Indoor noise level measurements and subjective comfort: feasibility of smartphone-based participatory experiments

Abstract

We designed and performed a participatory sensing initiative to explore the reliability and effectiveness of a distributed network of citizen-operated smartphones in evaluating the impact of environmental noise in residential areas. We asked participants to evaluate the comfort of their home environment in different situations and at different times, to select the most and least comfortable states and to measure noise levels with their smartphones. We then correlated comfort ratings with noise measurements and additional contextual information provided by participants. We discuss how to strengthen methods and procedures, particularly regarding the calibration of the devices, in order to make similar citizen-science efforts effective at monitoring environmental noise and planning long-term solutions to human well-being.