Service Design for Inter Floor Noise Problem: Using a Floor Noise Reduction Device Technology and Network System in Apartment Complex

Abstract

Due to the rapid change in the residential style, about 70% of the population of South Korea reside in multi-unit dwelling today. As many people share the same building as a residential area, the neighboring interlayer noise problem becomes a serious social problem leading to murder, arson attack, etc. However, it is practically impossible to improve the buildings or introduce new building technologies to ones already built to prevent the inter floor noise. When noise occurs, there are no appropriate system or laws for people to impose special sanctions on the perpetrator. Most solutions are either too long in terms of process or indirect. It is necessary to have a process, which solves the problem directly and continuously. The survey results, that targeted people living in apartment houses, show that perpetrators are not aware of the actions that cause noises. Not only that, results show both victim and noise attacker’s lack of awareness of precise standards of interested noise. Above all, anyone living in the apartment houses can be a victim or a perpetrator of inter floor noise problem. Therefore, this study proposes a service in which the perpetrators can monitor, manage and supervise interlayer noises that they create. This service will help perpetrators be more keen to their own noise, ultimately preventing problems caused by interlayer noises. Through the service, it is expected that the number of victims suffering from the noise will be decreased and ultimately, the inter-floor noise complaint rate, which is increasing every year, will be reduced so it prevents neighbor’s conflicts and disputes.

1 Introduction

Residential forms in Korea have been changed fast. Territory area of South Korea is the world’s 109th largest which is one over a hundred seventy of world’s largest country, Russia. However, population density in South Korea is world’s 12th highest country which is higher than Canada, United States and Japan. As the tertiary industry developed, people needed to live in small area effectively. Thus, housing forms evolved from detached house into apartment house. Three of four South Korean today live in apartment houses include dwelling houses, tenement house, apartment buildings and condominium-style housing complex called ‘villa’. The most common of all, is apartment houses, of which buildings are not interlayer noise proof, due to high demand of construction in a short period of time. Especially, the changes of structure type, which is for building as fast as possible, worsen the noise problem. As a result, inter-floor noise problem pose growing social issues. Recently, a middle-aged man in Korea attacked a couple living upstairs with a sickle over a noise complaint. Also, a man of 30s killed his neighbor in another case of fatal noise-related conflict in apartment complexes and a 49-year-old man set fire to the house above his in a multifamily dwelling after a long dispute over noise. It became not only a neighbor dispute but also a serious social problem, which leads to retaliatory crime, assault and even murder.

2 Current Inter-floor Noise Problem

2.1 An Architectural Perspective

One of the reasons why the floor noise problem occurs is due to a change in the architectural technology in South Korea. In response to rapidly changing industrial technology, the building design has been changed from a pillar-type to a wall-type in order to build a lot of apartments in a short period of time. As shown in the Fig. 1, the pillar-type (the ramen structure) is a structure in which large pillars support the ceiling and multiple beams are laid under the slab¹. Especially, the noise transmitted from the floor is dispersed by beams and pillars, which is advantageous for reducing the inter-floor noise. Until the 1980s, there were many cases where apartment complexes were constructed with this type of structure in South Korea. On the other hand, the wall-type is a structure that bearing walls support the ceiling without pillars, which means the impact is completely delivered to the floor. Also, the impact sound is transmitted to upper floor as well as to downstairs through the wall, which makes the buildings exposed to the noises [1]. In accordance with the research, which is conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the pillar-type structure has 1.2 times higher interlayer noise blocking effect than the wall-type structure. Nevertheless, the pillar structure heightens the house so number of floors should be limited, which means the number of houses are reduced. Adding to that, the construction process with pillar structure is slow and costly, leading construction companies to avoid building with such types [2]. As a matter of fact, 85% of the apartments built in South Korea between 2009 and 2011 were constructed with wall structures and only 2% were pillar structures. It is important to reduce the noise transmission by adopting a new structure which is helpful to prevent noise problem, despite the high costs. However, the construction industry emphasizes strengthening of the design rather than the structural change as it is more affordable and no feasibility in business [3]. Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had set the standard floor structure of Korea as 50 dB for heavy-weight floor impact noise and 58 dB for light-weight floor impact noise. If these standards are exceeded, it is not acceptable to build apartment houses. On contrast, Japanese construction standards are in much more detail by dividing it into five levels with a rating system [4]. Since Korea’s heavy-weight floor impact sound standards are equivalent to Japan’s 4th grade, and even light-weight floor impact sound standards are at the lowest level in Japan, apartment houses designed with Korean standards are difficult to be built in Japan [5]. Therefore, Korean construction standards are very vulnerable to noise.

