Designing a Noise Mapping System Based on the Citizen Scientists’ Smartphone Sensor Data

Eunyoung Shim, Seoul National University
Youngtae Cho, Seoul National University
Hyekyung Woo, Seoul National University
Dohyeong Kim, University of Texas at Dallas

Academic interest in daily exposure to noise has rapidly increased since noise is one of the serious environmental problems in daily life. To aware the loudness of one’s daily ambient environment may promote the quality of life. Recently, the smartphone penetration rate has grown rapidly in many countries. A smartphone is equipped with numerous embedded sensors including GPS/WPS that can monitor location and a sound sensor that monitors the noise level. We envision the possibility of monitoring daily ambient noise levels utilizing a smartphone and of producing practically valuable information of noise that can cover a wide range of area. This study is to explore the possibility of a noise map by applying the concept of citizen scientists. For this study, smartphone sensor monitored data were collected by 336 Seoul residents for seven days. Preliminary results suggest citizen scientists and their smartphone are useful tool to create a noise map.