The tiny microphones used inside hearing aids can be very sensitive to vibration of the device, resulting in annoying feedback. Testing how sensitive these microphones are to vibration has been a problem that plagued engineers. In this episode, we talk to Charles King and Chris Monti of Knowles Electronics about their innovation to measure microphone vibration sensitivity.

Associated paper: Charles B. King and Chris Monti, "Microphone vibration sensitivity: What it is, why it is important, and how to measure it," Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 50, 065001 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001702

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

Speech Science courses are a key component to the curriculum within a variety of disciplines, but coursework is frequently lacking in terms of representation of those from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In this episode, we talk to Melissa Baese-Berk (University of Chicago) and Paul Reed (University of Alabama), about why it's so important for instructors to use a variety of voices in the classroom, and how to talk about other ways of speaking when one feels ill-equipped to do so. 

Associated paper: Melissa Baese-Berk and Paul E. Reed. "Addressing diversity in speech science courses." J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 154, 918–925 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0020613.

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

In the aftermath of World War II, New York City wanted to built a new home for its orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and secure its place a cultural center of the world. In this episode, we talk to the Paul H. Scarbrough (Akustiks, LLC) about where these plans went awry and the multiple renovations over many decades to fix the hall. 

Read the associated article: Paul H. Scarbrough. (2023) “David Geffen Hall and the Evolution of Acoustics at Lincoln Center,” Acoustics Today 19(4). https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2023.19.4.41

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Intro/Outro Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

It's not always feasible to measure the sound field generated by an acoustic source; instead, scientists have to model to come up with a best guess for the missing pieces of the sound field. In this episode, we talk to Efren Fernandez-Grande and Xenofon Karakonstantis (Technical University of Denmark) about their new machine learning method to reconstruct sound fields.

Associated paper: Efren Fernandez-Grande, Xenofon Karakonstantis, Diego Caviedes-Nozal, and Peter Gerstoft. "Generative models for sound field reconstruction" J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 153, 1179-1190 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0016896 .

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

While analyzing acoustic data from the Mariana Archipelago, Angela Szesciorka (Oregon State University) noticed something funny: a signal unlike any other she'd seen. It showed up over and over, and only seemed to occur at night. In this episode, we talk to Szesciorka about this mystery call and what animal possibly made it.

Associated paper: Angela R. Szesciorka, Jennifer L. K. McCullough, and Erin M. Oleson. "An unknown nocturnal call type in the Mariana Archipelago." JASA Express Letters  3, 011201 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0017068

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 Music: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Recent advances in technology have allowed scientists to gather larger quantities of acoustic data from locations more remote than ever before. As a result, the study of animal sounds can be used to inform species or habitat conservation and natural resource management practices in new and exciting ways. In this episode, we talk to Aaron Rice of Cornell University about how acoustics can be used to advance conservation efforts, as well as how folks outside of large research universities can take part in efforts to help save the planet with science.

Read the associated article: Aaron N. Rice, Marissa L. Garcia, Laurel B. Symes, and Holger Klinck. (2023) “Conservation Bioacoustics: Listening to the Heartbeat of the Earth,” Acoustics Today 19(3). https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2023.19.3.46

Try out the BirdNET app mentioned in this episode!

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Intro/Outro Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

Metamaterials have been a hot topic in the acoustics community since the late 1990s, but there's no  consensus among researchers as to what a metamaterial actually is or when they first came about. Christina Naify (University of Texas - Austin) took a deep dive into the literature about metamaterials and then posed the question to an audience of researchers in a session at the ASA conference in Chicago. In this episode, we talk to her about what came up during this discussion.

Associated paper: Christina J. Naify,  Alexey Titovich, and  Michael R. Haberman . "What is an acoustic metamaterial?" 51, 065002 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001813.

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit for occupational noise is often cited as the upper limit for loudness in all situations-- but that's not actually the case. Worse, the limit may not even fit modern ears, which face a barrage of loud sound in and out of the workplace, starting at an early age. In this episode, we talk to Daniel Fink of Quiet Coalition about how NIOSH's recommended exposure limit for occupational noise impacts even those of us in quiet workplaces, and why the limit needs to be revised downwards.

Associated paper: Daniel Fink. "The recommended exposure limit for occupational noise needs to be revised downwards." Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 50, 040002 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001729.

Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).

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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

Traditionally, speech researchers have asked participants to classify speakers on a binary scale for gender. However, as our understanding of gender changes, so must our research methods. In this episode, we talk to Brooke Merritt (University of Texas - El Paso) about her research into updating research protocols to better encompass a diversity of genders and gain a more nuanced understanding of listeners' perception of speakers' identity.

Associated paper: Brooke Merritt, Tessa Bent, Rowan Kilgore, and Cameron Eads. "Auditory free classification of gender diverse speakers" J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 155, 1422-1436 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0024521.

Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).
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Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

Infants can distinguish caregivers' and other familiar voices early in life, and can even tell the difference between two unfamiliar female voices. In this episode, we talk to Madeleine Yu (University of Toronto) about her research into infants' ability to distinguish the voices of unfamiliar male speakers.


Associated paper: Madeleine E. Yu, Natalie Fecher, and Elizabeth K. Johnson. "Learning to identify talkers: Do 4.5-month-old infants distinguish between unfamiliar males?" JASA Express Letters  4, 015203 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0024271.

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 Music: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022