Soundscape Basics and Practical Implications Soundscape research represents a paradigm shift, as it involves human and social sciences and physical measurements to account for the diversity of soundscapes across countries and cultures. Moreover, it treats environmental sounds as a resource rather than a waste. Soundscape and the Built Environment is the first book to systematically discuss soundscape in the built environment. It begins with a presentation of theory and basic background, answering questions such as: what is soundscape, how is it important, and how does it affect people in terms of their health and perception on the acoustic environment. The book then sets out tools for implementing a soundscape approach, with measurement techniques, mapping, and good soundscape practices. It also delivers a series of examples of the application of the soundscape approach in planning, design, and assessment. Discusses soundscape and environmental noise Explores cultural variations and the way they influence soundscape Introduces binaural measurement technology and psychoacoustics Examines the physical, psychological, and physiological restorative mechanism of high-quality acoustic environments Presents soundscape mapping based on human perception of sound sources Includes real-world examples and case studies highlighting the key issues in soundscape intervention Soundscape and the Built Environment is written by a group of leading international figures and derives from a four-year EU COST project on Soundscapes of European Cities and Landscapes. It presents a consensus on the current state of the art and is not merely a collection of different views. It is written for acoustic consultants, urban planners, designers and policy makers, as well as for graduate students and researchers.

Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

Soundscape Ecology represents a new branch of ecology and it is the result of the integration of different disciplines like Landscape ecology, Bioacoustics, Acoustic ecology, Biosemiotics, etc. The soundscape that is the object of this discipline, is defined as the acoustic context resulting from natural and human originated sounds and it is considered a relevant environmental proxy for animal and human life. With Soundscape Ecology Almo Farina means to offer a new cultural tool to investigate a partially explored component of the environmental complexity. For this he intends to set the principles of this new discipline, to delineate the epistemic domain in which to develop new ideas and theories and to describe the necessary integration with all the other ecological/environmental disciplines. The book is organized in ten chapters. The first two chapters delineate principles and theory of soundscape ecology. Chapters three and four describe the bioacoustic and communication theories. Chapter five is devoted to the human dimension of soundscape. Chapters six to eight regard the major sonic patterns like noise, choruses and vibrations. Chapter nine is devoted to the methods in soundscape ecology and finally chapter ten describes the application of the soundscape analysis.

Auditory Interfaces explores how human-computer interactions can be significantly enhanced through the improved use of the audio channel. Providing historical, theoretical and practical perspectives, the book begins with an introductory overview, before presenting cutting-edge research with chapters on embodied music recognition, nonspeech audio, and user interfaces. This book will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and professionals working in a range of fields, from audio sound systems, to human-computer interaction and computer science.