188th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America
joint with
25th International Congress on Acoustics
New Orleans, LA 18-23 May 2025
Acoustics Lay Language Papers
Please keep in mind that some of the research described in these lay papers may not have yet been peer reviewed.
What does a glass bottle and an ancient Indian flute have in common? Explorations in acoustic color
Made from a single bamboo reed, with seven finger holes and one blow-hole, the Bansuri carries the rich melody of wind whistling through the tropical woods.
Sound Highways of the Sea: Mapping Acoustic Corridors for Whales and Fish in Colombia’s Pacific
Preserving marine ecosystems requires listening, not just looking. Combining efforts to lessen human noise by using mapped soundscapes to target critical corridors could help in the conservation of marine species.
Locating the lives of blue whales with sound informs conservation
A technology that captures multiple dimensions of underwater sound is revealing how blue whales live, thereby informing whale conservation.
Designing Museum Spaces That Sound as Good as They Look
Why do some museums feel so noisy or echoey? Researchers tested finishing materials like carpet, wood, and acoustic plaster to see how they can reshape gallery sound. Listen to the differences—you’ll never look at galleries the same way again!
Measuring the sounds of microbubbles for ultrasound therapy
Quantitative measures of bubble activity may improve medical therapies including drug delivery and tumor treatments.
Why do Cochlear Implant Users Struggle to Understand Speech in Echoey Spaces?
Cochlear implant users struggle in reverberant environments because their devices distort the acoustic temporal and spectral regularities introduced by reflections in the room that enhance speech comprehension.
Mapping Whale Presence in the Gulf of Mexico: Sound and Habitat Connections
After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, understanding where marine mammals go in the Gulf of Mexico is key to their restoration. Listening to whale sounds helps us map their habitat use and protect these vital populations.
Cost-Effective Virtual Reality for Smarter Architecture: Predicting How We Hear Spaces
Even a simpler and more affordable VR system can realistically predict how we understand speech in real rooms—opening new possibilities for architects and acousticians to design better spaces for communication. #VR #Acoustics #Architecture #HearingResearch
Designing “Virtual acoustics” rehearsal rooms for orchestra safety
Hidden inside walls of the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s new rehearsal and performance space are loudspeakers that create a virtual concert hall allowing the orchestra to change their playing conditions at the press of a button, all while staying at safe loudness levels.
Underwater Plains and Valleys: Using Sound to Map Where Marine Life Gathers
Physical bottom features such as the Hudson Canyon and other oceanographic processes like the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool are important drivers for where fish and zooplankton live in the New York Bight.
Monitoring offshore construction with fiber optic sensing
Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) uses lasers to measure vibrations in fiber optic cables, and can be used to monitor environmental impacts of offshore construction and survey activity.
Visualizing Muscle Stiffness: A New Approach to Diagnosing Back Pain
Can we “see” back pain? This new 3D ultrasound method tracks how stiffness changes in muscles with painful trigger points.
Moved around? You might process words differently than homebodies!
The process of recognizing words might be different for people who have lived in different states compared to homebodies!
Explaining the tone of two legendary jazz guitarists
A mathematical model provides a physical explanation for the beautiful tone of legendary jazz guitarists Wes Montgomery (1923-1968) and Joe Pass (1929-1994).
Coconut Wireless: Understanding endangered Hawaiian false killer whale communication
Eavesdropping on Hawaiian false killer whales with suction cup acoustic tags reveals unique call types, diverse repertoires, and previously undescribed vocal complexity.
Sensing in a Jerky World
A magnetostrictive-based accelerometer with native jerk response that shows increasing sensitivity w.r.t. frequency.
Tiny bubbles, big impact: Breaking up blood clots
Imagine doctors activating tiny, drug-delivering bubbles in the body via a computer — almost like playing a video game — to treat life-threatening conditions.
Can You Hear Me Now? Fixing Speech Recognition Tech So It Works for Every Child
Researchers fine-tuned Whisper with adversarial debiasing to ignore age, accent & disorders for AI understands every child’s voice.
What’s the Best Way to Pitch Shift and Time Stretch a Mashup?
Mashup artists, how often do you have to weigh different options of what key and BPM your mashup should be in? This study shows that listeners tend to like mashups with minimal changes to the vocals, among other trends.
Finding the Right Tools to Interpret Crowd Noise at Sporting Events with AI
A mixture of traditional and custom tools is enabling AI to make meaning in an unexplored frontier: crowd noise at sporting events.
Eyes as a window to listening effort with virtual reality
The purpose of our study was to directly compare the ability of research and virtual reality systems to monitor changes in listening effort via changes in pupil dilation.
Acoustic Metamaterials for Quality of Life: Engineering Challenges for Low-Height Noise Barriers
Researchers are designing smart low-height noise barriers using acoustic metamaterials—innovative materials that can manage city noises without the need for massive walls.
How Drones Use Sound to See and Map 3D Spaces
A drone that “listens” to its surroundings to navigate and map the environment.
Underwater Internet of Things: Industrial boon, biological headache
Underwater Internet of Things could introduce some really nasty noises into the ocean.
Pickleball noise raises health concerns for neighbors living near courts
A new study links the nonstop popping to anxiety, poor sleep, phantom pickleball sounds–even PTSD-like symptoms and suicidal thoughts.
Super-resolution ultrasound to assess kidney failure and breast cancer
Breast cancer and chronic kidney disease are very common and thus, a large population could benefit from the clinical implementation of super-resolution ultrasound imaging.
Does Virtual Reality Match Reality? Vocal Performance Across Environments
Singers performed the same way in virtual reality as they did in real concert halls—showing that VR can truly replicate the live performance experience.
Life-threatening pregnancy disorder detected in placenta with quantitative ultrasound
A recent study by researchers at Tulane University and Weill Cornell Medicine has shown that quantitative ultrasound imaging of the placenta may help doctors detect preeclampsia earlier.