Planet Jeffro: NYC "Noise Map" API idea →
Two interesting and overlapping projects dealing with urban noise explained below. The potential uses of this data for artistic purposes is exciting. Anyone interested in doing a project at Monthly Music Hackathon NYC exploring urban noise in New York?
Jeff Novich has an excellent proposal for an urban noise API:
Imagine the applications of a Noise API:
I’d create a simple “noise map” website using the noise API that would allow users to explore NYC through noise. This would merely represent a use-case of the API. There are many, many other uses of the data that I can imagine, and I know the ingenuity and innovation of NYC techies will find even more interesting ways to utilize the data.
- Add a “noise” layer into Zillow and other rental maps
- Compare locations with “don’t honk” signs to places without them
- Identify ambulance routes by tracing the “ambulance siren” noise type
- Identify poorly designed intersections that have higher than average honking
- Compare high honking locations with taxi GPS data to (possibly) identify honking taxis
- Use the “bus honk” type to identify buses that are honking inappropriately
- Play sounds of honking loudly at a community board meeting
And coincidentally, NYU is embarking on a project researching urban noise:
(from an email sent to many music science mailing lists)New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) and the Music and Audio Research Lab (MARL) invite applications for a post-doctoral position in cyberphysical systems’ research and development involving large-scale capture, analysis, classification, retrieval, and visualization of urban noise.
These research activities form part of an interdisciplinary initiative, integrating MARL’s Citygram project, that aims to: (a) design and deploy large-scale remote sensing networks that capture spatio-acoustic properties of NYC’s metropolitan area in real-time; (b) design systems for automatic sound identification; (c) develop tools for both mining existing databases and collecting new noise complaints and associated acoustic events; and (d) provide an online exploration/research hub for spatio-acoustic “big data” access, navigation, and visualization. Research results will enable deeper understanding of the NYC noise problem and thus inform effective public policy. Main areas of research include: wireless sensor networks; soundfield capture, analysis and classification; and visualization of spatio-acoustic properties with a focus on urban noise.
