McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
Br J Anaesth. 2023 Mar;130(3):351-359. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2022.10.045. Epub 2023 Jan 17.
Auditory interfaces play a vital role in many applications, informing users about both urgent and routine information critical to safety. Unfortunately, problems related to high alarm rates, low reliability, and sound annoyance create barriers to optimising the quality of patient care in perioperative medicine and critical care. Here, we explore how to reduce annoyance and improve detection by manipulating a sound's temporal envelope or the way its energy changes over time.
In the first experiment, participants were asked to detect a series of percussive and flat tones presented at six signal-to-noise ratios while performing a concurrent speech comprehension task. In the second experiment, different participants were asked to evaluate the relative annoyance of these same sounds.
Relative to industry-standard flat tones, percussive tones were significantly less annoying and more detectable. Although more detectable, percussive tones did not impair concurrent speech comprehension.
Temporal variation in amplitude envelope represents a promising path towards improving auditory interfaces for patient monitoring. By using temporally variable sounds, auditory interfaces can be more effective in alerting users. This is important for safety-critical areas, such as medical alarms, where annoyance often limits efficacy. As this manipulation can preserve the pitch and rhythm of tone sequences, it is compatible with users' pre-existing knowledge of current alarms.
听觉接口在许多应用中起着至关重要的作用，为用户提供有关安全至关重要的紧急和常规信息。不幸的是，与高报警率、低可靠性和声音干扰相关的问题，为优化围手术期医学和重症监护患者护理质量设置了障碍。在这里，我们探讨如何通过操纵声音的时间包络或其能量随时间变化的方式来减少干扰并提高检测能力。
在第一个实验中，参与者被要求在执行同时进行的言语理解任务时，在六个信噪比下检测一系列敲击音和平坦音。在第二个实验中，不同的参与者被要求评估这些相同声音的相对干扰程度。
与工业标准的平坦音相比，敲击音的干扰程度显著降低，可检测性显著提高。虽然更易检测，但敲击音并不影响同时进行的言语理解。
幅度包络的时间变化代表了一种有前途的方法，可以改善用于患者监测的听觉接口。通过使用时变声音，听觉接口可以更有效地提醒用户。这对于安全关键领域（如医疗警报）非常重要，因为干扰通常会限制其功效。由于这种操作可以保留音调和谐波序列的节奏，因此与用户对当前警报的现有知识兼容。
