New Technical Area Picks

Every three months, we ask four Technical Committee (TC) chairs to select one article from the past nine months that they think is a representative of their TC’s published work over that time period. The newest round of Technical Area Picks have been selected, and will be free to read from June 1st to August 31st. Read on to find out which articles the chairs selected, along with a little insight from each chair about why they chose the article they did.

Architectural Acoustics
The acoustical characterization of clay pots in Ottoman architecture through experimental and numerical analysis,” by Gülnihan Atay, Zühre Sü Gül, and Onursal Önen.

TC Chair David S. Woolworth says, “Finding a representative paper for architectural acoustics over the last months is not realistic to due to the diversity of content; however, this paper combines numerous techniques used in AA to analyze an archeological acoustics question of acoustic intention.  I invite you to explore all of the AA papers over the last months and the diversity of topics from properties of surfaces to virtual environments.”

Architectural picks

Noise
Perception of noise from unmanned aircraft systems: Efficacy of metrics for indoor and outdoor listener positions,” by Nathan Green, Antonio J. Torija, and Carlos Ramos-Romero

TC Chair Alexandra Loubeau says, “This paper describes an investigation of annoyance to noise from a new class of small, unmanned aircraft. Results from the listening experiment were used to better understand the effect of listening environment and different aircraft operational modes, and sound quality metrics were used to identify factors that affect perception beyond the loudness level.”

Noise picks

Signal Processing
Remote passive acoustic signal detection using multi-scale correlation networks and network spectrum distance in marine environment,” by Hongwei Zhang, Haiyan Wang, Xuanming Liang, Yongsheng Yan, and Xiaohong Shen

TC Chair Geoffrey Edelmann says, “Massive amounts are being recorded in almost every aspect our lives. The data are complex and interconnected in such a way that does not lend themselves to standard tools. Graphs are a tool to model complex interactions among data. Graph signal processing (GSP) is the field of analyzing the products of classical tools such as Fourier transforms, filtering, and correlations in a highly structured methodology; as distances and interactions of data residing on graphs. Thus, different nodes (or signal types) reside as on different representational networks. This paper applies these high concepts to target detection, by comparing the spectra of two such networks. The GSP quantifies their similarity or dissimilarity of multi-scale correlation networks constructed from different time series data and tracking changes in nonlinear dynamics over time. Detection was shown even in low SNR regimes.”

Signal Processing picks

Speech Communication
Assessing accuracy of resonances obtained with reassigned spectrograms from the ‘ground truth’ of physical vocal tract models,” by Christine H. Shadle, Sean A. Fulop, Wei-Rong Chen, and D. H. Whalen.

TC Chair Benjamin Tucker says, “In the domain of speech communication spectrograms have been a crucial part of speech research. Recently, reassigned spectrograms have been shown to be an effective way to infer vocal tract resonances. Shadle et al. use three-dimensional printed physical tube models excited with white noise to validate the usefulness of reassigned spectrograms in identifying vocal tract resonances. The continual development of these methods could provide speech research with a solution to the long-standing challenge of identifying vocal tract resonances.”

Speech picks

Congratulations to all the authors whose work has been highlighted by the TC chairs!

Celebrating Pride Month with Across Acoustics: Speech Research and Gender-Diverse Speakers

Happy Pride Month, everyone! This is a time to celebrate and uplift the voices of the LGBTQ+ community, and what better way to do so than by diving into some fascinating research that explores the intersections of speech, perception, and gender diversity? In the Across Acoustics episode, “Speech Research Methods and Gender-Diverse Speakers,” Brandon Merritt discusses the article, “Auditory Free Classification of Gender-Diverse Speakers,” published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) with co-authors Tessa Bent, Rowan Kilgore, and Cameron Eads. Their research sheds light on how listeners perceive and classify the gender of speakers, moving beyond the traditional binary notions of gender.

Understanding how we perceive gender in speech has profound implications for communication and inclusivity. By exploring the acoustic and perceptual characteristics that influence gender attribution, Merritt’s research helps to create a more nuanced understanding of gender diversity. This is particularly important for supporting the representation and recognition of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming individuals in both academic research and everyday interactions.

Brandon Merritt’s contributions to the field of speech and gender perception extend beyond this podcast episode. Here are a couple more publications that you should check out:

Speech Beyond the Binary: Some Acoustic-Phonetic and Auditory-Perceptual Characteristics of Non-Binary Speakers” (JASA Express Letters, March 2023): This paper explores the acoustic and perceptual features of non-binary speakers, providing insights into how non-binary identities are expressed and perceived through speech.

Revisiting the Acoustics of Speaker Gender Perception: A Gender Expansive Perspective” (JASA, January 2022): This work revisits traditional models of gender perception in speech, incorporating a broader range of gender identities and offering a more inclusive perspective.

As we celebrate Pride Month, it’s crucial to recognize and support research that honors and explores the diversity of human experience. Brandon Merritt’s work exemplifies this commitment by pushing the boundaries of how we understand and categorize gender through speech. So, take a moment to listen to the podcast, read Merritt’s publications, and reflect on the importance of inclusivity in research and beyond.

