Noisy vehicle surveillance camera: A system to deter noisy vehicle in smart city

Abstract

With the increase in urbanization in modern cities, major roads and highways are built nearer to residential areas. Due to some inconsiderate driving behaviors, like accelerating and racing; illegal tailpipe modification; and aging vehicles, traffic noise is creating a nuisance to residents staying near highway, especially during late night or early morning. Unfortunately, these noisy vehicles often cannot be caught on the spot, unless traffic police is stationed at a certain place with their sound pressure level meter and camera. This latter approach is often not sustainable and incurs costly manpower resource. An automatic Noisy vehicle surveillance Camera (NoivelCam) system, which can be deployed in overhead structure across major highways near residential buildings, is being designed to capture noise level generated from passing vehicles and triggers a high-speed camera to capture the number plate of offending vehicles that exceed a certain noise level. Therefore, the proposed system provides time stamp, number plate, sound pressure level, audio, and video evidence of the offending vehicle and a means to issue an inspection notice to the owner of the vehicle. This paper provides a description of the NoivelCam, and some of its features to pinpoint noise generated from passing vehicle. An initial in-situ deployment of this system has been carried out in Singapore to test out its effectiveness in monitoring vehicle noise pressure level in a single lane on a highway.