Mapping human voice in urban spaces

Human voice plays a pivotal role as a sound source in urban environments. Despite the plethora of natural sound sources present in urban spaces, human voice often stands out as one of the sound source, exerting a significant influence on the perception and affection of these spaces. However, compared to other aspects of urban soundscapes, such as traffic noise (air, road, rail), human voice cartography and modelling remains relatively underexplored, with limited historical development and scholarly attention. This research gap led to the deployment of an experimental protocol in Nantes, France, to produce a comprehensive voice sound map and compare it to perceptual data. This protocol involved the collection of sound level measurements during two distinct measurement campaigns using the NoiseCapture smartphone application, coupled with surveys capturing perceptual information such as the circumplex circle of affect, perceived presence of sound sources, emergence of sound sources, and variability of the sound environment. Additionally, sound environment simulations were conducted using NoiseModelling. The present paper shows the method used to evaluate the audibility of human speech in urban spaces. During the presentation, comparisons with perceptual measurements will be presented.