Crowdsourced noise monitoring: Measuring sound levels and perceptions via mobile app

Sound exposure is a growing problem that affects more people each year across a variety of environments. In addition, sound exposure has been linked to psychological and other health effects including sleep disturbances, cardiac complaints, and hypertension, to name a few. One of the greatest challenges is the ability to accurately collect sound samples from a wide range of individuals and simultaneously measure the responses to the sound. This study used a mobile application, Auditive, as the method for sound level and participant perception data collection. Participants used the app to report basic health history, take sound level measurements and provided feedback about the perception of the recorded noise. Data analyses examining health history, noise sensitivity, type of noise, and sound properties were conducted. Several challenges of crowd sourced noise measurements were identified and will be discussed. Results showed a wide range of sensitivities and perceived exposure among the participants, some medical conditions or symptom history if not for themselves for someone in their family. While noise of all types was recorded, those identified as human movement, wheeled transportation and mechanical equipment were most frequent.