Singing Alarms Could Save The Blind
If you cannot see, you may not be able to find your way out of a burning building ― and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that with directional sound alarms capable of guiding you to the exit.
Sound Alert, a company run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the sound is coming from.
Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be heard by humans. "It is burst of white noise that people say sounds like static on the radio." she says. "Its life-saving potential is great."
She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large smoke-filled room. It took them nearly four minutes to find the door without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.
Withington studies how the brain processes sounds at the university. She says that the source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.
The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up or down stairs. They were developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.
警報器救盲人
如果看不見，那你可能會因找不到路而逃不出一幢失火樓房，那將是致命的。英國利茲市的一家公司發(fā)明的一種可指方向的警報器可能會把你引向出口。
聲音警報是一家由利茲大學(xué)設(shè)立的公司。該公司現(xiàn)在正在為位于薩莫塞特的一家盲人收容所和位于卡姆布雷亞的一家盲人資源中心安裝此種裝置。這種警報器發(fā)出的頻率范圍廣，使人腦可以判斷出聲音的來源。
該公司的戴博拉?威星頓稱此種警報器使用人類可以聽到的大部分音頻。她說：“它們是一種突出的頻譜連續(xù)而均勻的噪音。人們感覺它們聽上去就像是收音機發(fā)出的靜電噪聲，其在救人方面潛力巨大?！?BR> 她進行了一次試驗。她讓人們在一所充滿濃煙的大屋子里設(shè)法找到出路，同時她用熱效應(yīng)成像攝像機進行拍攝。在沒有警報器時，這些人用了近4分鐘才找到門，而在警報器的指引下，只用了15秒。
她在大學(xué)里對人腦如何處理聲音進行研究，并提出與波段窄的頻率相比，人們更容易發(fā)現(xiàn)波段寬的音響源?；诖死碚摰木瘓笃饕驯粦?yīng)用于急救車上。
這種警報器也容納了音頻的升降，以指示人們上、下樓。這種設(shè)備是得到英國核燃料組織的大筆資助才開發(fā)成功的。
If you cannot see, you may not be able to find your way out of a burning building ― and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that with directional sound alarms capable of guiding you to the exit.
Sound Alert, a company run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the sound is coming from.
Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be heard by humans. "It is burst of white noise that people say sounds like static on the radio." she says. "Its life-saving potential is great."
She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large smoke-filled room. It took them nearly four minutes to find the door without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.
Withington studies how the brain processes sounds at the university. She says that the source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.
The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up or down stairs. They were developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.
警報器救盲人
如果看不見，那你可能會因找不到路而逃不出一幢失火樓房，那將是致命的。英國利茲市的一家公司發(fā)明的一種可指方向的警報器可能會把你引向出口。
聲音警報是一家由利茲大學(xué)設(shè)立的公司。該公司現(xiàn)在正在為位于薩莫塞特的一家盲人收容所和位于卡姆布雷亞的一家盲人資源中心安裝此種裝置。這種警報器發(fā)出的頻率范圍廣，使人腦可以判斷出聲音的來源。
該公司的戴博拉?威星頓稱此種警報器使用人類可以聽到的大部分音頻。她說：“它們是一種突出的頻譜連續(xù)而均勻的噪音。人們感覺它們聽上去就像是收音機發(fā)出的靜電噪聲，其在救人方面潛力巨大?！?BR> 她進行了一次試驗。她讓人們在一所充滿濃煙的大屋子里設(shè)法找到出路，同時她用熱效應(yīng)成像攝像機進行拍攝。在沒有警報器時，這些人用了近4分鐘才找到門，而在警報器的指引下，只用了15秒。
她在大學(xué)里對人腦如何處理聲音進行研究，并提出與波段窄的頻率相比，人們更容易發(fā)現(xiàn)波段寬的音響源?；诖死碚摰木瘓笃饕驯粦?yīng)用于急救車上。
這種警報器也容納了音頻的升降，以指示人們上、下樓。這種設(shè)備是得到英國核燃料組織的大筆資助才開發(fā)成功的。