川田章弘, 中川真一, 福本一朗：反応時間を指標とした高齢者が聞き取りやすい報知音の検討, 信学技報, Vol.99, No.331(MBE99-71〜86), pp.9-16, 1999
Akihiro KAWATA, Shin-ichi NAKAGAWA, Ichiro FUKUMOTO: The best audible alarm for the elderly evaluated by means of the reaction time., TECNICAL REPORT OF IEICE, MBE99-72, 1999

　本論文は，高齢者が聞き取りやすい報知音について検討したものである．被験者（女性8名，平均年齢78.9±5.2歳）へ提示する報知音には，1) 2kHz正弦波音，2) 2kHzと2.5kHz正弦波信号を乗算したAM音，3) 3kHzから0.5kHzへ変化する周波数掃引音，4) 0.2kHzから2.7kHzへ変化する周波数掃引音の計4種類を使用した．報知音提示から被験者が押しボタンスイッチを押すまでの時間（反応時間）を計測した結果，2kHz正弦波音と比較して0.2kHzから2.7kHzへ変化する周波数掃引音の方が有意に反応時間が短い（p<0.05）という結果が得られた．さらに，各々の報知音についてSD法により聴取印象の評価も行なった．以上の結果から，周波数掃引という特徴を有する報知音が，高齢者に聞き取りやすい報知音となる可能性が考えられた．

In this paper, the auditory alarms for the elders were evaluated in terms of a reaction time. It was required for the elderly female subjects to hear the following four auditory alarms: 1) 2 kHz pure tone; 2) the amplitude-modulated tone which is the product of 2 kHz and 2.5 kHz sine waves; 3) frequency sweep tone from 3 kHz to 0.5 kHz; 4) frequency sweep tone from 0.2 kHz to 2.7 kHz. Reaction time defined as the time from the onset of the alarms to the time of the response from the subjects were measured. A significant difference on the reaction time was observed between the 2kHz pure tone and the frequency sweep tone from 0.2 kHz to 2.7 kHz (p<0.05). Moreover, the impression analyses of the auditory alarms were evaluated by semantic differential method. From these results, it seems to be easy to hear for senior people that the auditory alarms have the frequency sweep character.

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