Sound Level Meters

Testing and validation is an essential step in developing a software platform for simulating hardware components. Since modern sound level meters rely heavily on digital signal processing for sound analysis it is reasonable to expect that the same or higher precision results can be achieved on a computer platform. Requirements for precision measuring instruments are specified in the international standard IEC 61672-2003 - Electroacoustic - noise meter. This standard applies to self-contained or multi-component analog and digital hardware systems and there is only a brief mention about computer software as a temporary part of the equipment displaying the results and restrictions.

Basically there are two different instruments measuring noise exposure: sound level meters and dosimeters. A sound level meter is a device that measures sound intensity at a given time. Because the sound level meter provides measurements of the sound intensity only at some point it is often necessary to make multiple measurements at different times during the day to estimate the noise exposure on work days. Regional noise monitoring

With the exception of preserving noise level measurements, integrating these measurements over time and providing average noise exposure measurements over a certain period of time (eg 8 hours on the day of work) It is similar to a noise level meter. Dosimeters measure the noise level in places where people are working or are away for long periods. These programs are often referred to as personal noise monitoring. The human hearing is not limited to the range of the audible frequency, and it is also limited to the way to recognize the sound pressure level within this range. In general, healthy human ears are most sensitive to sounds between 1,000 Hz and 5,000 Hz, and higher frequencies and lower frequencies of the same intensity can be perceived at lower intensity. To approximate the frequency response of the human ear, a series of sound pressure level adjustments is usually applied to the sound measured by the sound level meter. Adjust or weight the network according to frequency