Towards new metrics to characterize the acoustic environment in intensive care units
E.P.J. de Ruiter (TU Delft - Perceptual Intelligence, Erasmus MC)
E. Fasllija (TU Delft - Perceptual Intelligence, Erasmus MC)
Diederik A.M.P.J. Gommers (Erasmus MC)
E. Ozcan Vieira (TU Delft - Perceptual Intelligence)
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Abstract
Soundscape is a recent notion, complementary to environmental noise control. It regards the total auditory experience of the acoustic environment based on descriptors ranging from pleasant to annoying, and from eventful to uneventful. This approach is used outdoors, but indoors too, for example in offices and hospitals. In Intensive Care Units (ICUs) many specific dominant sounds are prevalent; not only permanently active medical equipment such as ventilators, dialysis machines, but also alarms, and conversations by staff members. In such cases a special instance of the soundscape tool is required. The current work focuses on the processing and analysis of 24h long acoustic sets of sound data, collected continuously in the Adult ICU at Erasmus Medical Center. In addition to standard noise metrics like equivalent, peak sound levels and statistical indices, this research explores alternative measures such as restorative periods, fast rises, traffic noise index (TNI) and more metrics based on distributional variables. By adapting metrics from the realm of environmental noise to the ICU context, this work aims to provide a more comprehensive characterization of the acoustic environment. These insights will also facilitate relationships with qualitative soundscape descriptors to be collected in later stages of the project.
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