A wearable system for noise assessment in workplaces

Noise in work places is a critical problem and international regulations are becoming more restrictive on this aspect. The normal ’a-priori’ way of stating the workers’ exposure to the noise is becoming not enough to warrant that the worker is not exposed to a too high noise thus personal measuring systems are often required. In this paper one of these systems is described that is, not only capable of logging the noise the worker is subjected to, but also to raise an alarm if the noise seems to exceed the maximum allowed level. The system employs a 1$ microphone and off-the-shelf components and has a cost lower than 100$ so that any worker can be provided with a measuring system. The described solution connects to a central system via LoRa protocol without the necessity for the measuring system to be connected to the receiver or to be put close to it.