Projects & Examples

Brake Pedal Study

Product Sound Quality work has not often used structured approaches such as the Red X Strategies, Design-of-Experiments (DOE) and the Taguchi Method because of data reduction difficulties (i.e. single number measures) in assessing the repeated measurements required by these approaches.  No single Sound Quality analysis method appears to be capable of solving this problem for all cases.  This Brake Pedal Study (PDF) tries to make some progress by investigating the Percentile Frequency method.  It illustrates the use of the Percentile Frequency method as a simple way of displaying repeated measurements to identify objectionable impacts caused by poorly controlled product operation from the sounds of a properly function product.

Pitch Intervals - Relative Pitch Evaluation Example 

In SAE Paper 2003-01-1503 the concepts of Pitch Intervals and Relative Pitch were presented.  The intent of the paper was to introduce to Product Sound Quality work the time-tested and standardized methods of designating pitch in music composition and performance.  Borrowing concepts and methods from music for product sound quality can save time and resources.  One of the short comings of the paper was that it did not contain any real-world data to illustrate how to use the method.  The Pitch Intervals - Relative Pitch Evaluation Example (PDF) uses real motor speed data from a sunroof to illustrate the development of a Sound Quality specification for electric motor operation.