@article {Hong:2017:0736-2935:4779,
title = "Appropriate levels of natural sounds to enhance soundscapes in urban areas",
journal = "INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings",
parent_itemid = "infobike://ince/incecp",
publishercode ="ince",
year = "2017",
volume = "255",
number = "3",
publication date ="2017-12-07T00:00:00",
pages = "4779-4783",
itemtype = "ARTICLE",
issn = "0736-2935",
url = "https://ince.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/ince/incecp/2017/00000255/00000003/art00091",
author = "Hong, Joo Young and Lam, Bhan and Ong, Zhen-Ting and Gupta, Rishabh and Gan, Woon-Seng and Chong, Shyh Hao and Feng, Jing",
abstract = "Soundscape in an urban environment can be improved by introducing pleasant natural sounds. In order to achieve optimal soundscape masking effect, it is necessary to investigate the appropriate levels of natural sounds against target noise level. This study aims to investigate optimal
sound levels of natural sounds to mask traffic noises and to increase overall preference of sound environment. Various natural sounds (bird, insect, and water sounds) were selected as a positive masker for road traffic noise. Visual environments were also recorded by using a 360\textdegree camera.
Virtual reality techniques for reproduction of audio-visual environments were employed to evaluate soundscape under laboratory conditions. The laboratory experiments were performed to determine the ranges of signal-to-noise ratio between natural sounds and traffic noise to achieve lower perceived
loudness of traffic noise and higher soundscape quality. Acoustic parameters for the stimuli were calculated to quantify the masking effects.",
}