Articulation Index

By
Aniket Koli
Lead Acoustic engineer
Henkel adhesive technologies India Pvt Ltd. Pune

What is mean by Articulation index

(AI)??

Articulation Index (AI) that is widely used in the automotive

industry as a powerful parameter to qualify/quantify the middle
and high frequency spectra associated to the internal noise of
vehicles.
The Articulation Index or AI gives a measure of the intelligibility of
hearing speech in a given noise environment. The basic
interpretation of the AI value is the higher the value then the
easier it is to hear the spoken word. The AI value is expressed
either as a factor in the range zero to unity or as a percentage.
A quantitative measure of the intelligibility of speech; the
percentage of speech items correctly perceived and recorded.
An articulation index of 100% means that all speech can be
understood, 0% means that no speech can be understood.

How to calculate AI?? Its general

formula

The basic method of evaluating AI uses the concept of an

'idealised speech spectrum' and the third octave spectrum levels
of the background noise. Essentially if a particular background
noise third octave spectrum level is above the corresponding
idealised spectrum level then the contribution to AI is zero. If
however the difference is positive then it will make a
contribution. However, if the difference is greater than 30dB then
the contribution is 30dB. Each contribution is multiplied by a
weighting factor specific to the particular third octave band. The
sum of all the contributions is the AI value.
Contribution = IdealisedSpectrumdB[k] NoiseLeveldB[k]
If (Contribution < 0.0) Contribution = 0.0
If (Contribution > 30.0 ) Contribution = 30.0
Contribution = Contribution * WeightingFactor[k]

Types of AI:- $AI_ANSI & $AI_Veh

There is however some confusion as there two separate approaches for
calculating the AI value. One method is the strict ANSI S3.5-1969 scheme and
the other one is generally known as the vehicle AI value.
The fundamental difference in the calculations is that the ANSI scheme attempts
to take account of the existing overall noise level to adjust the levels of the
Idealised Spectrum. The idea here is that if the background noise level changes
then we speak either louder or softer as appropriate. That is it is strictly
concerned with speech intelligibility and is not as concerned with the volume or
loudness required.
The vehicle version of the AI is concerned with assessing sound quality in the
interior environment of the vehicle. Thus it uses what may be described as a
fixed target speech spectrum. In consequence the overall level as well as the
spectrum shape affect the metric. By convention the $AI_ANSI value is usually
given as an index from zero to unity but that $AI_Veh is usually given as a
percentage.

$AI_Veh
By applying Henkel Product if Articulation index is
improved by 5% to 6% , then it means inside the cabin,
interior noise is reduced down and intelligibility (ability
to understand speech clearly by hearing) increased.
Improvement in AI means sound quality inside cabin is
improved. Psychoacoustically speech clarity increased
and passenger feel less noisy, which minimizes early
tiredness due to high cabin noise.
Improvement is AI means low incabin noise turns
increase in passenger comfort level.