This project is initially funded by OrganiCity, a service for experimentation that explores how citizens, businesses and city authorities can work together to create digital solutions to urban challenges. OrganiCity experiments take place in cities across Europe.   It is the intention that the UoE will continue to run the infrastructure and capture data after the OrganiCity funding period ends, such that we have a complete 12 months of data.

The project will deploy x6 audio capture devices to the Meadows in Edinburgh to capture audio as a valuable first step in exploring and celebrating the richness of sounds in the city, benefiting from recent innovations in digital technology and network infrastructure. It will focus on how biotic (living organisms like plants and animals) and anthropogenic (human activity) sounds captured in a central urban green space can inform community groups and citizens about biodiversity and health and well-being, as well as provide a unique resource for artists and data scientists. Wide-frequency audio will be captured in near real-time for secure privacy processing and analysis. The team will construct a sensor kit that enables to capture the rich array of biotic and anthropogenic sounds in both the audible and ultrasonic range. Given the nature of the deployment (microphones in a public space), the project will ensure that appropriate steps are taken to ensure adherence to data protection legislation, and this will include a process to obfuscate any human speech captured by the devices, such that it is unintelligible, and no individuals could be identified. Anonymised audio data will be made available to other registered OrganiCity experimenters. This project is led by Edinburgh Living Lab, a city-wide collaboration founded by the City of Edinburgh Council and the University of Edinburgh.