Sonocat in situ sound absorption and sound intensity measurements

Sonocat measurements automotive

Sonocat sound level meter

Introduction
Sonocat is a new generation of acoustic measurement technology. Sonocat utilizes the revolutionarySoundinsight-Sensor to measure the sound absorption properties of surfaces and materials without the need for an artificial sound source. This cutting-edge technology also measures 3D sound intensity, 3D particle velocity, 3D impedance, sound power and sound pressure in real time. Sonocat allows you to measure sound properties easily and accurately in situ, all with the convenience of a hand-held device. Get Sonocat today and bring your acoustic measurements to the next level!

Hardware

The Sonocat measures sound with 8 digital MEMS microphones, which are distributed inside an aluminium sphere. Using a spherical configuration is beneficial, as the interaction of a spherical object in an acoustic field has an appealing mathematical treatment, which allows to account for the presence of the Sonocat sphere in the sound field. The raw data collected from the microphones is processed by a digital signal processor, which is enclosed inside Sonocat. The processed data is sent over the USB line to a computer, which runs the Sonocat software.

Measuring with Sonocat
The operator can do two types of measurements, depending on the quantity of interest. The Sonocat can either be used as a stationary measurement system by connecting the Sonocat to the included tripod stand. Or, Sonocat is used as a handheld measurement device. In the latter case the operator makes “scanning” movements with Sonocat to obtain area-averaged results.

Calibration
Soundinsight has developed its own in-house calibration instrument and procedure to allow calibration of all microphones inside the sphere. Sonocat devices are delivered calibrated.

Software
The Sonocat software is a software package which provides an allin-one solution to measure with Sonocat, as well as to do the postprocessing of the measurement results. The Sonocat software can be used to monitor the sound field in, real time, but also precise measurement can be done with full control of thesampling time, FFT windows, overlap percentage, etc.