Automatic Identification of Noise Pollution Sources

Instrumentation currently available for the automatic monitoring of noise nuisance has the shortcoming that although the intensity, duration, and time of occurrence of noises may be recorded, their source often cannot be identified. Research directed towards providing improved instrumentation which can identify sound sources is described. Our results suggest that application of statistical pattern recognition to recorded sounds can differentiate sources which are structurally dissimilar (e.g. trains, fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters) with an accuracy of better than 95 percent. The work is continuing to discriminate sounds which are structurally similar (e.g. different types of aircraft), and to produce hardware capable of field application.