In the smart city of Santander the walls have ears
- 10 years ago
Urban noise cay be a nuisance for residents, but it can also provide important information about the city and its needs. A unique experiment in the Spanish city of Santander is trying to determine how this can data be used to improve the lives of citizens. It involves engineers and scientists from a European research project.
To illustrate the issues they are tackling, the Futuris team joined the researchers at a busy junction where they watched as an ambulance battled heavy traffic to make a turn into the emergency room of a hospital.
Pedro Malo, EAR-IT project coordinator, explains how this situation can be improved: “As we can see, this ambulance needs to get to the hospital fast – lives can be at stake. So we’re proposing a technological solution – acoustic devices like this one – that can fast-track ambulances to the hospital by, for example, changing the traffic lights.”
The characteristic sound waves of a siren can be captured and automatically recognised by acoustic sensor
To illustrate the issues they are tackling, the Futuris team joined the researchers at a busy junction where they watched as an ambulance battled heavy traffic to make a turn into the emergency room of a hospital.
Pedro Malo, EAR-IT project coordinator, explains how this situation can be improved: “As we can see, this ambulance needs to get to the hospital fast – lives can be at stake. So we’re proposing a technological solution – acoustic devices like this one – that can fast-track ambulances to the hospital by, for example, changing the traffic lights.”
The characteristic sound waves of a siren can be captured and automatically recognised by acoustic sensor