Title: The evaluation of speech intelligibility in a simulated driving environment using the hearing in noise test

Authors: Nikolina Samardzic; Colin Novak; Robert Gaspar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada ' Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada ' Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave., Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4, Canada

Abstract: The implementation of the hearing in noise test (HINT) was carried out using an NVH driving simulator in order to evaluate the speech intelligibility in a car between driver and passenger for a variety of driving speeds and the configurations of the talker and of the listener. The sentence reception threshold (sSRT) was determined for each of the various communication situations. When presented with the same listening task, the participants required on average an approximate 3 dB increase in sound pressure level of the HINT speech material while driving and listening compared to when just listening, for an equivalent speech intelligibility performance. A suggested improvement to the current state of art would be to develop a driving simulation for acoustic perception jury testing as described in this study. This would form the basis of a standard method for a more complete, accurate and repeatable evaluation of in-vehicle speech intelligibility.

Keywords: in-vehicle communication; speech intelligibility; hearing in noise test; HINT; driving simulator; jury testing; simulation; driving environments; talker location; listener location; automobile industry; automotive operating conditions; vehicle noise; vehicle vibration; harshness; NVH.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVNV.2012.051538

International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, 2012 Vol.8 No.4, pp.318 - 336

Published online: 29 Aug 2014 *

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