Fig. 1.

Wall-type and pillar-type structure

2.2 Problems in Co** Situation When Noise Occurs

At present, when the actual floor-to-floor noise is generated, the victim can cope with the situation in four patterns, but the limitations are as follows (Fig. 2). The vertical axes of the table represent each step, and the horizontal axis represents the behaviors experienced in the step, thoughts in action, and pain points that occur.

Fig. 2.

Customer journey map of co** situation when noise occurs

2.2.1 Individual

Generally, when a noise occurs, the victim goes to the neighborhood where the noise is generated and complain. According to the survey, however, that conducted to about 361 people of various ages by Google online form from March 28 to April 10, 2016, 27% of the respondents answered ‘yes’ to the question ‘Have you ever complained to your neighbors due to the noise between floors?’, confirming that the number of people who actually protested is a minority. The highest response rate (42%) were those with passive responses of not notifying the noise in order to avoid worsening the relationship with neighbors. In fact, more than half (52%) of those affected by noise said they tolerate more than three days before complaining. Especially, when asked ‘How to react if the noise keep loud even though you complained?’, 50% of respondents answered that they would re-complain only by the administration office of apartment complex. Additionally, 45% of those who would not re-complain answered that they gave up to complain because they do not want to make any neighbor troubles. Thus, when the noise occurs, the victim feels uncomfortable to face with the perpetrator directly, and it can be confirmed that victims are fearful of emotional response that can lead to retaliation or conflict.

2.2.2 Apartment’s Own System

The apartments in South Korea are ran based on management offices. For the convenience of apartment residents, the management office is involved in a variety of tasks including garbage collection, caring of flowerbeds around the apartment, complaints handling, etc., and has internally defined rules of life. When a complaint about neighbor noise comes in, the apartment manager can ask the households to be quiet, but there is no compelling reason to suppress the noisy residents. In Seoul, the capital city of the Republic of Korea, it is stipulated that it should refrain from making noise in the apartment [6]. Actually, it is difficult to verify the act immediately when the noise is generated by these activities. Most of all, in multi-unit dwelling like apartments, it is difficult to regulate noisy residents in some cases because they do not know exactly where the noise is occurring.

2.2.3 Counseling Center of the National Noise Information System

In 2012, the Government of the Republic of Korea established the Inter-floor Noise Neighborhood Center of the Ministry of the Environment in consideration of the ever-increasing inter-floor noise complaints and the seriousness that leads to social problems in neighboring conflicts. Interventions of the National Noise Information System was established in order to promptly and reasonably adjust the dispute caused by inter-floor noise. However, when examining the process of using the center, it only serves as a guide or a counselor to dispute procedures. Thus, the center is not an adequate solution to prevent noise or resolve disputes, it incites conflicts instead. In addition, there are many cases in which the victim gave up the dispute process because of fear for retaliation or worry about the neighbor relationship. It is because the victim is a subject who actively seeks the ways to resolve noise problem while the perpetrator does not participate at all. According to the number of dispute resolution cases and the customer satisfaction index of the Interventions of the National Noise Information System analyzed by the National Environment and Labor Committee², the number of consultations received at the Center is high. However, after a certain period of time following the consultation, the applicant’s satisfaction decreased due to recurring noises as noise is a product of lifestyle [7]. Hence, the conflicts surrounding the floor-to-floor noise must be solved directly and through a continuous process rather than an indirectly method such as through counseling.

