Room acoustics play an important role in the intelligibility of speech. The\nmain aspect of acoustics that is usually studied is the duration of the reverberation\ndecay, since a long decay causes a blurring of phonemes. However,\nother parameters of the acoustics such as the strength of the reverberation\ncan actually improve intelligibility. These factors do not receive the same attention.\nIn many common practical situations such as classrooms and residential\nrooms, it would be of value to quantitatively study the acoustics to optimize\nthe roomâ??s function, but this is not done routinely due to the expected\nexpense or difficulty involved. This research explores inexpensive first-principle\nmethods to quantitatively measure three key parameters of a roomâ??s acoustics:\nthe reverberation decay time RT60, the reverberant intensity IR, and the\nroomâ??s total absorption A. The required equipment includes two laptops installed\nwith certain free softwares. Generation of the required noise signal and\nlevel detection are carried out using the REW software, and long-duration\nrecordings are carried out using the Audacity software. The procedures are\nsimple enough to be performed without specialized training and do not require\nspecialized equipment, only commonly available household resources.\nThis research also sheds light on the fact that not all reverberation is bad and\nthat strong but short-duration reverberation can enhance communication.\nThis information can be expected to benefit schools and other venues where\nspeech intelligibility is vital.
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