Sustainability and the Internet of Sounds: Case Studies

The Internet of Sounds (IoS) is an emerging field promoted by a large network of research institutions and companies, which fosters research and new industrial and civil applications in domains such as audio processing, music performance, entertainment and environmental monitoring. Being based on novel technologies and computing paradigms, its environmental costs are yet to be assessed. In previous works, the foundations for an environmental impact assessment in the field were laid down. In this paper, a methodology is built based on an extensive literature survey to identify the foremost emission drivers in the IoS, and apply the collected knowledge to the qualitative analysis of five relevant case studies in the IoS that the authors identify. These are identified from the IoS literature in order to cover two orthogonal axes: artistic-functional and emerging-mature. Their discussion allows a qualitative prediction of their impact, which is positive in two over five cases, negative in the other two and very low in the last one. Considerations, design tips, social suggestions, and future challenges are also outlined.