Helsinki Citizens Walk Using "Ambiciti" App to Learn About Street-level Air and Noise Pollution - Seite 2

The street level noise data can be calibrated with data gathered by the Ambiciti mobile application users. The mobile application is available for all devices using Android or iOS operating systems and can be downloaded for free in the respective application stores. The user interface is in English.

Any user of Ambiciti mobile application can choose to share his/her localized noise measurements through space and time. Two modes allow this: a continuous measurement mode and a journey mode (more precise). The sent, user-collected data is integrated with pre-modelled data to provide better maps through time.

The crowdsourced noise data is collected by smartphone microphones. Users must activate the function.

Valerie Issarny explained:

"The application does not record, store or share the actual audio signals. Using the periodic measures of loudness, the application computes sound exposure levels by hour, day and month and allows users to relate noise exposure to their own health and wellbeing."

If authorized by the user in the application's settings, the application will share the computed sound exposure levels to Ambiciti server. Ambiciti then uses measures from multiple users to create maps of noise pollution. No personal data is collected and Ambiciti is not capable to identify user's identity.

About Ambiciti 

The Ambiciti application and service are outcomes from the EIT Digital Digital Cities Action Line's Innovation Activities. EIT Digital is the leading European open innovation organisation. Ambiciti Innovation Activity is led by the French National Institute for computer science and applied mathematics, Inria, with the Finnish Forum Virium Helsinki and French Numerical Technologies (NUMTECH) as the other partners. In Helsinki, Forum Virium Helsinki consults the local data needed for pollution model computing, organises local pilots and manages data standardisation.

Ambiciti's business model is a two-fold development model. Public free collaborative use of the application provides free services whose quality increases with the qualified data created and shared by users. The Ambiciti startup manages professional and specific uses or adaptations of the application. It sells pollution maps at street resolution which may make use of the collected measurements, but individual measurements are never for direct commercial use.