Textile-Based Sound Sensors (TSS): New Opportunities for Sound Monitoring in Smart Buildings

Persistent poor acoustic conditions can imbalance humans’ psychophysical capabilities. A good acoustic project starts with either correct measurements of the existing acoustic parameters or with the correct hypothesis of new sound conditions. International standards define invasive measurement conditions and procedures that can disturb user activities. For this reason, alternative methodologies have been developed by mounting real-time sound-monitoring devices. Most of the research on these aims to decrease their dimensions in order to be placed in the tight service spaces of modern architecture and to reduce their aesthetic impact on interiors design. In this perspective, this article explores the features and potentialities of textile-based sound sensors (TSS) as they can not only fulfill these needs but can also be used as architectural ornaments by partially wrapping interiors. The ubiquitous of e-textiles for wearable applications has led to increasing the performance of TSS. Therefore, a comparison of the sensitivity values, signal-to-noise ratio and noise floor of sound TSS with sound sensors is presented, which is still missing in the literature. The paper demonstrates how these can be exploited for sound monitoring and can provide valid opportunities for new smart acoustic textiles.