Posted on 20 October, 2022
With the award of funding within the National MIT R&D AI, the development of the dynamic sound card will get a boost. Together with our consortium partners Peutz and Embedded Acoustics, we will focus us on the development of dynamic sound cards in the built environment over the next two years.
Improving the living environment by reducing noise nuisance is an important challenge of our time. The current Dutch noise policy, however, focuses on annual calculated average noise levels. These calculations provide insufficient insight into the actual noise levels that occur, as these can vary greatly in time, space and type of activity. As a result, the effectiveness of policy choices remain unclear for a long time and the corroboration of citizens decreases. While involvement of citizens is one of the essential pillars in the new 2023 environmental law. Residents must be provided with the correct and up-to-date noise levels in their living environment. And the average noise level calculated annually does not do justice to their reality.
The Netherlands also faces a major challenge in area design and construction. This concerns both residential construction and infrastructural and industrial construction work. Construction activities often take place in densely populated areas. And so the prevention of noise nuisance is an important task.
The development of the dynamic noise map, a product that provides real-time insight into historical and current noise exposure with a high resolution in time and space, is essential for this. This provides detailed insight into the causes of noise-affected environments and the nuisance caused. And local (policy) measures can be taken to improve situations.
Our noise monitoring stations (we call them that because they can do more than measure noise) are able to support the dynamic sound card. With these noise monitoring stations we collect and process different types and large amounts of sensor data. This can be used for groundbreaking innovations.
We focus on so-called sound events, which are provided with a “timestamp”. This consists of location, direction, type and level of the noise, and is linked directly to the recording as associated data.
We are happy to keep you informed on this innovative project!