Bimodal Interaction: The Role of Visual Information in Performing Acoustic Assessment in Architecture

Abstract

Abstract:In the framework of the design process of a multimodal 3D simulation environment to support architects' acoustic tasks, we wanted to gain a better understanding of how architects are able to discriminate the sounds using audio and/or visual inputs. This study explores how 2D pictures of rooms do support or impede the auditory evaluation of a space (specifically reverberation). The paper describes an experiment evaluating participants rankings of perceived acoustic reverberation when presented with congruent (coherent) or non-congruent (conflicting) evocative pictures of architectural spaces. We found that the congruent pictures had a positive impact on task performance while the noncongruent pictures had no significant effect. Moreover the effect of the expertise (professional background) of participants was investigated. We found differences between architects and non-architects in the way they performed the task, and they processed reverberation assessments. Taken together, the findings of this study contribute to the question of usefulness of expensive multimodal 3D simulation environment.

Relating Sound and Sight in Simulated Environments

“…The primary finding of this study is that the propensity to perceive a sound as having been produced in a particular visual environment was greater when the sound was indeed produced in the physical location depicted by vision. This suggests that participants were able to extract diagnostic acoustic features from visual information, consistent with the previous reports by Defays et al (2014) and Sandvad (1999). It is potentially inconsistent with the findings of McCreery and Calamia (2006), who asked participants to reproduce the apparent level of reverberation in a visual reference and reported that "reverberance levels chosen by subjects rarely match those measured from impulse responses recorded in the rooms being presented" (p. 3150) -however, it is difficult to gain further insight into the apparent discrepancy as these findings were only reported in abstract form.…”

“…Because reverberation is related to the material and geometric structure of the environment, there is the potential for information derived from the visual sense, which is often able to provide reliable estimates of such environmental conditions, to also convey expectations about the likely properties of reverberation. Supporting the potential for vision to generate useful expectations about reverberation, Sandvad (1999) reported that participants were able to accurately identify the image of the environment in which a sound was recorded and Defays et al (2014) found that participants were better able to sort a set of sounds by their reverberation if the sounds were accompanied by images of reverberation-consistent ('congruent') locations. Furthermore, Calcagno et al (2012) showed that visual information can have practical consequences for the interpretation of auditory signals; they reported that previous visual exposure to an environment improved the accuracy of subsequent blindfolded auditory distance judgements in that environment.…”

Auralization uses in acoustical design: A survey study of acoustical consultants

“…That study focused on the users, which is necessary for the assessment of adoption of the technology. In the same way, Defays et al (2014) investigated the benefits of providing visual cues for the task of evaluating the reverberation of a given space, in the context of the design process of a multimodal 3D simulation environment. They investigated the effect of expertise level by comparing the performance of architects versus non-architects, showing that architects performed better in the task.…”

Relating Sound and Sight in Simulated Environments

“…Supporting the potential for vision to generate useful expectations about reverberation, Sandvad (1999) reported that participants were able to accurately identify the image of the environment in which a sound was recorded and Defays et al (2014) found that participants were better able to sort a set of sounds by their reverberation if the sounds were accompanied by images of reverberation-consistent ('congruent') locations.…”