Soundscape auralisation and visualisation: A cross-modal approach to Soundscape evaluation
Soundscape research is concerned with the study and understanding of our relationship with our surrounding acoustic environments and the sonic elements that they are comprised of. Whilst much of this research has focussed on sound alone, any practical application of soundscape methodologies should consider the interaction between aural and visual environmental features: an interaction known as cross-modal perception. This presents an avenue for soundscape research exploring how an environment’s visual features can affect an individual’s experience of the soundscape of that same environment. This paper presents the results of two listening tests1 : one a preliminary test making use of static stereo UHJ renderings of first-order-ambisonic (FOA) soundscape recordings and static panoramic images; the other using YouTube as a platform to present dynamic binaural renderings of the same FOA recordings alongside full motion spherical video. The stimuli for these tests were recorded at several locations around the north of England including rural, urban, and suburban environments exhibiting soundscapes comprised of many natural, human, and mechanical sounds. The purpose of these tests was to investigate how the presence of visual stimuli can alter soundscape perception and categorisation. This was done by presenting test subjects with each soundscape alone and then with visual accompaniment, and then comparing collected subjective evaluation data. Results indicate that the presence of certain visual features can alter the emotional state evoked by exposure to a soundscape, for example, where the presence of ‘green infrastructure’ (parks, trees, and foliage) results in a less agitating experience of a soundscape containing high levels of environmental noise. This research represents an important initial step toward the integration of virtual reality technologies into soundscape research, and the use of suitable tools to perform subjective evaluation of audiovisual stimuli. Future research will consider how these methodologies can be implemented in real-world applications.