Influence of hearing attitude difference on sound quality evaluation of vacuum cleaner sound

Abstract

Robot vacuum cleaner, which cleans rooms automatically, is a useful appliance that helps house work. The radiated sound should be soft for comfortable living. When we think about hearing situations, we hear sound passively because a robot vacuum cleaner moves automatically without external control indication. On the other hand, when we use a conventional vacuum cleaner, the sound is perceived actively because we operate it ourselves. This hearing attitude difference may affect the perception of sound. In this study, we attempted to clarify the difference in the degree of uncomfortable under different hearing conditions by subjective evaluation tests. In the tests, we prepared the above-mentioned two hearing conditions for the evaluation of the radiated sound. The results showed that the participants felt more uncomfortable under passive hearing condition than under active hearing condition.