of a survey on the listening habits of PMPs users interviewed on board of a metro and the measurements of the maximum output levels of the most commonly used PMPs are presented. The results of a laboratory test, which aim was to analyse the listening levels of a group of subjects during a simulation of the PMPs listening in the different metros' acoustic environment, are also presented. The results of the tests were then processed to evaluate the noise exposure levels and the hearing loss risks.