Designed by researchers at the University of British Columbia, ClassTalk is a simple, fast, accurate and user-friendly tool for evaluating the acoustical quality for speech in typical classrooms, both objectively and subjectively, and for optimizing sound-control measures.

Invention Description

Using ClassTalk, one can define the physical and acoustical characteristics of a classroom and its speech and noise sources.

ClassTalk considers occupant sound absorption and student-activity noise. The classroom floor-plan is visualized on an optional 1-m receiver grid, and users can ‘walk-through’ the classroom. At every walk-through position five outputs -- speech intelligibility, speech-transmission index, signal-to-noise level difference, speech level, and background-noise level -- are displayed in real time. With the sound module short speech segments mixed with realistic background noises are auralized with realistic, frequency- varying reverberation.

Advantages

• Simple and accurate speech- quality screening tool with unique sound module allows classroom speech in noise with reverberation to be auralized.

• Simple data input and output with user-friendly GUI and comprehensive help file.

• Walk-through function and real- time update.

• Simple edit function allows changes in the classroom to control sound to be tested quickly and efficiently.

Areas of potential application for ClassTalk, the Classroom Acoustics Prediction, Visualization and Auralization System include:

• Acoustical consultants, architects, school and university planners.
• Suppliers of noise-control materials.
• Teachers of acoustics and noise control.

A demo version is available below. User- definable sources are limited to a quiet female talker and a quiet ventilation outlet.

Non-exclusive licensing is available.