How Accurate Is It to Measure Noise with Smart Mobile Devices?

Abstract

Traditionally, sound meters and noise dosimeters have been worldwide recognized as the most adequate devices to measure sound pressure level. In recent years, smart mobile devices have been incorporated with many different sensors and multiple useful applications have been developed, turning them into multi-purpose measuring units. Compared to sound meters, smart devices can be less expensive, are not task specific and allow sharing collected data in real time. Fourteen smartphones and five tablets based on iOS and Android platforms were used to conduct sound level measurements with three and two apps respectively. Seven different sound signals of pink noise were utilized at different levels (60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85 and 90 dBA) along with an industrial noise signal. This study concluded that some mobile device/app combinations may be considered adequate as a screening tool but not as accurate as sound level meters.