On the Application of the Raspberry Pi as an Advanced Acoustic Sensor Network for Noise Monitoring

The concept of Smart Cities and the monitoring of environmental parameters is an area of research that has attracted scientific attention during the last decade. These environmental parameters are well-known as important factors in their affection towards people. Massive monitoring of this kind of parameters in cities is an expensive and complex task. Recent technologies of low-cost computing and low-power devices have opened researchers to a wide and more accessible research field, developing monitoring devices for deploying Wireless Sensor Networks. Gathering information from them, improved urban plans could be carried out and the information could help citizens. In this work, the prototyping of a low-cost acoustic sensor based on the Raspberry Pi platform for its use in the analysis of the sound field is described. The device is also connected to the cloud to share results in real time. The computation resources of the Raspberry Pi allow treating high quality audio for calculating acoustic parameters. A pilot test was carried out with the installation of two acoustic devices in the refurbishment works of a neighbourhood. In this deployment, the evaluation of these devices through long-term measurements was carried out, obtaining several acoustic parameters in real time for its broadcasting and study. This test has shown the Raspberry Pi as a powerful and affordable computing core of a low-cost device, but also the pilot test has served as a query tool for the inhabitants of the neighbourhood to be more aware about the noise in their own place of residence.