Exploring the relationship between psychoacoustic and affective variables in a shutter‐press sound

Abstract

Whereas smart products have emerged as a new product category, almost no studies have introduced product sounds that give a smart impression. Moreover, technological development has increased the need to shape or design consequential sounds, which have been recognized to depend on the mechanical properties of a product. Therefore, we introduce an approach to design consequential sounds for a camera‐shutter sound. First, we elicit design variables from existing camera‐shutter sounds and conduct an experiment to examine their effects on smartness and satisfaction. Next, the time structure‐related variables of a camera‐shutter sound are modified and evaluated with eight sound descriptors. The results demonstrate the relationship between design variables and affective variables by adopting the concept of psychoacoustic variables. The proposed method might be able to assist in designing a consequential sound to present both smart impressions and other targeted sound impressions depending on the research purpose.