Speech Transmission Index Measured using Adult and Children Head and Torso Simulators

Abstract

Acoustic measurements conducted using head and torso simulators (HATS) are considered to represent natural human hearing more realistically in comparison to measurements conducted using omnidirectional microphones. Traditionally, HATS are designed and built with respect to the anthropometric data of adults. Correspondingly, evaluation methods and metrics were primarily developed based on adults. Nevertheless, children are a major group of interest in learning spaces, and usually, they have different anthropometric head and torso dimensions than adults. This fact leads to the question of whether existing acoustic assessment methods are also valid for children. This work explores the differences in the speech transmission index (STI) derived from measurements using HATS with different anthropometric sizes with respect to children and adults.