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As communities are flooded with pickleball courts to satiate the hunger for the snack-named game, HOAs and city councils face litigation by those whose lives are disrupted by pickleball’s din. The sport is uniquely noisy due to the hard paddles and balls, and the popping sound the game produces is sharp and persistent. Charles Leahy used his legal expertise and mechanical engineering experience to investigate how communities respond to the pickleball problem. Leahy will present his findings and recommendations for limiting pickleball noise at the 186th ASA Meeting.

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Noise-canceling headphones automatically identify background sounds and cancel them out for much-needed peace and quiet. However, typical noise-canceling fails to distinguish between unwanted background sounds and crucial information, leaving headphone users unaware of their surroundings.

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At the Toronto Pearson International Airport, airplane traffic dropped by 80% in the first few months of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic., and in early 2020, the NVH-SQ Research Group out of the University of Windsor surveyed residents living around the airport to gauge how their annoyance levels changed with the reduction in noise.

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Sarcasm is notoriously tricky to convey through text, and the subtle changes in tone that convey sarcasm often confuse computer algorithms as well, limiting virtual assistants and content analysis tools.

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Researchers from Binghamton University investigated how spiders listen to their environments through webs and found that the webs match the acoustic particle velocity for a wide range of sound frequencies.

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Hockey players are famous for their distinctive jargon, but while researching this phenomenon, linguist and hockey player Andrew Bray realized another interesting pattern in hockey speech: American hockey players adopted aspects of Canadian English pronunciations.

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Pickups can be seen as the “heart” of the electric guitar, turning vibrations from the strings into electricity for sound. The details of how the pickup coil is wound has a significant impact on the resulting sound of the instrument, and variables such as the type and thickness of the wire, the winding pattern, the shape and size of the pickup, and even the type of magnets used can all influence the guitar’s sound.

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In the emperor penguin courtship call, male vocalizations are composed of long, slow bursts with lower frequency tones than the female version. But calls of SeaWorld San Diego male penguin E-79 defied this binary. Also unusual was this penguin’s male companion, E-81. The pair “kept company” and sometimes exhibited ritual courtship displays.

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At Image Creators salon in Maryland, employees and customers noticed they had to work hard to understand each other’s words, but they couldn’t put their finger on exactly why.

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In traditional Indigenous Southern Plains culture, a love story begins with an original ballad performed on the flute. In order to win a lover’s affection, and respect among the tribe, each pursuer must compose one good flute serenade.

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Fishers are typically unaware if a sea turtle is caught in their net until it’s completely pulled out of the water. However, releasing sea turtles without veterinary evaluations can be harmful.

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At the University of Alberta, researchers explored how intense ultrasound can release biological indicators of disease from cells. These biomarkers can help identify different types of cancer and inform the subsequent therapy.

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The Acoustical Society of America and the Canadian Acoustical Association will host three press conferences Tuesday, May 14, as part of the 186th ASA Meeting/Acoustics Week, which runs May 13-17. The in-person presentations will also be livestreamed and recorded.

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The Acoustical Society of America and the Canadian Acoustical Association are co-hosting a joint meeting May 13-17 at the Shaw Centre/Westin Ottawa Hotel.

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Hannah White and her colleagues at Macquarie University researched how creaky voice is reflected in Australian English used in Sydney, and what factors influence its prevalence.

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Xinyang Wu from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has designed a computer algorithm to intelligently create mashups using the drum tracks from one song and the vocals and instrumentals from another. The algorithm mimics the process used by professionals, identifying the most dynamic moments to adjust the tempo of the instrumental tracks and add the drum beat mashup at exactly the right moment for maximum effect. The result is a unique blend of pleasing lyrics and exciting instrumentals with wide-ranging appeal.

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James Boland, an acoustician for SLR Consulting, employed insights from the field of sensory criminology to better understand the unique acoustic needs inside prison environments. By focusing on speech intelligibility, strategic reduction of noise levels, and the incorporation of privacy considerations, acoustic design can significantly improve the overall prison environment. Creating distinct zones within the prison and balancing moments of quiet with activity are essential to fostering a more comfortable and secure space.

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Gea Oswah Fatah Parikesit and their team at Universitas Gadjah Mada have investigated the physics behind why the bundengan, a portable shelter woven from bamboo that features a collection of strings and bamboo bars, sounds better when played in the rain. The bundengan is constructed by weaving bamboo splits, which are covered by overlapping bamboo culm sheaths with ropes to secure everything in place. When wet, the culm sheaths seek to return to their curled form, but tied down in their planar formation, they instead press into each other. The resulting tension allows the sheaths to vibrate together.

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Phoebe Peng, an Engineering Honours student at the University of Sydney, is researching ways to allow people with low vision and blindness to play pingpong using sound. The process uses neuromorphic cameras and an array of loudspeakers, designed to allow players to track the ball and movements based on sound. Using two perfectly positioned cameras, Peng could identify and track a ball in 3D in real time. She then fed that data into an algorithm controlling loudspeakers along the sides of the table, which created a sound field matching the position of the ball.

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Joe Wolfe and John Smith from the University of New South Wales conducted acoustic experiments to study the didjeridu’s unusual and complicated performance techniques.