John L. Butler, Chief Scientist at Image Acoustics, Inc., received the Acoustical Society of America's Silver Medal in Engineering Acoustics for advancing acoustic transducer and transducer array design. The award recognizes contributions to the advancement of science through acoustic principles.
Professor Yang-Hann Kim has been awarded the Rossing Prize for his contributions to acoustics education, including teaching and textbook writing. He is recognized for his work on sound visualization and manipulation, which enables the creation of private sound zones.
Gerhard M. Sessler, a renowned expert in acoustics, received the 2015 Gold Medal of the Acoustical Society of America for his groundbreaking work on electret and silicon-based microphones. His inventions have led to the development of highly sensitive and cost-effective microphones that dominate global production.
Henry Cox, Senior Fellow at Lockheed Martin, has made fundamental and practical contributions to array signal processing, underwater acoustics, and sonar systems engineering. The Helmholtz-Rayleigh Silver Medal is awarded for interdisciplinary contributions named after two great pioneers of acoustics.
Dr. Laurel H. Carney has been awarded the William and Christine Hartmann Prize in Auditory Neuroscience for her research on auditory physiology and perception. Her work aims to understand how the brain hears and develop strategies to aid listeners with hearing loss.
Matthew W. Urban, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, received the R. Bruce Lindsay Award for his work on ultrasonic measurement of viscoelastic properties of tissues. The award recognizes his substantial contributions to acoustics through published papers.
According to archaeo-acoustician Steven J. Waller, ancient cultures sought booming echoes in their performance spaces, rather than clear tones. This reflects a cultural difference between past and present worldviews, where echoes were once considered mysterious and divine.
Researchers found individuals with elevated depressive symptoms performed poorly hearing all categories of speech, not just sad speech, in cocktail party-like environments. The study's findings suggest a broader issue with emotion-general deficit in speech perception for those with depression.
Engineers at Virginia Tech have created a novel dynamic sonar system inspired by horseshoe bats that can navigate complex environments with ease. The system uses two receiving channels and one emitting channel to replicate the key motions in the bat's ears and nose, reducing power consumption and computing resources.
Researchers successfully demonstrated cream separation from natural whole milk at liter-scales using ultrasonic standing waves, achieving fractionation outcomes desired for a particular dairy product. The technique allows for high volume throughputs of up to 30 liters per hour and can be used to specifically select milk fat globules of...
Researchers found that brain areas normally dedicated to hearing can adapt to early-stage hearing loss, affecting cognitive decline and speech perception. The study suggests that this compensatory adaptation may lead to decreased brain resources for processing sound.
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that playing natural sounds in offices boosts worker moods and improves cognitive abilities. The study tested three different sound stimuli: typical office noises with a conventional masking signal, an office soundscape with a 'natural' masker, and an office soundscape with no masker.
Researchers found that fathers tend to speak in a more adult-like tone, whereas mothers use higher pitches and varied pitch ranges when interacting with their young children. This study suggests that fathers may be acting as a link to the outside world by helping children deal with unfamiliar speech patterns.
A new analysis of archived calls from North Atlantic right whales reveals distinctive traits that might be used to identify and track individuals. The researchers found that a combination of variables, including call duration and fundamental frequency change, could distinguish between upcalls of individual whales.
Researchers explored how wind turbines impact prairie chicken courtship, the emergence of spoken language in deaf children with cochlear implants, and the effects of noise on human cardiovascular health. These studies showcase innovative approaches to understanding animal behavior, hearing technology, and the impact of sound on our lives.
Researchers found that native English speakers had difficulty recalling words spoken in a Korean accent, suggesting that understanding foreign accents may reduce information processing capacity. The study's results have implications for communication strategies in settings like schools and hospitals.
The Acoustical Society of America has published a free online booklet to aid architects in understanding and meeting the national classroom acoustics standard, ANSI/ASA S12.60. The booklet provides practical guidance on topics such as room acoustics, reverberation time, and sound transmission class, to help architects create classrooms...
Sheila E. Blumstein received the Silver Medal in Speech Communication from the Acoustical Society of America for her work on how acoustic signals are transformed into linguistic representations. She has made significant contributions to our understanding of speech processing and neural systems.
Ning Xiang, Director of Graduate Program in Architectural Acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded the Wallace Clement Sabine Medal by the Acoustical Society of America. He is recognized for his contributions to measurements and analysis techniques, numerical simulation of sound fields in coupled rooms.
Researchers found a correlation between depression and certain acoustic properties in patients' speech, including breathier tone and increased jitter and shimmer. A phone app could use this information to analyze patients' speech and provide feedback and support.
A team of researchers from Texas is studying the impact of urban noises on captive rhinoceros reproduction. They found that infrasonic sounds, often unnoticed by humans, could be distressing for the animals, negatively impacting their health. To mitigate this effect, zoos can implement simple strategies such as sound-absorbing barriers...
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way to use high-intensity sound waves to create cellular scaffolding, a unique approach that could help overcome one of regenerative medicine's significant obstacles. The technique involves using boiling histotripsy to decellularize tissues, leaving behind a fibrous network t...
A new acoustics study suggests that mothers alter their speech patterns to both babies in a twin pair, even if only one infant has hearing loss. Mothers use lower pitch and more variable intonation with the normal-hearing twin compared to the hearing-impaired twin.
A study by Rosario Signorello found that speakers with a wide range of frequency variation in their voices are more likely to be perceived as dominant. The researchers also discovered that speakers with a low fundamental rate of vocal fold vibration are perceived as more dominant than those with high F0 frequencies.
Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography have tapped into urban seismic networks to monitor traffic patterns, count aircraft, and track larger vehicles. The study reveals that urban vibrations can serve as a new data source for cities.
A study found that ambient noise from human activities impairs nestling birds' ability to communicate effectively with their parents, leading to reduced responsiveness and increased vulnerability. Researchers suggest spreading urbanization and development can negatively impact birds' well-being through proximity to their habitat.
Scientists found that Maculinea butterfly larvae mimic Myrmica ant queen sounds to fool workers into feeding them, even when the real ants are starving. The researchers recorded and analyzed sound signals emitted by both butterflies and ants, finding similarities in patterns between the two.
Scientists have created a voice recognition system that can identify subtle cues in speech to determine attitudes and opinions. The system, developed by researchers at the University of Washington, uses audio recordings to recognize patterns in speech, such as faster talking speeds and louder pitches when expressing strong opinions.
Researchers propose that ancient cave paintings were inspired by the misinterpretation of sound waves as 'supernatural' echoes. The theory suggests that early humans may have made artwork in response to these echoes, which could have led to the depiction of mythical creatures on cave walls.