Portable goniometer measurement system with high angular receiver resolution

Abstract

The diffuseness of a space greatly affects the function of and the perception of the quality of an enclosed space’s acoustics. The diffusion of a material can be measured by a goniometer, which is a semi-circular array of equidistant microphones. The use of a fixed array, one that deploys a number of microphones simultaneously over the entire semi-circle, to achieve a desired high angular resolution is typically impractical due to processing limitations of using a large number of microphones at once. By implementing a movable segment of the array that contains 16 microphones with 1.25 degree separation, a computationally inexpensive system can achieve high angular resolution and high signal levels. The high angular resolution results in polar response measurements with increased data points and thus increased accuracy of the measurement of diffuse reflections from an architectural surface. This improved high angular resolution system is a portable and efficient method for measuring diffusion, and its results can be applied to proving current theory as well as improving available data on manufactured diffusers.