Sens i-Lab: a key facility to expand the traditional approaches in experimental acoustics

Abstract

Recent advances in developing new tools and miniaturised devices to measure, analyse, model and simulate existing or future projects are more and more influencing the way to investigate and solve problems of various disciplines fostering deep changes in the research paradigms toward human-centred, multisensory and multidisciplinary approaches. In acoustics, beyond the negative effect of noise on individuals and its mitigation, researchers are even more interested in investigating how the complexity of the multisensory environment modulates the individuals' holistic experience. To this aim, the Department of the Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" has built the Sens i-Lab, a key facility integrating, in a single test room, the simulation and control of the physical environment (acoustics, vision, lighting, microclimate, IAQ) with advanced systems for simulation of virtual environments. To complement the simulation and control of the stimuli, the Sens i-Lab is equipped with a set of systems and devices for motion tracking, for the measurement of the biofeedback signals (EEG, EDA, HRV, VAF) and their association with environmental stimuli and self-reported psychological measures of people well-being. Taking advantage of the Sens i-Lab setting, new research fields and applications in acoustics are possible. Some of them are presented.