We are thrilled to announce that our first SONYC journal paper:
The Implementation of Low-cost Urban Acoustic Monitoring Devices
Charlie Mydlarz, Justin Salamon and Juan Pablo Bello
..has been accepted into the Applied Acoustics special issue: Acoustics for Smart Cities.
This is a high impact journal in the field of acoustics and is our flag in the ground for low cost urban noise sensing.
An extract from the abstract is below, with the full paper in our publications page.
The traditional method of environmental acoustic monitoring utilizes short term measurement periods using expensive equipment, setup and operated by experienced and costly personnel. In this paper a different approach is proposed to this application which implements a smart, low-cost, static, acoustic sensing device based around consumer hardware. These devices can be deployed in numerous and varied urban locations for long periods of time, allowing for the collection of longitudinal urban acoustic data. The varied environmental conditions of urban settings make for a challenge in gathering calibrated sound pressure level data for prospective stakeholders. This paper details the sensors’ design, development and potential future applications, with a focus on the calibration of the devices’ Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphone in order to generate reliable decibel levels at the type/class 2 level.
