Abstract
New AI technology that can now automatically analyse and recognise everyday real-world sound scenes and events, presenting promising potential applications in environmental sensing and urban living. Specifically, urban soundscape analysis could be used to monitor and improve soundscapes experienced for people in towns and cities, helping to create new strategies for enhancing quality of life through urban planning and development. However, current research use cases are often unrealistic, lacking appropriate end-user feedback and engagement. In response, this research is employing a range of participatory approaches to gather feedback from stakeholders to realise the full potential benefit of “AI for Sound" technology for society and the economy. For example, the world café approach was used to explore how people feel about sounds in their locality and how they would like to change them to direct future research directions of the project. A world café is a participatory approach typically set in a café style environment where participants engage in three 20-minute discussions on a question posed in small groups, ending with a harvest session where everyone collates conclusions drawn from conversations together. In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this research employed the world café virtually to engage with residents while adhering to UK national lockdown and social distancing restrictions. This method follows the original world cafe style utilising a video conference tool where virtual Breakout Rooms are used to divide participants into small conversation groups on the same call. This allowed the identification of themes around how people would choose to change their urban sound environments and the contexts that facilitate this to direct future research into associated AI for sound solutions. This presentation reports on some of the highlights from the virtual world cafe and outlines plans for forthcoming research.