Noise sensors - Part 1: Usage for the redesign of neighbourhoods

An interdisciplinary research project at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences with participation of the departments of urban planning, surveying and geoinformatics, business psychology and acoustics, present alternative urban scenarios. Different aspects for the redesign of the district, especially measures to reduce the individual motorised transport, were investigated. Virtual reality and augmented reality experiments are used in public spaces, to show redesign possibilities. Surveys of people, who had the experience of the future scenarios via the AR application and VR application, were carried out. Additionally, acoustical surveys and measurements in this research project were performed using so called noise sensors. These sensors based on MEMS microphones were developed for a simple and cost-effective measurement of external noise in a citizen sciences project. The measurement results of the noise sensors are saved online and can be accessed on the homepage "Sensor.Community". One of the noise sensors was used in the project area over a longer period. Measurement values were generated in third octave bands at intervals of 5 s and are available for further evaluations, e.g. for the calculation of indoor noise levels. The paper presents the research project and reports about the application of the noise sensor.