Browsing by Subject "Speech Intelligibility"

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Open Access
The effects of speech in interference in enclosed leisure spaces : a case of study in Bilkent Roll House, Ankara
(2011) Gezginer, Pelin Meriç
The aim of this study is to investigate the speech interference of users in an open-planned multi-activities public leisure space. Bilkent Roll House was chosen as a leisure space because of its variety of activities in an open-plan such as bowling, dart, billiards, play station and dining area. In this respect, to analyze acoustical parameters and users characteristics of this study, a pilot and case study was undertaken by using questionnaires/intelligibility tests, computer simulations and real-size measurements. Questionnaires /speech intelligibility tests and Leq measurements were done in order to analyze noise annoyance ratings of the users of selected space as pilot study. The speech interference parameters measured as a case study are; Reverberation Time (T30), Speech Transmission Index (STI), Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and Equivalent Continuous A-weighted Sound Pressure Level (Leq A). The results showed that reverberation characteristics of Bilkent Roll House are at the required range. However, it was observed that, the speech parameters (STI & SNR) results are insufficient in terms of speech communication. In addition, the noise level (Leq A) of the activities in Bilkent Roll House increases slightly in time. However, the results of Leq A at the dining area of Bilkent Roll House indicate that, users are affected in an informal way by the speech interference, and instead of increasing their voice level, they prefer to deal with their main activity to provide speech intelligibility in multi-activity spaces.
Open Access
Effects of speech intelligibility on computer-based task performance in open-plan offices
(2008) Kitapcı, Kıvanç
The aim of this thesis is to find out the effects of speech and speech intelligibility on computer-based task performance in open-plan offices. The research was conducted in a real open-plan office environment to include the open-office experience of subjects to the analysis. STM Bilkent Office was selected as the case, and 40 available open-office occupants were participated to the study. The experiment consists of three main phases. In the first phase, real-size measurement of selected open-office area within STM Bilkent was analyzed to understand effects of divider panels on acoustical situation of the room, and to check the reliability of the computer simulation. In the second phase, acoustical simulation of the site was done, to derive distribution graphs for speech related room acoustics parameters. In the last phase, occupants computer-based task performances were tested under three different sound environments, which are continuous noise, speech and masked speech. According to statistical analysis of performance test, and acoustical properties of the case STM, suggestions for renovation were discussed and tested in computer simulation. It was found that, effects of intelligible speech on occupants task performance is only psychological, because it is significant that there is no difference between results of performance test. However, all of the occupants respond to the questionnaires that speech sound environment was the most distracting one. Proposal for renovation was given to minimize the effects of intelligible speech on occupants for preventing the long-term effects on occupants’ health.