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Posted on 05/03/2005 7:04:42 AM PDT by WoofDog123
Microphones in lamp posts to catch noisy neighbours By Mark Prigg, Science Correspondent, Evening Standard 3 May 2005
Noisy neighbours have become a scourge of modern life, resulting in stress, sleepless nights and even violence.
Now Westminster Council hopes a new wireless microphone could help tackle the problem.
It plans to attach the device to lamp posts outside houses, allowing inspectors to monitor sound levels. If neighbours make too much noise, council officials will
“This could make a really big difference to cutting down on noise,” said Steve Harrison of Westminster Council.
“At the moment the problem is that by the time a noise protection officer arrives on the scene, the noise may have stopped.
“Using the new system, we can leave a monitor in an area for several days. The idea is that we can pre-empt people having to call us — if the monitor hears a disturbance it lets us know.” Mr Harrison added that the microphones were also going to be placed outside bars and clubs to monitor noise levels and any disturbances.
The microphones, which communicate via an internet connection, will be attached to lamp posts across Soho to test the system for the next few months.
“Eventually this wireless network will cover the whole of Westminster and be used by workers wherever they are,” said Mr Harrison.
“Noise monitoring and CCTV are just two of the initial applications, and the great advantage is that we can move these sensors to wherever they are needed.”
Westminster operates a 24-hour noise helpline with a team of inspectors who can issue onthespot fines to offenders. But inspectors had to be in the right placeat the right time for this method to work, said Mr Harrison.
Anti-noise groups today welcomed the initiative. “This is potentially a big step forward and really could help,” said Mary Stevens of the National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection (NSCA). “In a city like London noise is a real problem, and is making people’s lives miserable.
“Wooden floors, dogs and music all contribute, and over time it can really affect people. It starts out with a lack of sleep, but can lead to retaliation attacks and serious health problems.”
Nearly a third of people in Britain are annoyed by noisy neighbours, and for 14 per cent it has an impact on quality of life, recent research found.
Ms Stevens advised people to approach the offenders first. “It’s obviously a delicate situation, but the majority of problems can be solved by simplytalking to the offender,” she says. “If that fails, call the local authorities.”
According to the NSCA, the top five noise complaints are loud music, alarms, dogs barking, fireworks and hard flooring.
They tried this in Belfast, the IRA used the electronics for bombs...
In my neighborhood the last sound heard over these microphones will be the sound of a 12 gauge going off using 00 shot.
You are right, we are fast approaching a global police state. The 'people of tolerance' need to quit being so intolerant of others before they find themselves the target.
That whirrrrrring sound is NOT the camera panning up and down the street and zooming in on bedroom windows!
Count me in, then.
I'm tired of people forcing their noise on me. My house is private property, right? Noise pollution onto my property is a form of trespassing.
And what about common areas? I own those too, together with other members of the community. We agree, through the political process, to certain rules governing such areas. Those rules include restrictions on noise pollution. If such rules are not being enforced, then my property is being in effect stolen. The offender, by ignoring such rules takes the common property for himself.
Noise monitoring is no different than placing a camera in a place where people are dumping their trash illegally. Except here people are dumping sound instead of trash.
Property needs to be defended. Noise monitors are one way.
When you look at the 'microphones in the bushes' in 1984, it really doesn't look so far-fetched anymore, at least in england.
Uhg.
Cameras and noise monitors on street corners are not global anything. It's local control of locally owned property.
Can the shareholders of a company ask that cameras be put in the work place? Local governments are similar in that the residents are in effect shareholders of the areas held in common. Do they have a right to do what they want with their property?
Who indeed?
I don't know what planet you're on, but on my planet people tell you to go fvk off. People around here seem to think they have a right to do whatever the hell they want without regard for others.
So unless "dealing with the situation" means "pop a cap in their ass", I have to rely on good ol' nanny state.
Also if you have nothing to hide you have no problem with conversations inside your home being monitored for content, which is possibly one un-emphasized aspect of this program.
If there is a monitor picking up the effects of hard flooring, on a lamp-post out on the street, that's a pretty darn sensitive mike.
So you are o.k. with getting a noise sitation for "walking loud", or "having a wooden floor"?
My neighbor uses a gas mower to mow his lawn some afternoons, and it drives my dog crazy. By your logic, I have a right to make him use a manual push-mower...after all, his gas mower trespasses on my property. My property rights, you know...
" So unless "dealing with the situation" means "pop a cap in their ass", I have to rely on good ol' nanny state."
I agree your situation is a dilemna. As always, my concern is that a program that brings some initial benefits to people will become part of an infrastructure without almost unlimited potential for abuse at some future point. What if the microphone picks up hate speech, which is illegal in the UK?
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When a conversation is so loud that the sound of it extends into the street, you can hardly expect it to be private.
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