Assessing the multidimensional comfort of earplugs in virtual industrial noise environments
提出一种在虚拟工业噪声环境中结合问卷和客观感知测试的实验室方法，全面评估耳塞的多维舒适度，发现声学、物理、功能和心理四个维度中物理维度最重要。
Earplugs' comfort is primarily evaluated through cost-effective laboratory evaluations, yet these evaluations often inadequately capture the multidimensional comfort aspects due to design limitations that do not replicate real-world conditions. This paper introduces a novel laboratory method for comprehensive assessment of the multidimensional comfort aspects of earplugs, combining questionnaire-based evaluations and objective perceptual tests within virtual industrial sound environments replicating in-situ noise exposure. Objective perceptual results confirm that the sound environment affect participants' ability to detect alarms in a noisy environment and comprehend speech-in-noise while wearing earplugs. Subjective questionnaire results reveal that the earplugs family has an effect on the primary attributes of the acoustical, physical and functional comfort's dimension. Participants reported the physical dimension as the most important factor they take into account when evaluating earplugs' comfort. The functional dimension was considered the second most important factor by the participants, followed by the psychological dimension, and the acoustical dimension.