In this work, we study people’s ability to discriminate between different 2D textures of walls by passive listening to a pre-recorded tongue click in an auralized echolocation scenario. In addition, the impact of artificially enhancing the early reflection magnitude by 6dB and of removing the direct component while equalizing the loudness was investigated. Listening test results for different textures, ranging from a flat wall to a staircase, were assessed using a 2 Alternative-Forced-Choice (2AFC) method, in which 14 sighted, untrained participants were indicating 2 equally perceived stimuli out of 3 presented stimuli. The average performance of the listening subjects to discriminate between different textures was found to be significantly higher for walls at 5m distance, without overlap between the reflected and direct sound, compared to the same walls at 0.8m distance. Enhancing the reflections as well as removing the direct sound were found to be beneficial to differentiate textures. This finding highlights the importance of forward masking in the discrimination process. The overall texture discriminability was found to be larger for the walls reflecting with a higher spectral coloration.

Contemporary architects can design buildings with complex geometry and construction more easily thanks to modern CAD tools such as BIM and other parametric design tools. Also, some material innovations, such as the introduction of ETFE cushions into architecture, make complex and designs with complex geometry more accessible to designers. In large spaces where day light intrusion is important ETFE cushions are a good alternative for glass. The construction of the cushions makes it possible to design curved organic shapes in a cost-effective way. However, simulating the acoustic environment in such spaces is challenging. Even though a CAD model is likely to be available, preparing a CAD model for geometrical acoustics software is a labourintensive manual task, time-savings can be made especially if only part of the model is of interest. In this paper we investigate a case study of a mall in Liège, Belgium. By comparing three model sizes, the possibility of only partly modelling this large space as a time-saving measure is investigated. The full model, a moderately truncated version and severely truncated version were compared in terms of their impact on the local acoustics in the area of interest. T30, STI, the spatial decay curve and G(average) were all compared using the same receiver positions. A parametric study shows that for modelling a specific part of such a large and long space, reducing the model size to the "medium" size has a negligible impact on any of the parameters. The strongly truncated model is found to be adequate for all parameters in the area near the source.

The ACOUCOU platform is a web-based, interactive, acoustics training platform that includes a set of free educational materials in various technical fields of acoustics. Educational materials are designed to serve as a modern self-development tool for students and engineers, as well as a comprehensive solution for professional education in the work environment. On the other hand, the provided materials of the platform can be a useful tool, supporting teachers, company researchers, and academic lecturers in the process of teaching acoustics. The ACOUCOU platform is a part of a strategic plan for expanding and strengthening acoustic knowledge web-based tools and supporting the development of innovative teaching methods based on attractive and effective delivery of digital content, and best practices at national and international levels. It addresses the challenge of a lack of experts in the acoustics field and the growing needs of the market.