eVADER: A Perceptual Approach to Finding Minimum Warning Sound Requirements for Quiet Cars (original) (raw)

The eVADER project endeavors to enhance the technology of lectric-vehicles for the safety of pedestrians, especially the visually-impaired. The research presented here focused on eVADER's goal to isolate features of replacement sounds for electric-vehicles, maximizing pedestrian safety while minimizing noise pollution. It was predicted that 3 sound features (complexity, amplitude-modulation, frequency-modulation) could be the most informative to listeners, allowing for quieter emission. Sounds were synthesized using different combinations of the 3 (features) X 3 (levels). The 9 synthesized sounds were normalized (dBA), Doppler-shifted, and superimposed onto a binaural-recording of a moving electric-vehicle (prototype-sounds). Stimuli were embedded in a noisy background (traffic or traffic + rain), emulating a suburban soundscape. In this simulation, participants were virtual pedestrians, waiting to cross a street, using only sound. In a fractional, repeated measures design, 111 ...