COVID Teaching of acoustics and noise control: Lab in a box for experiments at home
Time: 8:20 am
Author: stephen dance
Abstract ID: 1115
In June 2020 with the advent of COVID emergency plans were put in place to deliver the Masters course in Environmental and Architectural Acoustics totally on-line. This was necessary as although the acoustics laboratory is large, it was deemed to be unsafe for face-to-face teaching due to a complete lack of ventilation in the anechoic and reverberation chambers. Hence, it was necessary to create an alternative. It was decided that a lab in a box supported by on-line demonstrations and pre-recorded films would create the best alternative experience for the students. The lab in a box allowing the demonstrations to be replicated at home or in the garden. The results showed that the students gained from more independence, increased flexibility in deliver achieving very similar marks. This has opened up the possibility of increasing student numbers by reusing these alternative teaching strategies.
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Artificial and Practical Intelligence. Hannah Arendts Ethics in "Vita activa or On active Life"
Time: 7:20 am
Author: Monika Gatt
Abstract ID: 1618
Hannah Arendt's work "Vita Activa and The Human Condition" is considered one of the most important ethical and moral writings of our time. The philosopher understands practical life as an inescapable human condition, as condicio humana. Practical philosophy, which includes ethics and morality, is situated between work and society. There, technology finds its application. Meanwhile technology's influence has gained the ability to shape culture, as artificial intelligence (Al) and transhumanism show. This influence has come to be viewed increasingly critically by scientists, who see it as often violating human boundaries. In the ethical evaluation of a course of action oriented on technology, we follow a traditionally Aristotelian distinction between poesis (greek) and praxis (greek). With poesis we mean an instrumental, purposeful production process, which is realized through implementation and completed in the finished product. With praxis we define human activity, or communal work. Arendt interprets the technical processes of conception and work as creativity. As homo Jaber, the "tool-maker", we want to make the world more beautiful and useful. As animal laborans, we want to make our lives easier and longer. Today, many of us try to orient ourselves in our everyday lives through technology, such as voicecontrolled software. However, in order orient ourselves in the world, it is not technology that is necessary, but rather human intelligence and practical action. This paper illuminates Arendt's interpretation of the human condition as practical action, and emphasizes the lessons it provides for ethical education in acoustic engineeringHannah Arendt's work "Vita activa or On Active Life" is considered one of the most important ethical and moral writings of our time. The philosopher understands practical life as an inescapable human condition, as condicio humana (Latin). Practical philosophy, which includes ethics and morality, is situated between work and society. There technology finds application, meanwhile technology has culturally shaping influence, as the transhumanism shows. This influence is increasingly viewed critically by scientists, human boundaries are often violated. In the ethical evaluation of an action directed at technology, we distinguish traditionally Aristotelian between poesis (Gr.) and praxis (Gr.). With poesis we mean an instrumental, purposeful production process, which is realized in implementation and completed in the finished product, with praxis we define human action, the common work. Arendt interprets the technical process of conception and work as creativity. As Homo faber, we want to make the world more beautiful and useful, or as Animal laborans, we want to make our lives easier and longer. However, today we try to orient ourselves in everyday life through technology, such as voice- controlled software. But, so that we can orient ourselves in the world, not only technology is necessary, but especially intelligence and practical action. The lecture shows the conditio humana of practical action and which consequences can be derived from it.
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Learning effect of active learning coursework in engineering acoustics course
Time: 8:00 am
Author: Yusuke Hioka
Abstract ID: 2617
This paper reports the learning effect achieved by a newly developed coursework for an engineering acoustics course offered to fourth year and postgraduate engineering students at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The course teaches fundamental knowledge that acoustical engineers need and which underpins a variety of sub-disciplines in acoustics including: fundamental physics of wave propagation, building and room acoustics, electro-acoustics, audio signal processing, and the psychology of hearing. The coursework incorporated practical active learning activities and was developed in order to help students gain understanding of complex concepts related to the room acoustics measurement and analysis. The coursework also has the goal of providing students with an introduction to some of the practical tasks which are typical of a practising acoustical engineering in New Zealand. The learning effect was measured by comparing students' performance in a quiz that was run before students commenced working on the coursework and that in the final examination and by investigating common mistakes students made in the report which was the required deliverable of the coursework. Overall, the new coursework successfully improved students' understanding of the material which it covered.
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Auditory training system for improvement of auditory perception ability in blind soccer.
Time: 7:40 am
Author: Mari Ueda
Abstract ID: 2653
Blind soccer is a sport designed for people with visual impairment. All players (except the goalkeepers) are people with visual impairment but not limited to complete vision loss (i.e. without any ability to see; blind in both eyes) . Considering the various degrees of the disability, all players put on an eye mask for a complete vision blockage so they just rely on their audio sensation for the location of the ball and the goals to drift, shoot, and defend as a game with a high degree of movement. Different from conventional soccer games, the ball makes a sound in which the callers at the back of the shooting goal provide audio guidance in order to make the game highly dependent on audio information. However, the ability to recognize and locate rely solely on training and personal experience of individual players that essential audio information of the game has never been analyzed in a scientific manner and theories about distance positioning is especially inadequate. Hence, this study aims to utilize the audio sensation for better game performance. First, we focus on the distance attenuation feature when the ball spins, which is followed by a description about an audio training system for distance positioning from sounds.
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Head tracker using webcam for auralization
Time: 3:00 pm
Author: William D'Andrea Fonseca
Abstract ID: 2956
Binaural rendering is a technique that seeks to generate virtual auditory environments that replicate the natural listening experience, including the three-dimensional perception of spatialized sound sources. As such, real-time knowledge of the listener's position, or more specifically, their head and ear orientations allow the transfer of movement from the real world to virtual spaces, which consequently enables a richer immersion and interaction with the virtual scene. This study presents the use of a simple laptop integrated camera (webcam) as a head tracker sensor, disregarding the necessity to mount any hardware to the listener's head. The software was built on top of a state-of-the-art face landmark detection model, from Google's MediaPipe library for Python. Manipulations to the coordinate system are performed, in order to translate the origin from the camera to the center of the subject's head and adequately extract rotation matrices and Euler angles. Low-latency communication is enabled via User Datagram Protocol (UDP), allowing the head tracker to run in parallel and asynchronous with the main application. Empirical experiments have demonstrated reasonable accuracy and quick response, indicating suitability to real-time applications that do not necessarily require methodical precision.
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Case study – lesson plan for noise control engineering concepts for use in ABET accredited engineering programs
Time: 8:40 am
Author: Lily Wang
Abstract ID: 1691
ABET accreditation is an internationally recognized system ensuring consistency and quality in engineering education programs. As a part of ABET accreditation, there is no set requirement for any general engineering program to include noise control engineering concepts in their curricula. However, one of the seven student outcomes that each ABET accredited engineering program must document is their students ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare Controlling noise is a fundamental strategy for protecting workers from occupational noise and the public from the harmful effects of environmental noise. In this presentation, a case study is presented which focuses on the development and execution of a noise control lesson plan designed to meet ABET requirements. The lesson plan not only promotes the understanding and practice of noise control engineering techniques but also is designed to help engineering programs demonstrate ABET student outcomes related to consideration of safety and health.
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