Crowdsourcing of environmental noise map using calibrated smartphones

Smartphones have been used for crowdsourcing of environmental noise data and generation of noise maps. The main issue is the accuracy of smartphones for sound measurement due to huge diversity of smartphone models available in the market. This paper reports an experimental study with a group of twenty-nine graduate students to demonstrate the viability of crowdsourcing of environmental noise data using smartphones. Central to the viability of this study is an in-house developed app for both Android and iOS smartphones and the associated calibration method which makes the smartphones accurate enough for noise mapping. This study has demonstrated the viability of using calibrated smartphones for the monitoring of environmental noise. There is also a potential to use calibrated smartphones for generation of noise maps on a larger scale for cities around the world.