2.2.4 Noise and Vibration Management Act

If noise damage occurs, the majority of people want active intervention by a third party such as a security guard or a police officer, but there is no way to impose special sanctions on the perpetrators of noise in terms of laws of the Republic of Korea, except for asking to be quiet. In the case of the UK and Germany, detailed provisions for the Noise Control Law are clearly defined, and high fines are imposed to prevent conflicts in advance [8]. However, it is unreasonable to regulate interlayer noise with the current Korean law. The law on punishment for misdemeanor crimes is regulated³, but the scope and strength of punishment is not clearly defined. Also, if the police cannot detect the noise when the case is dispatched, the punishment cannot be enforced. Therefore, in Republic of Korea, there is no effectiveness of law that prevents noise from neighbors, and if victim wants to impose punishment, it is impossible unless disputes occur.

3 Analysis of Noise Offenders and Victims

3.1 Cognitive Level

3.1.1 Recognition of Behavior

According to the survey mentioned before, over 60% of noise makers are not aware of that they made noise until they got complained. In addition, 57.1% of people who maintained their situation even though they received complaints from neighbors thought ‘I did not make any noise problem.’ Thus, the noise makers do not recognize that their behaviors could make loud sounds until somebody let them know. Moreover, people usually do not know that could be themselves who make noisy sound. Letting people to understand these things should be the first step. In the survey, 91.1% of noise offender said they tried to be quiet after they got complained but the 51.6% of victims said that nothing is changed even after they asked to. It is confirmed that there are a lot of differences between perpetrators and victims in cognitive level of behavior. Therefore, it needs to give recognition to perpetrators when they make loud noise.

3.1.2 Recognition of Noise

Today in South Korea, there is a floor noise standards enacted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. It is 40 dB in the daylight and 35 dB in the night, and if it lasts for one minute, victims can receive the damages. However, people do not even understand the concept of decibels and it is hard to understand how loud the standards decibel is in the actual life. 72.7% of people who file a civil complaint to Counseling Center of the National Noise Information System complained about children’s jum** noise but it is relative and subjective. Although it is necessary to make standards in specific decibel level, most of people do not know the government’s standards and it is hard to adjust noise to a standard which is written in number. Therefore, both victims and perpetrators cannot recognize the specific standards.

3.2 Relationship Between Neighbors

Through the research, there are two leading points in relationship between neighbors. First of all, as a sociologist Katz said, people tend to be more awkward to the face-to-face situation in these digital media and new media era [9]. Adding to that, in recent research of Korea Social Integration Survey-field of social communication, 55.1% of responded people thought there are no communications between neighbors. People in Korea are getting uneasy to be closed to their neighborhood. Secondly, giving an advance notice could prevent the discord with neighbors. To deeply research about these, it is necessary to interview 3 cases who are in circumstances that are prone to make noise. (1) Family with 3 children, (2) One with instrument as a hobby, (3) Family with dogs. One interviewee answered that advanced request for the loud sound was acceptable, and it made people more generous to understand the situation even though there is a noise problem. Considering the social trends which people avoid the face-to-face situation, it is inappropriate to compel neighbors to communicate each other. It is important to have third party intervention rather than communication between neighbors.

4 Proposal of Service of Inter-floor Noise Recognition

4.1 Technology and Device Selection

4.1.1 Noise Reduction Device of LNSC

Recently, a noise reduction device that gives a warning when noise occurs has been invented in Korea. The company LNSC’s interlayer noise reduction system is a system in which the vibration sensor collects the level of noise and transmits it to the management server. A warning sound is emitted by a device for noise above a certain level. In the management server, the inter-floor noise bill is made with the collected data and it is possible to transmit it to each household and transmit the warning through SMS. Particularly, the invented technique of the interlayer noise reduction induction device improves accuracy in analyzing the noise pattern by collecting noise intensity, cycle, epicenter, spatial distribution and history. However, the bee** sound is transmitted only by sound, so there is no great effect in paying attention and easy to be drowned in other sound. In addition, unnecessary data is collected because these beeps are continuously generated for noise that cannot be avoided like moving or construction. The LNSC noise reduction system operated the system to accumulate data on the management server and issue reports and bills. However, access to records is difficult because such data can only be viewed by administrators on a particular server. In addition, issuing and using such a bill will actually increase the work of the apartment management office, and it is troublesome to separately dissever the noise management tasks in addition to the apartment management work.

