• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.689-692
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• 2008

Noises from ceiling mounted air-conditioning units were recorded in various actual situations such as offices, classrooms and libraries. Eight specimens of air-conditioners from major domestic and foreign manufacturers' were investigated in this study. A head and torso simulator was located 1.5 m beneath the air-conditioner panel for the measurements and sound pressure levels of the recording sounds were varied from 28 to 55 dBA with 3 dB steps for subjective evaluations. A total of 88 stimuli was randomly presented to subjects using a headphone system in semi-anechoic chamber. Two-categorized (noisiness and amenity) nine-point scale was used as evaluation method. The third scale ('point 3') among the nine-point scale was set as the threshold of allowable level of the air-conditioning sounds in consideration of the real situations. The results indicate that the allowable sound pressure level is around 34 dBA for both noisiness and amenity categories.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.49-56
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• 2011

The effect of soundscape has been analyzed by questionnaire results. Nowadays, EEG is used to identify the human reponses due to exterior stimuli such as soundscape sound sources. So, it is very meaningful to know the EEG response to soundscape sound sources. In the present study, the sound sources of soundscape were heard to subjects in order to find out the relationship between questionnaire results and electroencephalogram results through lab test. And stimulated part of brain for evaluating words were sought in this experiment too. The results of the study are as follows : the sound source of bird+music causes more ${\alpha}$-wave rise than other sound sources and the ${\alpha}$-wave stimulated region of brain is occipitallobe. In case of ${\beta}$-wave, the left part of brain is excited. ${\delta}$-wave is on frontallobe and ${\Theta}$-wave is on right part of brain. The evaluating words for soundscape can be categorized into four groups. These results could be used for basic materials of soundscape effects analysis.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.251-255
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• 2010

In this study, the effects leading and following tone with single frequency on sound lateralization were investigated. The tone with level difference and ISI(Inter Stimuli Interval) were used. The width of test tone was 2ms, leading tone and following tone were 10ms and 1kHz was used. The arrived time difference of subject's ears 0.5ms. We set four levels on each ISI and let them decide whether they hear the provided sound from left or right. As a result, it knew the fact that leading tone had more effect on sound lateralization than following tone.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.5-14
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• 1987

In order to examine the different effects of noise and music on mental tasks, an addition of figures as a left-hemispheric task and a pattern search as a right-hemispheric task were given to elementary school pupils under conditions of jet noise stimulus, music stimulus, and no-sound stimulus, respectively. Results showed that effects of music and noise stimuli during these tasks were significantly different. The subjects under music stimulus tended, when performing additions, to show occasional short periods in which they produced substantially less than their own average rate of work. This is due to interaction between calculation and hearing music in the left hemisphere, whereas there was no detrimental effects on the task of addition under noise stimulus as well as no-sound stimulus because the addition and the noise may be separately processed in different cerebral hemispheres. As effects of noise on performing search task, the subjects tended to show instantaneous agitations in their working curves. Since noise with no-meaning is processed in the right hemisphere, it may be explained as an interacting effect in this hemisphere.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.43-43
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• 2010

Presently, there is the dilemma of uncertainty with respect to the evaluation of sound and vibration based on the fact that there is obviously no agreement upon appropriate methods to measure the "truth" concerning the acceptance of sound and vibration. To evaluate properly physical and perception data in sound and vibration it is necessary to implement new methods and innovative approaches to understand the input of human response in sound design. Fortunately, an elaborate dialogue of the usefulness and applicability of those approaches is in progress. Moreover, the need of using and combining perception and physical data in order to comprehend the process of human perception and evaluation sufficiently is widely accepted. However, still the question remains how the goal of an adequate combination can be achieved. Clearly, themultidimensional human perception cannot be easily reduced to singular numbers. Moreover, factors, among others the meaning of the sound, the composition of the diverse sound sources, the listener's attitude, expectations and experiences, are significant parameters which have to be considered to comprehend the different perceptions and evaluations with regard to specific stimuli. Taking under consideration the physical, psychological, and cognitive dimensions as well as the integration of aspects of design require partially various new approaches. While binaural measurement and analysis technologies and psycho-acoustics are well established as they are proved to be valuable auxiliary tools; it has not been achieved to develop generally acceptable measurement units concerning sound quality. Consequently, there is a need for new approaches and methods which make it possible to comprehend sufficiently the process of perception and evaluation. Going with people's mind will be one solution for the future; thisconcept will be introduced based on the development in sound design.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.56-61
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• 2010

In this paper, a subjective assessment for sound quality evaluation of earphones is introduced. Although instantaneous switching among assessed stimuli is very important in the subjective assessment from the simultaneous comparison's point of view, it is physically impossible in the subjective assessment of earphone. Thus, this paper proposes an indirect assessment method using recorded stimuli and accompanied pre-processing and the assessment results are presented.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2014

