| Keywords |
Speech announcement ; Subway platform ; Elderly ; Speech intelligibility |
| Abstract |
Speech announcements in public places are difficult in delivering messages especially for elderly persons: as hearing deteriorates with age, understanding spoken words are difficult in noisy and reverberant spaces. In this study, the acoustical characteristics of the reverberation-induced speech announcements on the subway platforms have been investigated on the basis of hearing ability of elderly persons. In three platforms, the RTs were from 0.69 to 1.54 seconds at 1 kHz and the SPLs were varied by arriving and departing of the trains. Listening tests were performed by 20s young students and over 65-year elderly persons for the recorded sounds at different acoustical environments. As a result, high frequency boosted signals were effective to improve the speech intelligibility in noisy environment for the elderly. |