Combined Exposure to Vibration and Noise: Annoyance Perception, Cognitive Performance, Interaction and Design

Dear Colleagues,

In our daily life, in many situations, sound and vibration are coupled with each other and we are exposed simultaneously to auditory and tactile information. Consequently, the cross-modal information has a substantial influence on the evaluation of the environment and products. If two modalities are combined, the resulting multimodal percept may be a weaker, stronger, or an altogether different percept, and of course it is also possible that one modality can be dominant over the overall assessment.

This Special Issue consider not only hand-arm vibrations, but also whole-body vibrations.  Most studies which deal with the human response to hand-transmitted or whole-body vibration have concentrated upon the unwanted effects of vibration (discomfort, etc.), and the main approach of the product designers was the reduction of the vibration energy which was emitted by the product. The achievements in recent decades give product designers a chance to take into consideration the multidimensional characteristic of the vibration as a quality parameter of a product, instead of only concentrating upon the vibration-level reduction. This progress shows extensive similarities with the progress of the product-sound design.

The important research topics for the exploration of the simultaneous sound and vibration are comfort, design, quality, annoyance, human health, and motion sickness. Whole-body vibration usually occurs when the whole environment is undergoing motion. People are usually exposed to whole-body vibration while traveling. Interest in human responses to whole-body vibration has grown, particularly due to the latest developments and trends in automotive industry. For example, the importance of interior comfort and motion sickness is increasing for self-driving autonomous cars. On the other hand, exposure to both noise and whole-body vibrations inside commercial vehicles or in working environments can lead to health problems, annoyance, and reduced comfort.  These aspects are very similar for hand-held power tools. In recent years, the popularity of renewable energy technologies has increased strongly. Renewable energy sources generate, in most cases, both noise and vibration, particularly at low frequencies. An understanding of the cross-modal annoyance perception based on the noise and vibration of renewable energy sources is necessary and important for the preparation of new regulations.

This Special Issue intends to provide an up-to-date snapshot of the most exciting and popular research trends in the above-mentioned fields.

Prof. Dr. Ercan Altinsoy
Guest Editor

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• whole-body vibration
• seat vibrations
• hand-arm vibration
• noise
• annoyance
• discomfort
• human health
• motion sickness
• cognitive performance
• product sound and vibration quality
• design
• interaction effects
• automotive industry
• commercial vehicle
• renewable energy sources
• wind turbines
• heat pumps
• audio-tactile
• ISO 2631-1