Course syllabus for Human response to sound and vibration

Course syllabus adopted 2024-02-12 by Head of Programme (or corresponding).

Overview

  • Swedish nameMänniskors respons på ljud och vibrationer
  • CodeVTA161
  • Credits7.5 Credits
  • OwnerMPSOV
  • Education cycleSecond-cycle
  • Main field of studyCivil and Environmental Engineering
  • DepartmentARCHITECTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING
  • GradingTH - Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3), Fail

Course round 1

  • Teaching language English
  • Application code 38122
  • Maximum participants27 (at least 10% of the seats are reserved for exchange students)
  • Open for exchange studentsYes

Credit distribution

0124 Take-home examination 7.5 c
Grading: TH		 7.5 c

In programmes

Examiner

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Eligibility

General entry requirements for Master's level (second cycle)
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Specific entry requirements

English 6 (or by other approved means with the equivalent proficiency level)
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Course specific prerequisites

Introduction to audio technology and acoustics or equivalent course.

Aim

The course aims at giving the student a fundamental understanding of the complexity of human response to sound & vibration. The course will also make the students aware of the relative uncertainty of current knowledge of human reaction to noise and vibration and the problems in predicting human response from currently typical measurement data. After the course the students should be familiar with current metrics of sound & vibration as applied to the estimation of human response.

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

  • Use objective methods for the estimation of human responses to sound and vibration.
  • Design, carry through, and analyze experiments using humans as measurement devices.
  • Be aware of the ethical considerations needed when using humans as measurement devices.
  • Understand and use fundamental psychoacoustic variables (including loudness, pitch, timbre, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation strength, tonality, critical bandwidth) in measurements.
  • Understand and describe the physiological and psychological responses to sounds and vibrations, including annoyance, the anatomy of the ear, multimodal perceptions and health aspects.
  • Understand various sound design aspects and the concepts of sound quality and sound character
  • Design tools and apply them for sound quality assessment
  • Knowledge in different approaches to understand the complex relationship between humans and sounds and vibration.

Content

  • Hearing
  • Psychoacoustic variables
  • Experimental design, how to objectively estimate human responses
  • Statistical methods to analyze reactions to human responses to sound and vibration.
  • Positive and negative aspects of sound & vibration.
  • Sound & vibration as information carriers.
  • Concept of sound character, sound quality, product sound quality, sound design.
  • Ethical issues when using humans as measurement tools.
  • Health aspects of sound and vibrations.
  • Haptics

Organisation

The course comprises lectures, laboratory tasks and one home exam.
The lecture will be given as a form of intensive course in two main periods during the lecture period

Literature

Material available from the course home page (www.ta.chalmers.se).
Psychoacoustics, Zwicker & Fastl.
Introduction to the psychology of hearing, Moore.

Examination including compulsory elements

Individually written home exam.
Approved laboratory tasks, conducted in groups.

The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.