| Keynote speaker : | Dr. Seiichiro Namba (Osaka University) http://homepage3.nifty.com/namba/sakusaku/1_1.htm |
Biography adapted from Seiichiro Namba's Festschrift
Professor Namba's major field is Psychoacoustics. When he was a young boy, he was interested in playing the piano and in making radios, amplifiers and tape recorders. These hobbies led him to study psychoacoustics. His research interests range widely from the basic mechanism of hearing to applied research into the psychological evaluation of musical performance, sound quality and noise. It is noteworthy that he started the study of non-steady state sounds in the 1960's. The importance of this topic can easily be understood when we consider that most information conveyed by sounds depends on temporal variation. He has developed systems to produce non-steady state sounds and conducted a series of experiments on the subjective evaluation of these stimuli. He has maintained since 1968 that the loudness of non-steady state sounds can be approximated by the mean energy level (the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level: LAeq), and was given the Sato Prize for the study of the validity of LAeq from the Acoustical Society of Japan in 1983.
Professor Namba has also shown that the temporal structure of sounds has a systematic effect on loudness, and has proposed a non-linear model of the dynamic characteristics of hearing on the basis of experiments using sounds with systematic changes in temporal structure. This model can be widely applied: to the perception of piano sounds or the evaluation of machinery noise.
Another of Professor Namba's interests is timbre. He made clear in his doctoral thesis that the complicated impression of timbre can be represented three-dimensionally. He widened the study of timbre to machinery noise and correlated the subjective impression of the timbre of machinery noises to their physical values. This study provides a psychoacoustic basis for the control of machinery noise. The present book contains several studies of the timbre of noise.
The measurement of instantaneous impressions of
fluctuating sounds along the temporal steam has occupied him and he has
developed new methods for this, called "the method of continuous judgment
by category" and "the method of continuous judgment by selected
description". Using these methods, the relation between overall judgments
and instantaneous judgments, the factors determining overall and instantaneous
judgments, trade-off effects between sound sources, and other aspects have been
examined. The results give important information concerning the hearing
mechanism and are relevant to noise control engineering. The methods Professor
Namba originated are widely used in European countries and
Professor Namba is a widely acclaimed figure, well known for his cooperation internationally. In the field of cross-cultural studies, he has been the partner of many colleagues working in Psychology, Physics and Engineering round the world for many years. He was instrumental in reinvigorating comparative Psychoacoustics and his ideas became known in many parts of the world with the result that we now have at our disposal a wealth of cross-cultural knowledge about neighbourhood noise, the assessment of danger signals and attitudes to noise sources of various kinds.
Over the course of many years Professor Namba has
become an important coordinator and intermediary in establishing contacts
between Japanese and foreign research groups, in particular in the fields of
psychoacoustics and noise research. He has looked after and advised many
colleagues on their visits to
Professor Namba has concentrated on research into psychoacoustics and may be regarded as one of the leading pioneers in this field. As can be seen from the impressive list of positions he holds, Professor Namba is in great demand for the coordinating of university research, both at national and international levels.
In the area of the subjective evaluation of noise immissions, he has been involved in the development of procedures for the assessment of road traffic noise and railway noise which already form the basis of political decisions.
Professor Namba's concern with the problem of meaning
based on semantic differential has led to significant scientific results. He
continues to be fascinated by the concept of semantic differential, applying
this technique in all kinds of fields, particularly in recent years to the
investigation of timbre. The results obtained were summarized in a monograph
which has become a standard work in research into applied psychoacoustics.
Today, Professor Namba's methods are used throughout
Professor Namba has through his studies made a
substantial contribution to society and social welfare. He has been a member
of many committees on noise problems in central or local governments, such as
the Central Commission on Environmental Problems of the Environmental Agency of
Japan, the Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission (Prime Minister's
Office), the Environmental Council of the Environmental Agency of Japan, the
Ministry of Transportation of
Professor Namba is highly esteemed internationally as well as nationally. He was the President of the Acoustical Society of Japan and was the President of the Japanese Society of Music Perception and Cognition. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. He gave keynote lectures at the International Congress on Acoustics (1992), the International Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem (1993), the International Congress on Noise Control Engineering (1994) and the International Congress on Acoustics (2001).
As well as having wide knowledge and expertise in his field, Professor Namba has great enthusiasm for the study of psychoacoustics and is always keenly interested in new approaches and developments.