This article represents a first step in a large study aimed at elucidating the relationship between production and perception involved in sound change of /o/ in (Seoul) Korean. In this paper we present the results of a production study and a perception experiment. For the production study we examined vowel production data of 20 young adult speakers, measuring the first and second formants, then conducted a discriminant analysis based on those values. In terms of their F1-F2 values, the distribution of /o/ and /u/ were close, and even overlapping in some circumstances, which is consistent with the literature. This tendency was more apparent among the female speakers than the males. Moreover, with the females' distributions, /o/ was frequently categorized as /u/, suggesting that the direction of the sound change is indeed increasing from /o/ to /u/. Next, to investigate the effects of this proximity on perception, we used the production data of five randomly selected speakers from the production study as stimuli for a perception experiment in which 21 young adult native speakers of (Seoul) Korean performed a vowel identification task and provided a Goodness rating on a 5-point scale. We found that while rates of correctness were high, when these correctness scores were weighted by the Goodness rating, these "weighted correctness" scores were lower in some cases, indicating a degree of confusion in distinguishing between the two vowels.

• Anatomy and Cell Biology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.113-117
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• 2022

The tensor tympani muscle is structurally important in the middle ear, specifically through its involvement in the impedance of sound in response to intense auditory and non-auditory stimuli. Despite numerous studies, its true function has been debated for many years; questions still remain about its role in auditory and non-auditory reflexes and in sound damping. Some studies suggest that the tensor tympani muscle contracts as a result of non-auditory stimulation such as facial or head movements; others suggest that it contracts due to input from the cochlear nucleus, therefore by way of auditory stimulation. Whatever the cause, contraction of the tensor tympani muscle results in low frequency mixed hearing loss, either to protect the inner ear from loud sounds or to desensitize the ear to self-generated sounds. A review of these studies indicated that the tensor tympani muscle has a wide range of functions, yet the mechanisms of some of them have not been clearly demonstrated. One major question is whether the tensor tympani muscle contributes to sound damping; and if it does, what specific role it serves. The primary purpose of this review article is to explore the functions of the tensor tympani muscle in light of recent research advances.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.217-224
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• 2010

Research has been conducted to examine the effects of mechanical and sound characteristics of fabrics on affective quality. The present study developed the Affective Quality Evaluation and Estimation System for Textiles (AQEEST) with distinguished features that can be effectively used in the affective research of fabric frictional sound. The AQEEST consists of three subsystems (affective quality evaluation, affective quality estimation, and audible distance estimation subsystems) and each subsystem consists of three to four modules (e.g., evaluation condition setup, evaluation experimentation, and textile database management modules) depending on its functional requirements. The affective quality evaluation subsystem was designed to help administer an experiment in a systematic manner and present acoustic and visual stimuli simultaneously in various gait conditions (walking, jogging, and running) to mimic a more realistic situation of textile frictional sound production. Next, the affective quality estimation subsystem was designed to estimate the sound characteristics, affective qualities, overall psychological satisfaction, and reference cluster of a textile using its mechanical and/or sound characteristic information. Lastly, the audible distance estimation subsystem was designed to estimate the just noticeable sound pressure levels and audible distances of a textile for various gait conditions using its mechanical characteristic information. The AQEEST can be upgraded by accommodating more affective quality study results for various textiles.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.227-234
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• 2012

In this study, the masking effect of olfactory stimulus on the awakening state due to sound stimuli while driving using Graphic Driving Simulator was observed through the response of autonomic nervous system. The test was conducted for 11 males in their twenties. The siren of ambulance car was presented to them as auditory stimulus for 30 secs while driving in a situation of high way in the condition of both peppermint and control, respectively, and LF/HF ratio of HRV (Heart Rate Variability), the activity index of sympathetic nerve, and GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) response were examined. The test was proceeded in the order of three stages, that is, sound stimuli (test 1), driving performance, and sound stimuli (test 2), and fragrance stimulus, driving performance, and sound stimuli (test 3), and the physiological signal of GSR, HRV was measured in the whole stages. As a result of test, comparing the results of before and after auditory stimulus test (1) (p < 0.01), test (2) (p < 0.05), and test (3) (p < 0.01), driving performance test (2) (p < 0.01), test (3) (p < 0.01), and olfactory stimulus test (3) (p < 0.05), respectively, GSR response increased, showing significant difference in all the tests. It indicates that when auditory stimulus was presented to the subjects, they were in the awakening state as sympathetic nervous system got activated. As a result of comparing auditory stimulus while driving before and after presenting olfactory stimulus, there was no significant difference in GSR response. The LF/HF ratio of HRV increased, showing a significant difference only in test (2) (p < 0.05), and in driving performance test (2) (p < 0.05) in auditory stimulus, however, it showed no significant difference in olfactory stimulus. As a result of comparing auditory stimulus while driving before and after presenting olfactory stimulus, there was a decrease, showing significant difference (p < 0.05) in LF/HF ratio of HRV. That is, it means that the activation of sympathetic nervous system decreased, and that parasympathetic nervous system got activated. From these results, it was observed that while driving, the awakening level due to auditory stimulus was settled with olfactory stimulus. In conclusion, it was drawn that while driving, olfactory stimulus could have the masking effect on auditory stimulus.