SOUNDSCALE aims to approach the responsible research and development of the emerging technology of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) in smart cities through an interdisciplinary, citizen-centric, and bottom-up approach.
Dark Fibre
SOUNDSCALE capitalises on the exceptional capabilities of legacy optical fibre cables, housed within the National Dark Fibre Facility (NDFF), an EPSRC National Research Facility, to unlock physical sensing capabilities through DAS, an emergent technology that detects ambient vibrations. These technologies hold enormous potential to address urban issues, from traffic and environmental problems to infrastructure monitoring and sound pollution, as well as environmental issues in coastal cities, like in-flooding.
Responsible Research and Innovation
Implementing emergent technologies in urban contexts requires anticipating risks and addressing important challenges of data privacy, ethics, equitable tech access, sustainability and climate impact, and the need for citizen participation in decision-making processes. SOUNDSCALE reverses the research cycle, involving citizens from the very beginning, offering not only a new paradigm for regulating emergent technologies with citizens at the forefront but also a commitment to mitigating risks, addressing ethical concerns, and ensuring ground-breaking technologies are sustainable, privacy-compliant, and inclusive.
Our highly interdisciplinary team comprises experts from diverse fields, including engineering, computer science, social sciences, geography, arts, humanities, and policy, ensuring a wide spectrum of research methodologies, with each discipline informing the others at every stage.
Stages
The project is divided into three stages:
Stage 1
Dialogues or mini publics with citizens from London and Southampton
Stage 2
Combining and transcending disciplines to investigate citizen’s priorities
Stage 3
Synthesis and presentation to regulators and citizens in workshops and further dialogue
More on the stages of the project.
Our Vision
The vision of this research is to contribute towards transforming urban landscapes into more vibrant, resilient, and sustainable spaces, using advanced technologies and citizen-led design. Through this integrated and collaborative effort, SOUNDSCALE promotes reciprocal benefits across disciplines, from social, environmental, and physical sciences to humanities.