Decibel Sound Meter for Android

Question

I am new to Android and looking to write an app for measuring decibel sound level. The idea is that when a sound reaches a certain level the user gets a alert. That's it. Can anyone help me out with this. Can I do this using HTML5/Javascript ? any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Taken from Android Media Player Decibel Reading

For native android/java based decibel calculation for a MediaRecorder:

mRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
mRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
mRecorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);
mRecorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
mRecorder.setOutputFile("/dev/null"); 
mRecorder.prepare();
mRecorder.start();
   public double getAmplitude() {
            if (mRecorder != null)
                    return  (mRecorder.getMaxAmplitude());
            else
                    return 0;

    }

To calculate Db value :

  powerDb = 20 * log10(getAmplitude() / referenceAmp);

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel#Field_quantities

Not sure if you could do this in HTML5 on android

Answer 2

this code works for me:

import android.app.Activity;
import android.media.MediaRecorder;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.util.Log;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class Noise extends Activity {

    TextView mStatusView;
    MediaRecorder mRecorder;
    Thread runner;
    private static double mEMA = 0.0;
    static final private double EMA_FILTER = 0.6;

    final Runnable updater = new Runnable(){

        public void run(){          
            updateTv();
        };
    };
    final Handler mHandler = new Handler();

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.noiselevel);
        mStatusView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.status);


        if (runner == null)
        { 
            runner = new Thread(){
                public void run()
                {
                    while (runner != null)
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            Thread.sleep(1000);
                            Log.i("Noise", "Tock");
                        } catch (InterruptedException e) { };
                        mHandler.post(updater);
                    }
                }
            };
            runner.start();
            Log.d("Noise", "start runner()");
        }
    }

    public void onResume()
    {
        super.onResume();
        startRecorder();
    }

    public void onPause()
    {
        super.onPause();
        stopRecorder();
    }

    public void startRecorder(){
        if (mRecorder == null)
        {
            mRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
            mRecorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
            mRecorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);
            mRecorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
            mRecorder.setOutputFile("/dev/null"); 
            try
            {           
                mRecorder.prepare();
            }catch (java.io.IOException ioe) {
                android.util.Log.e("[Monkey]", "IOException: " + android.util.Log.getStackTraceString(ioe));

            }catch (java.lang.SecurityException e) {
                android.util.Log.e("[Monkey]", "SecurityException: " + android.util.Log.getStackTraceString(e));
            }
            try
            {           
                mRecorder.start();
            }catch (java.lang.SecurityException e) {
                android.util.Log.e("[Monkey]", "SecurityException: " + android.util.Log.getStackTraceString(e));
            }

            //mEMA = 0.0;
        }

    }
    public void stopRecorder() {
        if (mRecorder != null) {
            mRecorder.stop();       
            mRecorder.release();
            mRecorder = null;
        }
    }

    public void updateTv(){
        mStatusView.setText(Double.toString((getAmplitudeEMA())) + " dB");
    }
    public double soundDb(double ampl){
        return  20 * Math.log10(getAmplitudeEMA() / ampl);
    }
    public double getAmplitude() {
        if (mRecorder != null)
            return  (mRecorder.getMaxAmplitude());
        else
            return 0;

    }
    public double getAmplitudeEMA() {
        double amp =  getAmplitude();
        mEMA = EMA_FILTER * amp + (1.0 - EMA_FILTER) * mEMA;
        return mEMA;
    }

}