Keeping the noise down: OPV-based energy harvesting sensors for urban noise pollution

In the last 24 months there have been 200,000 noise complaints logged by the 311 New York city service hotline. This averages 274 calls a day, 1 for every 84 New York City residents in a given year, and accounts for a third of 311 calls to the NYPD and the Dept. of Environmental Protection in the city. 'Keeping the Noise Down' is a project concerned with the development of autonomous, energy harvesting, non-toxic and recyclable environmental wireless sensors, which can be used for recording real-time street-level noise. The sensors are solar powered, using novel organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology from Molecular Solar, a Midlands-based UK start-up; the wireless sensors, which also use greener technology in the form of silicon-based battery alternatives, have been developed by the Univ. of Warwick. The novel noise sensors will be prototyped in a New York-based deployment, made possible through collaboration with the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP).