Safe or Dangerous: 2. Measuring Noise Exposure as Sound
Can my smartphone be a sound level meter or a noise dosimeter?
Yes, in some cases your smartphone can help estimate the sound levels or noise exposures you are experiencing. However, there are some limitations which are described below.
There are many sound level meter apps available. It is best to compare smartphone apps with an actual sound level meter to know if they are working accurately.
Here are a couple of suggestions for apps you might try:
Things to remember when measuring sound with a smartphone:
- Every smartphone must be calibrated in order to measure accurately (see app instructions). If the app doesn’t have a means of calibrating, it is not likely a good choice.
- Microphones in smartphones are limited in terms of how they can measure very soft or extremely loud sounds. So, you won’t be able to measure very soft or very loud sounds with a smartphone.
- One app may measure sound differently than another app. Each app has settings that need to be selected (choose A-weighting and slow response) to help determine if a sound is safe or dangerous.