The presented review discusses recent research on human echolocation by blind and sighted subjects, aiming to classify and evaluate the methodologies most commonly used when testing active echolocation methods. Most of the reviewed studies compared small groups of both blind and sighted volunteers, although one in four studies used sighted testers only. The most common trial procedure was for volunteers to detect or localize static obstacles, e.g., discs, boards, or walls at distances ranging from a few centimeters to several meters. Other tasks also included comparing or categorizing objects. Few studies utilized walking in real or virtual environments. Most trials were conducted in natural acoustic conditions, as subjects are marginally less likely to correctly echolocate in anechoic or acoustically dampened rooms. Aside from live echolocation tests, other methodologies included the use of binaural recordings, artificial echoes or rendered virtual audio. The sounds most frequently used in the tests were natural sounds such as the palatal mouth click and finger snapping. Several studies have focused on the use of artificially generated sounds, such as noise or synthetic clicks. A promising conclusion from all the reviewed studies is that both blind and sighted persons can efficiently learn echolocation.

In order to investigate the effect of the surface shape on the performance of perforated panels, three non-flat shapes were considered for perforated panel with their absorption performance compared with the usual shape of the (flat) perforated panel. In order to simulate the absorption coefficient of a non-flat perforated panel, the finite element method was implemented by the COMSOL 5.3a software in the frequency domain. Numerical simulation results revealed that all the shapes defined in this paper improve the absorption coefficient at the mid and high frequencies. A and B shapes had a higher performance at frequencies above 800 Hz compared to the flat shape. Also, shape C had a relative superiority at all frequencies (1–2000 Hz) compared to the reference shape; this superiority is completely clear at frequencies above 800 Hz. The maximum absorption coefficient occurred within the 400–750 Hz range. After determining the best shape in terms of absorption coefficient (shape C), a perforated panel of 10 m2 using fiberglass fibers and desired structural properties was built, and then it was also subjected to a statistical absorption coefficient test in the reverberation chamber according to the standard. The results of the statistical absorption coefficient measurement showed that the highest absorption coefficient was 0.77 at the frequency of 160 Hz. Also, to compare the experimental and numerical results, these conditions were implemented in a numerical environment and the statistical absorption coefficient was calculated according to the existing relationships. A comparison of the numerical and laboratory results revealed acceptable agreement for these two methods in most frequency spectra, where the numerical method was able to predict this quantity with good accuracy.

In this article, the authors present the geometry and measurements of the properties of an acoustic metamaterial with a structure composed of multiple concentric rings. CAD models of the structure were developed and subsequently used in numerical studies, which included the study of resonant frequencies using the Lanczos method and an analysis of sound pressure level distribution under plane wave excitation using the finite element method. Subsequently, experimental tests were carried out on models with the same geometry produced with three different materials (PLA, PET-G, and FLEX) using a fused deposition modeling 3D printing technique. These tests included: determining insertion loss for a single model based on tests using the measurement window of a reverberation chamber and determining transmission loss through tests in a semi-anechoic chamber. Sound wave resonance was obtained for frequencies ranging from 1700 to 6000 Hz. Notably, the experimental studies were carried out for the same structure for which numerical tests were conducted. The physical models of a metamaterial were manufactured using three different readily available 3D printing materials. The results of laboratory tests confirm that the created acoustic metamaterial consisting of multi-ring structures reduces noise in medium and high frequencies.

In order to design a stable and reliable voice communication system, it is essential to know how many resources are necessary for conveying quality content. These parameters may include objective quality of service (QoS) metrics, such as: available bandwidth, bit error rate (BER), delay, latency as well as subjective quality of experience (QoE) related to user expectations. QoE is expressed as clarity of speech and the ability to interpret voice commands with adequate mean opinion score (MOS) grades. This paper describes a quality evaluation study of a two-way speech transmission system via bandwidth over power line – power line communication (BPL-PLC) technology in an operating underground mine. We investigate how different features of the available wired medium can affect end-user quality. The results of the described study include: two types of coupling (capacitive and inductive), two transmission modes (mode 1 and 11), and four language sets of speech samples (American English, British English, German, and Polish) encoded at three different bit rates (8, 16, and 24 kbps). Our findings can aid both researchers working on low-bit rate coding and compression, signal processing and speech perception, as well as professionals active in the mining and oil industry.

On September 25–29, 2023, the LXIX Open Seminar on Acoustics OSA2023 was held in Karpacz. The conference was organized by the Wroclaw Branch of the Polish Acoustical Society (PTA). Simultaneously with the OSA2023 conference two accompanying events were held: Signal Processing Symposium SPSympo23 and 5th Polish-German Structured Conference on Acoustics PGSCA2023. 240 specialists from Poland and abroad took part in the OSA2023, SPSympo23, and PGSCA23 conferences delivering 96 papers and 6 plenary presentations.

Sound insulation of the finite double-panel structure (DPS) inserted with a cylindrical shell array is investigated by varying the sound incidence direction to improve its applicability. The effects of the vibro-acoustic characteristics of its constituents on the sound transmission loss (STL) are estimated in one-third octave bands from 20 Hz to 5 kHz for different incidence conditions. It shows that the first acoustic mode in the direction parallel to two panels (longitudinal modes) produces both the sudden variation of sound insulation with frequency and a large dependency on the incidence angle. Mineral wools are placed on two boundaries perpendicular to the panels, and the sound insulation is explored for different thicknesses of the porous materials. An absorbent layer with a certain thickness (more than 30 mm in our work) sufficiently eliminates the longitudinal mode, resulting in the improvement in the sound insulation by more than 15 dB and the decrease of its large variation with incidence direction. STLs with varying shell thicknesses are also assessed. It shows that the natural vibrations of the thin shells can give an enhancement in sound insulation by more than 10 dB in the frequency range of 1600–3700 Hz, corresponding to constructive interference.