Sound pollution surveillance system and method

1. A method for detecting sound level of vehicles, comprising the steps of:

i) monitoring a road to detect movement caused by a vehicle;

ii) measuring at least a sound level of a vehicle detected in step i);

iii) determining if the measured sound level is above a given value and indicating an infraction;

iv) recording an identification of the vehicle indicated as one of said infraction;

v) detecting the time at which the vehicle is detected; and

vi) forwarding recorded infraction information to a central unit for storage therein, for subsequent access to said recorded information.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step i) includes detecting a direction of the vehicle.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the step i) includes detecting a speed of the vehicle.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step iii) includes measuring a weight of the vehicle.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the access to said recorded information comprises displaying the measured sound level on site.

6. The method according to claim 1 , comprising a step of displaying the measured sound level on site if the measured sound level is above the given value.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said identification of the vehicle is at least one of an image and a signal emitted by the vehicle.

8. A system for detecting a sound level of vehicles comprising:

at least one sensor unit for at least detecting vehicles on a road and measure a sound level of a detected vehicle, the at least one sensor unit having an emitter/receiver device with at least one disruptable light beam to detect vehicles; and

a data processing unit connected to the sensor unit and having an identification recorder for operating the system by:

i) monitoring a road to detect movement caused by a vehicle;

ii) measuring at least a sound level of a vehicle detected in step i);

iii) recording an identification of the vehicle detected if the sound level is above a given value.

9. The system according to claim 8 , further comprising at least one display unit connected to the data processing unit, for displaying the measured sound level.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the at least one sensor unit, the data processing unit, and the at least one display unit are connected by wireless communications.

11. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the emitter/receiver device has two disruptable light beams, the light beams being spaced by a given distance so as to selectively detect movement of objects of given lengths.

12. The system according to claim 11 , wherein an order of disruption of the two light beams is used to identify a direction of the vehicle and to calculate a speed of the vehicle.

13. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one sensor unit has a sonometer to measure the sound level.

14. The system according to claim 8 , comprising a series of said at least one sensor unit positioned along a road, with information recorded by an upstream one of the series of said sensor unit being validated by subsequent ones of said sensor unit.

15. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the data processing unit is positioned with respect to a road such that the identification recorder thereof has a working range coinciding with a portion of the road wherein vehicles must come to a stop.

16. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the identification recorder is one of an image recorder a frequency signal recorder receiving signals from an emitter device on the vehicle.

17. A system for detecting a sound level of vehicles comprising:

at least one sensor unit for at least detecting vehicles on a road and measure a sound level of a detected vehicle;

a data processing unit connected to the sensor unit and having an identification recorder for operating the system by:

i) monitoring a road to detect movement caused by a vehicle;

ii) measuring at least a sound level of a vehicle detected in step i);

iii) recording an identification of the vehicle detected if the sound level is above a given value;

a series of the at least one sensor unit positioned along a road, with information recorded by an upstream one of the series of said sensor unit being validated by subsequent ones of said sensor unit.

18. A system for detecting a sound level of vehicles comprising:

at least one sensor unit for at least detecting vehicles on a road and measure a sound level of a detected vehicle; and

a data processing unit connected to the sensor unit and having an identification recorder for operating the system by:

i) monitoring a road to detect movement caused by a vehicle;

ii) measuring at least a sound level of a vehicle detected in step i);

iii) recording an identification of the vehicle detected if the sound level is above a given value;

the data processing unit being positioned with respect to a road such that the identification recorder thereof has a working range coinciding with a portion of the road wherein vehicles must come to a stop.