Jun 20, 2003

Reminders of just how politicized noise can be:

• DEP Uncharacteristically Silent On Its Revised Noise Policies: In the summer of 2000, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection had drafted a revision to its noise policy documentation. The revised document called for a significant increase in noise data that would need to be collected for state Environmental Impact Reports, including several days of 1/3 octave band noise data before and after the project is built. I personally thought it was a step in the right direction, but then again, I’m not in charge.
• Judge dismisses Springdale police from noise suit: Although it has supposedly held up in court, the “plainly audible” standard has always bothered me, because of the potential for abuse by police, as alleged in this article. (Would you be comfortable receiving a speeding ticket without radar/lidar verification based on the fact that you were “plainly speeding?” I hope so, because police can issue such tickets). We have these ordinances because we know that the measurement of transient noise sources such as boom cars is impractical - by the time an enforcement officer whips out his SLM, calibrates it, and takes a measurement, the target is gone. But as an engineer, I want to see a number as measured by a reliable, calibrated instrument. There has got to be a better ways.

There were some stories going around the web a few days ago about “smart bricks„ that can measure the structural parameters of buildings. Wired has an article that discusses why this may not be such a good idea. However, the article does describe the potential of a network of measurement devices that can be used to monitor an area. It’s a vision that I believe in, and I’m doing my part to help make this happen in the noise world.

Stopping The Noise: Active Control System Could Halt Squealing Brakes In Cars, Trucks And Buses : “[A]coustics researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a solution that could stop the problem of noisy brakes once and for all.” - I’ll believe it when I see it (is dithering sufficient to mask a pure tone?), but this could be an interesting development.

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