Large-scale noise pollution sensor networks consist of hundreds of spatially distributed microphones that measure environmental noise. These networks provide historical and real-time environmental data to citizens and decision makers and are therefore a key technology to steer environmental policy. However, the high cost of certified environmental microphone sensors render large-scale environmental networks prohibitively expensive. Several environmental network projects have started using off-the-shelf low-cost microphone sensors to reduce their costs, but these sensors have higher failure rates and produce lower quality data. To offset this disadvantage, we developed a low-cost noise sensor that actively checks its condition and indirectly the integrity of the data it produces. The main design concept is to embed a 13 mm speaker in the noise sensor casing and, by regularly scheduling a frequency sweep, estimate the evolution of the microphone's frequency response over time. This paper presents our noise sensor's hardware and software design together with the results of a test deployment in a large-scale environmental network in Belgium. Our middle-range-value sensor (around 50 euros) effectively detected all experienced malfunctions, in laboratory tests and outdoor deployments, with a few false positives. Future improvements could further lower the cost of our sensor below 10 euros.
Dominguez Bonini, FX, Nguyen The, C, Reinoso Carvalho, F, Touhafi, A & Steenhaut, K 2013, 'Active Self-Testing Noise Measurement Sensors for Large-Scale Environmental Sensor Networks', Sensors, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 17241-17264. <http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/13/12/17241>
Dominguez Bonini, F. X., Nguyen The, C., Reinoso Carvalho, F., Touhafi, A., & Steenhaut, K. (2013). Active Self-Testing Noise Measurement Sensors for Large-Scale Environmental Sensor Networks. Sensors, 13(12), 17241-17264. http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/13/12/17241
@article{d2365fb8ee6b434397717292eec40320,
title = "Active Self-Testing Noise Measurement Sensors for Large-Scale Environmental Sensor Networks",
abstract = "Large-scale noise pollution sensor networks consist of hundreds of spatially distributed microphones that measure environmental noise. These networks provide historical and real-time environmental data to citizens and decision makers and are therefore a key technology to steer environmental policy. However, the high cost of certified environmental microphone sensors render large-scale environmental networks prohibitively expensive. Several environmental network projects have started using off-the-shelf low-cost microphone sensors to reduce their costs, but these sensors have higher failure rates and produce lower quality data. To offset this disadvantage, we developed a low-cost noise sensor that actively checks its condition and indirectly the integrity of the data it produces. The main design concept is to embed a 13 mm speaker in the noise sensor casing and, by regularly scheduling a frequency sweep, estimate the evolution of the microphone's frequency response over time. This paper presents our noise sensor's hardware and software design together with the results of a test deployment in a large-scale environmental network in Belgium. Our middle-range-value sensor (around 50 euros) effectively detected all experienced malfunctions, in laboratory tests and outdoor deployments, with a few false positives. Future improvements could further lower the cost of our sensor below 10 euros.",
keywords = "sensor testing, quality assessment, environmental monitoring",
author = "\{Dominguez Bonini\}, \{Federico Xavier\} and \{Nguyen The\}, Cuong and \{Reinoso Carvalho\}, Felipe and Abdellah Touhafi and Kris Steenhaut",
year = "2013",
month = dec,
day = "13",
language = "English",
volume = "13",
pages = "17241--17264",
journal = "Sensors",
issn = "1424-8220",
publisher = "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)",
number = "12",
}