Nokia Phones May Lead to a Quieter Life

One of the criticisms of mobile phones is that they are major noise polluters, and many people find few things are more irritating than incessant mobile phone users and irritating ring tones. Now, in a complete U-turn, smart phones such as the Nokia N97 are being put to use to beat noise pollution.

The EU now requires every one of its member states to map the amount of noise present in its cities. It is very expensive to deploy and monitor millions of noise sensors and the use of computer models to estimate the amount of noise generated from major sourced is not very accurate.

In over to overcome this, an application called Noise Tube has been developed. This is an app that you can download on to your Nokia or other Smartphones that will turn the phone into a noise monitor.

It uses the phone's microphone to record the noise, and the GPS to record the location of the reading. It is possible to add additional information manually, for instance whatever it is that is making the noise. All this information is then downloaded to the Noise Tube server.

All this data is processed along with information on local winds and other meteorological data, and it is included in a format that can be viewed using Google Earth.

At the moment this can only be used on some Nokia Smartphones along with specific Sony Ericsson phones, and each model has to be calibrated before software is released for it, though the developers are working on automatic calibration systems.

Interest in this system is not confined to Europe, and various organisations from all over the world are looking at it. Monitoring and controlling environmental noise is seen to be very important to improving life quality. Recent research has shown that exposure to even moderate amounts of noise for extended periods can lead to both physiological and psychological damage.

Now your Nokia phone could help lead to a quieter life.