Annoyance

About: Annoyance is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2015 publications have been published within this topic receiving 38300 citations. The topic is also known as: annoy.

AccAnn: A New Subjective Assessment Methodology for Measuring Acceptability and Annoyance of Quality of Experience

Abstract: User expectations have a crucial impact on the levels of quality of experience (QoE) that they consider acceptable or satisfying. Measuring acceptability and annoyance has mainly been performed in separate or multi-step experiments without any control over participants’ expectations. This paper introduces a simple methodology to obtain the information about both of the entities in a single step and compares several data processing strategies useful for results interpretation. A specifically designed subjective experiment, conducted on compressed videos, has shown that the multi-step procedures could be replaced by our proposed single-step approach, regardless of the viewing conditions, while the novel approach is significantly preferred by observers for its low time requirements and higher intuitiveness. The test has simultaneously proven that user expectations can be altered by the instructions and it is, therefore, possible to simulate different user profiles regardless of the participants’ real habits. The acceptability/annoyance experimental results are also used to benchmark the state-of-the-art objective video quality metrics in predicting acceptability/annoyance of QoE. A case study on the determination of the threshold of acceptability/annoyance for objective quality metrics is conducted, which can be served as a guideline for video streaming service providers.

Annoyance Related to Wind Turbine Noise

Abstract: A questionnaire inquiry on response to wind turbine noise was carried out on 361 subjects living in the vicinity of 8 wind farms. Current mental health status of respondents was assessed using Goldberg General Health Questionnaire GHQ-12. For areas where respondents lived, $A$-weighted sound pressure levels (SPLs) were calculated as the sum of the contributions from the wind power plants in the specific area. Generally, 33.0% of respondents were annoyed outdoors by wind turbine noise at the calculated $A$-weighted SPL of 31–50$\,$dB, while indoors the noise was annoying to 21.3% of them. The proportion of subjects evaluating the noise produced by operative wind turbines as annoying decreased with increasing the distance from the nearest wind turbine (27.6% at the distance of 400–800$\,$m vs 14.3% at the distance above 800$\,$m, $p$ < 0.016). On the other hand, the higher was the noise level, the greater was the percentage of annoyed respondents (14.0% at SPL up to 40 dB vs 28.1% at SPL of 40–45$\,$dB, $p$ < 0.016). Besides noise and distance categories, subjective factors, such as general attitude to wind turbines, sensitivity to landscape littering and current mental health status, were found to have significant impact on the perceived annoyance. About 50% of variance in annoyance rating might be explained by the aforesaid subjective factors.

Environmental noise and annoyance in adult population of Skopje: a cross-sectional study.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to identify noise exposure indicators during day and night in the city of Skopje and to see if there is an association between these noise exposure indicators and annoyance. We have performed noise measurements and interviewed 510 adult subjects, using a questionnaire, prepared according to the ISO/TS-15666 standard. Average noise level over the day (L day ) was (62±6.45) dB(A) and over night (L night ) (56±6.52) dB(A). Thirteen percent of subjects reported a high level, and 33.5 % moderate level of annoyance. The most annoying noise sources were construction activities (34 % of the subjects), road traffi c (24 %), and leisure/entertainment activities (18 %). We found a signifi cant association between exposure to L day in the range 61 dB(A) to 65 dB(A) and annoyance in the exposed population (chi-square = 86.14; p<0.001; Spearman’s R=0.45; p<0.05). During the night time annoyance was reported with exposure to L night above 46 dB(A). Levels of annoyance in Macedonia are similar to levels in developed European countries. Differences are in the source of noise. This study has shown that environmental noise is a signifi cant hazard in urban environments, and assessment of annoyance may prove a useful tool for town planners and public health policy makers.

Health Impairments, Annoyance and Learning Disorders Caused by Aircraft Noise Synopsis of the State of Current Noise Research

Abstract: The article reviews the results of scientific research on aircraft noise induced health impairments, annoyance as well as learning disorders and summarizes consequences for legislative and political decisions. The association of noise with an increased incidence of chronic arterial hypertension has been shown in large-scale epidemiological studies. Identified risks are up to 20% per 10 dB increase in day-evening-night level (above 50 dB(A)) and for nightly noise exposure within a range of 19-34% per 10 dB (above 30-35dB(A)). Identified risks regarding the use of antihypertensive drugs are partly higher. Also an increase in strokes is documented in recent epidemiological studies and understood as a consequence of hypertension. The same applies in the case of heart failure. Likewise an increase in myocardial infarctions has been confirmed in the recent studies with large populations included. Moreover, the annoyance due to aircraft noise has been significantly underestimated in the last 15 years. Compared to the EU-position paper of 2002 the sound level at a given extent of annoyance (25% HA) is at least 10 dB(A) lower. Impairments of cognitive performance in children attending schools exposed to high aircraft noise have been demonstrated in national and international studies up to the year 2014. As consequence of the present knowledge in noise effect research legal and political decisions must form the base to reduce aircraft noise exposure during the 24h-day to Lden = 50 and during the night to Ln = 45 dB(A).

Prevalence of Noise Induced Annoyance and Its Dependency on Number of Aircraft Movements

Abstract: 11 The relationship between the prevalence of noise induced annoyance and the noise exposure is 12 traditionally described by a cumulative noise metric such as DNL. Such dose-response functions have 13 no restrictions regarding how the dose has been derived, e.g. either a large number of low level 14 noise events or a small series of high level events. 15 Community Tolerance Level values (CTL) for 32 aircraft noise surveys have been examined with 16 respect to the yearly number of aircraft movements. The airports included in this study were divided 17 into two categories: "high-rate-of-change" (HRC) airports and "low-rate-of-change" (LRC) airports. 18 HRC airports experienced large changes in their operational patterns within three years prior to the 19 surveys, or there had been announcements of controversial plans for major changes, and/or 20 extensive public discussions and media focus on operational issues. LRC airports experienced only 21 minor changes in operations and noise-related controversies. 22 At LRC airports there is a clear relationship between annoyance and the number of aircraft 23 movements. At equal DNL the prevalence of annoyance increases with an increasing number of 24 movements. At HRC airports the prevalence of annoyance is higher. However, the same dependency 25 on number of aircraft movements cannot be found. 26