Software aids acoustic design
A team at Cardiff University is developing software that could help architects improve the acoustic design of indoor spaces where a large number of people meet, talk and interact.
The sound-mapping software is based on human hearing and is being developed to help architects design out unwanted noise.
The new software generates audibility maps of proposed room designs and show up ‘hotspots’ where conversations would not be intelligible if the room were busy.
Architects can then adjust their designs to reduce reverberation until the hotspots are eliminated and audibility is maximised.
Software already exists to help architects predict how a building will perform acoustically for an audience in places such as theatres and concert halls.
‘A lot of work has been done to understand acoustics in places used for public performances,’ said Prof John Culling, project leader. ‘But little has been done to improve the acoustics of day-to-day meeting places, even though this would help all of us in our working and social lives.’
The new software also produces results much more rapidly than other acoustic software. The key to its capabilities is the computational efficiency of the mathematical equation that underpins it.
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