Happy Pride Month, and here’s to celebrating the vibrant diversity that makes our world a richer, more understanding place!

May 2024 JASA Cover

The May cover of JASA is now available! Check it out:

The cover image overlays a mode of a soundboard calculated using finite element modelling onto an image of a piano. The figure comes from “Influence of soundboard modelling approaches on piano string vibration,” by Pablo Miranda Valiente, Giacomo Squicciarini, and David J. Thompson. JASA Coordinating Editor for Musical Acoustics Andrew Morrison says,“This article compares four different approaches to modeling a piano soundboard which is coupled to vibrating strings. The authors explore how complex a soundboard model needs to be to effectively characterize the main features of the string-soundboard interaction.”

Some other research was also highlighted on the May JASA cover:

All the articles from the cover are free to read for a month after the cover is released, so be sure to check them out! You can find the whole issue at https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/issue/155/5.

May JASA Cover

Popular Social Media Posts – May

The month of May has flown by! Let’s look back at some content that captured the attention of the acoustics community on different social media platforms. These posts sparked engagement and ignited discussions around acoustics research!

First up, a JASA post on Facebook highlighted a paper that presents the most complete description currently available of how femininity and masculinity in a voice is manifested in the acoustic signal. Read the article at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025932.

Social Media Facebook May

Facebook

Over on Instagram, an image featuring the ASA Press cover of The Science of Musical Sound Volume 1: Stringed Instruments, Pipe Organs, and the Human Voice received over 45 likes. You can get the book at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-92796-1.

Social Media Instagram May

Instagram

Then, folks on LinkedIn liked the post highlighting ASA awardees’ publications. Read the Propagations blog post at https://acoustics.org/asa-spring-award-recipients-publications/.

Social Media LinkedIn May

LinkedIn

Lastly, on the JASA Express Letters Twitter (X) account, a post about the paper “Predicting underwater acoustic transmission loss in the SOFAR channel from ray trajectories via deep learning” got a lot of love. Read it at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025976.

Social Media Twitter May

Twitter (X)

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Call for Papers for JASA and JASA Express Letters

JASA Special Issue call for papers

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and JASA Express Letters are calling for papers for joint Special Issues.

Authors have the option to select which journal they would like to submit a paper to for a Special Issue. Accepted papers will be published in the next available regular issue of the selected journal and identified as belonging to the Special Issue. After all papers have published for the Special Issue, they will be included in a cross-journal online collection at the JASA and JASA Express Letters websites.

The following are open call for papers for joint Special Issues. Information on current call for papers are always available here: JASA and JASA Express Letters

Assessing Sediment Heterogeneity on Continental Shelves and Slopes
This Special Issue presents recent advances in experimental measurements, theoretical models, and application of information-based signal processing and machine learning to assess the degree to which seabed heterogeneity can be characterized. …Read More!
Guest Editors: David Knobles, Preston Wilson, Tracianne Neilsen, Ying Tsong Lin
Deadline: July 1, 2024

 

Advances in Soundscape: Emerging Trends and Challenges in Research and Practice
This Special Issue invites submissions that focus on the human perception of sounds in built or natural environments, or the impacts that human activities can have on those, and help advancing the field either theoretically or methodologically. …Read More!
Guest Editors: Francesco Aletta, Bhan Lam, Cynthia Tarlao, Tin Oberman, Andrew Mitchell
Deadline: July 31, 2024

 

Active and Tunable Acoustic Metamaterials
This Special Issue invites all manuscripts exploring new active and tunable acoustic or elastodynamic metamaterials. …Read More!
Guest Editors: Michael R. Haberman, Christina Naify, Bogdan Popa, Serife Tol
Deadline: September 30, 2024

 

Climate Change: How the Sound of the Planet Reflects the Health of the Planet
Recognizing the urgency of the climate crisis, this Special Issue invites papers investigating efforts to monitor and mitigate the environmental, economic, and social disruption threatened by an increasingly warm planet. …Read More!
Guest Editors: Megan S. Ballard, Edward J. Walsh, Lauren A. Freeman, Daniel T. Blumstein, Ying Tsong Lin
Deadline: December 31, 2024

 

Wave phenomena in Periodic, Near-Periodic, and Locally Resonant Systems
This Special Issue presents recent advances on periodic, near-periodic, and locally resonant vibroacoustic systems, covering fundamental aspects of the theory of multiple wave scattering to experimental studies that demonstrate performance and potential applications of the systems. …Read More!
Guest Editors: Vladislav Sorokin, Luke Bennetts, Nicole Kessissoglou, Alex Skvortsov
Deadline: December 31, 2024

 

Special Issue: Advanced Air Mobility Noise: Predictions, Measurements, and Perception
This Special Issue covers tools, technologies, ground/flight testing, human response and metrics, and regulation and policy related to advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicle noise. …Read More!
Guest Editors: Matthew Boucher, Alexandra Loubeau, Beckett Zhou, Eric Greenwood, Damiano Casalino
Deadline: February 28, 2025