Safeguarding test signals for acoustic measurement using arbitrary sounds

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to measure acoustic responses using arbitrary sounds, including music, by adding small deterministic signals to create safeguarded test signals, enabling non-intrusive and versatile acoustic measurements.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to convert any sound into a measurement-compatible signal by adding deterministic noise, allowing flexible and listener-friendly acoustic testing.

Findings

Enables measurement of acoustic responses with music and arbitrary sounds.

Allows simultaneous multi-path acoustic measurements.

Supports detection of stable, random, and time-varying deviations.

Abstract

We propose a simple method to measure acoustic responses using any sounds by converting them suitable for measurement. This method enables us to use music pieces for measuring acoustic conditions. It is advantageous to measure such conditions without annoying test sounds to listeners. In addition, applying the underlying idea of simultaneous measurement of multiple paths provides practically valuable features. For example, it is possible to measure deviations (temporally stable, random, and time-varying) and the impulse response while reproducing slightly modified contents under target conditions. The key idea of the proposed method is to add relatively small deterministic signals that sound like noise to the original sounds. We call the converted sounds safeguarded test signals.