Abstract

In room acoustics, the directional information of sound arrivals at a listening location can be used to diagnose the origins of problematic reflections so offending surfaces or other features can be properly treated. It can also be used for other purposes, including the study of psychoacoustic indicators. Many methods have been developed in the past to derive directional information, but despite their benefits, each has had significant drawbacks that have necessitated further research into their properties and development of an improved method. This thesis presents a review of past methods, their benefits and shortcomings. It discusses many theoretical and practical issues pertaining to the Polar ETC method and methods using the cross-correlation function. It also presents a new short-time correlation-based method (STCM) for gathering directional information of sound arrivals in rooms. Computer programs were developed for the implementation of the theory. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements are shown and the results are compared to those obtained by the Polar Energy Time Curve (ETC) method. The STCM is shown to be an improvement over past methods in terms of its ability to distinguish between simultaneous arrivals, its accuracy, its computational efficiency and its equipment requirements. Limitations of the method are also discussed.

Degree

College and Department

Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Physics and Astronomy

Rights

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