Speech Intelligibility and Sound Quality in Vehicles and Enclosures 

Organiser:  Gopal MATHUR

Organisation/Institution: The Boeing Company, USA

Co-Organiser:  Haisam OSMAN

Organisation/Institution: The Boeing Company, USA

Organiser:  Naval AGARWAL

Organisation/Institution: The Boeing Company, USA

Both speech intelligibility and sound quality are important in defining noise environment inside  vehicles and enclosures. Speech intelligibility is the measure of the effectiveness of speech. Superior sound quality, on the other hand, is defined as having the appropriate sound for its intended use as defined by the intended customer. The importance of high system intelligibility is ever increasing, not only as the public’s expectation of sound quality continues to grow, but also as the need to make intelligible announcements at public facilities and sports venues takes on greater importance. A number of methods of measuring speech intelligibility have been proposed, and several are mentioned in International and National Standards. Work on this subject is continuing. Many factors important to speech intelligibility are well understood and can be used to help develop guidelines for successful design. Sound quality is a fundamentally subjective concept but it can also be approximated by objective and computational criteria. New methods of assessment of speech intelligibility and sound quality are needed in order to better define the noise environment.