Presentation at the SENAmI Workshop 2013

1. SoundOfTheCity
Continuous Noise Monitoring
for a Healthy City
SENAmI 2013
Lukas Ruge, Bashar Altakrouri,
Andreas Schrader
ruge@itm.uni-luebeck.de

2. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Overview
• The problem of noise
• The SoundOfTheCity application
• Using context in continuous noise measuring
• Conclusion

3. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Noise
• Among the leading causes for illness in urban areas
– Stress
– Poor sleep
– Reduced life quality
– Increased risk for hypertension
– Hearing loss
– Lower cognitive performance

4. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Noise Maps
Governments are using Noise-Exposure-Maps to understand
the extend of the Problem.
• Calculated
• Missing areas
• Every few years
• Selective sources
• Expensive
• Commonplace in
the EU, less in the
US
http://www.acoustics.org/press/155th/kaliskisfcagif.jpg

5. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity – The Smart City Approach
• Use available technology
– Smart phone as sensor.
• Involve citizens
– Everybody can measure.
• Collect and publish data
– Make information available.
• Empower citizens
– Make government agencies
react.

6. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity – Architecture

7. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity - Application

8. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity - Application
Noise Map Sound Map Dosimeter

9. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity – The Noise Map
Visualizing community exposure

10. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity – The Dosimeter
• Measure and visualize how
a user is exposed to noise
• Generate personal
benefit
• Provide an understanding of
the personal exposure
• Provides risk assessment

11. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity – The Sound Map

12. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity – The Sound Map
• The Sound Map provides a dimension that is more easily
accessible.
• It allows to capture the experience.
• Creating Records
– Video
– Sound
– Picture
– Text
• Augment the information conveyed by the sensor data

13. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Measuring With Mobile Phones
x dBSPL = 20 log10 (p/p0) dBSPL
SoundOfTheCity is measuring continuous and unobtrusive.
Problems:
Handling (hands, pockets, bags)
Protective cases
Wind

14. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Context Awareness
• Using context can help reduce the amount of distorted
measurements and reduce energy consumption
• SoundOfTheCity is supposed to visualize noise that is relevant
to the community there are possibilities of exclusion
– Phone is in the pocket
– User is indoors
– User is traveling at high speed
• The measurements are still used to evaluate personal exposure

15. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Context Awareness
• Is the proximity sensor is evaluating to “true” (Pocket)
– Turn of GPS and don’t send noise levels
• Wifi is connected (Indoors)
– Turn of GPS and don’t send noise levels
• If GPS-Location has low accuracy (Indoors)
– Don’t send noise levels
• If the user is moving at high speed (cars, trains)
– Don’t send noise levels
• If the phone has not moved for several minutes
– Don’t send noise levels, reduce GPS rate

16. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Mobile Phones Microphones
dB(A)
The data we get from the microphones is itself already
inaccurate.
Hz

17. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Related Work
• Several projects have attempted to measure noise with mobile
phone microphones
• Two systems work on Android
– WideNoise [Agr, Casali, Brancotti. 2012]
– NoiseTube [Maisonneuve, Stevens, Ochab. 2010]
• NoiseTube: Calibration via profiles for specific phone types

18. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
9 Requirements
for Pollution Monitoring Systems for Health
1. Personal Exposure
2. Community Exposure
3. Risk Assesment
4. Experience Capture
5. Continuity
6. Energy Awareness*
7. Correctness*
8. Unobstrusiveness*
* Santini, Ostermaier and Adelmann,
9. Context Awareness* On the use of sensor nodes and mobile phones for the assessment
of noise pollution levels in urban environments (2009)

19. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Thank You
We would love if you join us in measuring noise exposure:
SoundOfTheCity is avaliable on Goolge Play!
http://citysound.itm.uni-luebeck.de
You can also check out the source code at https://bitbucket.org/TVLuke/soundofthecity

20. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
SoundOfTheCity – Open API
• SoundOfThe City provides a REST-API
– Noise Level Data
– Sound Samples
• You can register applications to provide data to our servers
• Additionally the code for SoundOfTheCity is available on
bitbucket

21. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Stats
Noise measurements 186,564*
Sound samples 238
Downloads from the website 400
Downloads on Google Play ~ 15
Active users 14

22. Institut of Telematics | Ambient Computing Working Group
SoundOfTheCity
Stats