Application of a smartphone for introductory teaching of sound environment: Validation of the precision of the devices and examples of students' work

In an introductory course for environmental/architectural acoustics in universities, it is often used the teaching method based on soundscape, in which students are asked to make a sound map with listening their surrounding acoustic environment. However, if objective measurement of sound pressure level or frequency spectrum can be introduced in such a course, it will interest students in environmental acoustics, and enable them to discuss the acoustic environment more profoundly. Measurement apparatuses are usually expensive and difficult to be used in such a course. Therefore, we consider to use a smartphone: using a smartphone with acoustic measurement applications, it can be possible to introduce an objective measurement in such an introductory course for beginners. In this study, first some applications for acoustic measurement are examined to confirm their accuracy as well as the effect of a simple handmade windscreen. Secondly, using suitable applications, as a possible work in the course, sound maps with measurement results by a smartphone are made and their examples are shown. Finally, some issues to introduce this method in actual courses are discussed.