When considering the meaning of “environment,” the chances are good that what comes to mind are interrelated aspects of flora and fauna and the physical or chemical risks that our activities impose upon them.
Increasingly, we’re expanding our view of the matter to include visual and auditory clutter as well. Adbusters Magazine stands as an example of work being done to help us to be mindful of the constant barrage of advertising, logos and the like, and the effect that these can have on what they call the mental environment.
In addition, the term noise pollution is by no means new, nor is the understanding that excessive exposure to noise can negatively impact our physical and mental health alike.
What is new, however, is NoiseTube. As reported by NewScientist, engineers at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris have developed a phone application now available for download that collects sound information via the phone’s microphone, and through use of the phone’s GPS capabilities attaches exact locational data to the level of noise. Application users have the option of adding field note tags to the information they record before sending the collected data to NoiseTube servers. The summary resulting data are compiled into maps readable through Google Earth depicting noise level conditions.
European Union (EU) regulatory framework is described as providing some of the motivating force behind NoiseTube’s development. NewScientist indicates that member nations are required to generate noise pollution maps in cities every five years.
While the list of devices on which NoiseTube will operate is currently limited, the development team indicates that efforts are underway to make the application available for operation on an expanding roster of devices. And participation is not strictly limited to citizens of EU states: a cursory scan of user data published to the NoiseTube Web site indicates participation in New York and Boston.
Photo courtesy of NoiseTube used with permission