In this article, we show that visual distance perception (VDP) is influenced by the auditory environmental context through reverberation-related cues. We performed two VDP experiments in two dark rooms with extremely different reverberation times: an anechoic chamber and a reverberant room. Subjects assigned to the reverberant room perceived the targets farther than subjects assigned to the anechoic chamber. Also, we found a positive correlation between the maximum perceived distance and the auditorily perceived room size. We next performed a second experiment in which the same subjects of Experiment 1 were interchanged between rooms. We found that subjects preserved the responses from the previous experiment provided they were compatible with the present perception of the environment; if not, perceived distance was biased towards the auditorily perceived boundaries of the room. Results of both experiments show that the auditory environment can influence VDP, presumably through reverberation cues related to the perception of room size.

To elaborate noise maps, national and international directives indicate that urban noise measurements must be carried out 4 m high, so as to obtain the map by the method of direct measurements, or for the calibration of mathematical models that predict sound levels. As a continuation of research plans to be carried out in the Acoustic and Lighting Laboratory of the Commission of Scientific Research, Province of Buenos Aires (LAL—CIC), and in the Acoustic and Electroacoustic Laboratory, Engineering Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires (LACEAC—FI UBA), and in order to estimate the error that will be committed using the prediction method rather than the direct measuring method, urban noise measurements were taken in surrounding areas in a quick access to La Plata City, at different heights and different distances from the sound source.

This work is about the development of a system for the recording of holophonic sound and the obtaining of binaural acoustic parameters that characterize the spatial perception of sound. At the first part, the implementation of a prototype of a low cost acoustic mannequin, head and torso simulator (HATS), is presented, to which its anthropometric characteristics and frequency responses were analyzed. The second part describes the developed algorithms to process the data measured through the HATS. Finally, some results calculated with the developed system are shown, and compared with those obtained through a commercial software. The applications of the developed measurement system are several, among them can be mentioned: the recording of 3D sounds, the calculation of subjective parameters in room acoustics, or the measurement of noise doses to assess the hearing damage of people exposed to noise through headphones.

Here, we analyze the behavior of the acoustic parameters Leq, L1, L10, L50, L90, L99, Lmin, and Lmax of vehicular noise, which were measured in controlled laboratory conditions, for various traffic noise simulations. For that, sound recordings were created of equal duration but different composition, based on real recordings of the passage of different types of vehicles (cars, motorbikes, trucks, and buses) and using pink noise as background noise. This study is based on the necessity of finding the most appropriate parameters for the characterization of the traffic noise in the cities. The study began with the test of a measurement methodology that uses the equivalent continuous sound level, the main acoustical parameter applied in the city of La Plata, Argentina. However, Leq was shown insufficient and inadequate in certain situations, especially those that didn’t exhibit intense traffic noise, as found in certain residential areas. (To be presented in Spanish.)

Having passed 100 years after its inauguration, the Colon Theatre located in Buenos Aires City is one of the most outstanding opera and symphonic music theatre of the world, and being one of the main architectural monuments of the Argentine Republic, it has needed a conservative restoration and a technological update. This has given place to the realization of a series of projects that guarantee its value with the premise to keep its acoustic quality. The methodology employed to select the textile material replacement and objects that have influence in the acoustics of the room consist in subjecting to laboratory tests the original samples together with their replacements in order to objectively characterize them and to verify that they had similar properties of sound absorption. This work presents the laboratory procedure which allowed the selection of textile material of seats replacement from reverberant chamber and Kundt tube tests.