Evaluation of Auralization and Visualization Systems for Railway Noise Sceneries

By directly addressing the hearing sensation, auralization is an intuitive means for the assessment and communication of noise scenarios. Authenticity can be further improved by offering visual information. Currently, various auralization and visualization systems exist, that differ with respect to their sound and image signal generation as well as their reproduction strategy. Within the past few years, the entertainment industry has launched several virtual reality (VR) products such as head-mounted displays or game engines that appear attractive for applications in environmental sound auralization. This contribution gives an overview of current VR systems and introduces evaluation criteria for comparison and assessment. Focus here is on the application to different railway noise sceneries. These involve the generation of stimuli for experimental studies and the use as a demonstrator. To achieve maximal flexibility with respect to scenarios and the reproduction systems, the synthesis of sound and images based on an object-based approach is suggested.