TY  - JOUR
SN  - 0360-1323
N1  - This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher?s terms and conditions.
ID  - discovery10198304
AV  - restricted
JF  - Building and Environment
N2  - Formalized in ISO 12913, the ?soundscape? approach is a paradigmatic shift towards perceptionbased urban sound management, aiming to alleviate the substantial socioeconomic costs of
noise pollution to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Focusing on
traffic-exposed outdoor residential sites, we implemented an automatic masker selection system
(AMSS) utilizing natural sounds to mask (or augment) traffic soundscapes. We employed a
pre-trained AI model to automatically select the optimal masker and adjust its playback level,
adapting to changes over time in the ambient environment to maximize ?Pleasantness?, a
perceptual dimension of soundscape quality in ISO 12913. Our validation study involving (? =
68) residents revealed a significant 14.6 % enhancement in ?Pleasantness? after intervention,
correlating with increased restorativeness and positive affect. Perceptual enhancements at the
traffic-exposed site matched those at a quieter control site with 6 dB(A) lower ?A,eq and road
traffic noise dominance, affirming the efficacy of AMSS as a soundscape intervention, while
streamlining the labour-intensive assessment of ?Pleasantness? with probabilistic AI prediction.
VL  - 266
PB  - Elsevier BV
Y1  - 2024/12/01/
A1  - Lam, Bhan
A1  - Ong, Zhen-Ting
A1  - Ooi, Kenneth
A1  - Ong, Wen-Hui
A1  - Wong, Trevor
A1  - Watcharasupat, Karn N
A1  - Boey, Vanessa
A1  - Lee, Irene
A1  - Hong, Joo Young
A1  - Kang, Jian
A1  - Lee, Kar Fye Alvin
A1  - Christopoulos, Georgios
A1  - Gan, Woon-Seng
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2024.112106
TI  - Automating urban soundscape enhancements with AI: In-situ assessment of quality and restorativeness in traffic-exposed residential areas
KW  - Urban soundscape
KW  -  
natural sounds
KW  -  
auditory masking
KW  -  
probabilistic approach
KW  -  
soundscape augmentation
KW  -  
artificial intelligence
ER  -