Automatically Updated Soundmaps as a tool for environmental monitoring

Research in progress

Abstract

The research work presented here is focused on the development of a method for the formation of Automatically Updated Soundmaps (AUSs) aiming to utilize them as a tool for environmental monitoring, regional planning and decision making. The proposed method consists of three steps: Development and deployment of a Wireless Sensor (Microphone) Network – WSN (Step 1), Pattern Recognition of the Environmental Sounds recorded and transmitted by the network (Step 2) and automated Soundmap creation, publishing and update (Step 3). Ongoing research based on encouraging preliminary results obtained within the scope of Steps 2 and 3, (Paraskevas et al., 2009; Rangoussi et al., 2010), currently focuses on Step 1 issues (electronics design, energy awareness and communications aspects of the WSN) as well as on the integration of all three steps into an interoperable application. The novelty of this research, compared to other relevant works (Aspuru et al., 2011), (Lavia et al., 2011), lies in the engineering approach taken towards the development and automated updates of the AUSs, inspired by the similar yet distinct notion of noise maps.