4.1.2 Wall-Pad in South Korea and Networking System

In South Korea, as the smart home market grows, the functions of the Wall-Pad⁴ are gradually expanding. Especially, as the world has entered an era of Internet of Things (IoT), Smart home (or home IoT) is growing in the Korean market as personalization of IT is expanded to the private space such as home. The key services of Wall-Pad are in-house call control, door control, home security (CCTV, fire etc.), and home control (energy, lighting, etc.) [10]. In the early days, the function was limited to the connection with the outside of the house such as visitor identification, security guard, and call. However, as the home network market has grown, the Internet has recently been connected and it is possible to provide a service that is involved in the life of the user such as healthcare, remote monitoring [11]. The Wall-Pad is connected to the complex network and the household network, so it is not only capable of connecting to the management room and the household, but also to each household. Through this, it is possible for the management office to perform comprehensive management of the complex, to store various kinds of data, to provide information and services. On the individual side, home security and home control as well as digital content and communication services between residents can be provided. The Wall-Pad is a convenient device in apartment complexes. Modern Koreans who are sensitive to privacy and personal information can communicate within the apartment without providing unnecessary personal information such as phone number or name. From the standpoint of managing apartment buildings, even if there is no personal information of the residents, it can be used as a medium to facilitate the communication between the residents of the apartment and the management room.

Thus, this service is to develop a device that can reduce the noise itself by complementing technology of LNSC and selecting the device as the Wall-Pad of Korea that can interoperate with the apartment and web in the apartment management server.

4.2 Service Contents

4.2.1 Service Goals

Based on the type of service previously selected, this service will provide audiovisual warning through the Wall-Pad to the abuser in case of inter-floor noise, and will seek to strengthen and prevent perception of floor noise by checking data. This service is intended to provide an environment in which the perpetrator can consider first by seeking consent in advance through the Wall-Pad. In addition, it aims to establish its own system to enable continuous management supervision on the inter-floor noise by data accumulation through the apartment management office.

4.2.2 Service Scenario

When the perpetrator is targeted, the situation can be divided into two cases regarding inter-floor noise. First, a warning is given to the perpetrator who may or may not know that they have made a noise, and second, the abuser informs in advance in case they are about to make a noise. Therefore, the service scenarios based on service content are as follows (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3.

Service scenario in two major situation

First, when noises are generated, the inter-floor noise is detected by the noise sensor installed in each household, and when the noise exceeds the standard, the touch screen of Wall-Pad gives a visual and audible warning to the user to recognize the interlayer noise that is occurring. As a result, when the interlayer noise ceases, the situation is terminated. However, if the interlayer noise level is continuously exceeded, device repeatedly re-warns about the noise generated by the user through the touch screen interphone. At the same time, the data is accumulated in the management system and the administrator can confirm it, so that the manager can grasp the area where the interlayer noise is generated when the complaint is received. If civil complaints due to continuous inter-floor noise are received at the management office, the management room first grasps the floor noise source and gives a warning to the floor noise source through the ARS⁵. At this time, if the ARS is received from the household and the floor noise is reduced or decreased below the standard value, the situation will be terminated. However, if additional complaints are received, the apartment management room will visit the noisy residents and warn them. Also, if the ARS is not received in the generation where the floor noise occurs, the service will be terminated by visiting directly and giving a warning to the perpetrator. If the perpetrator announces possibility of future noise in advance of the situation, the user can select the type of situation through the notification menu in the touch screen Wall-Pad, and neighbors will be able to check that announcement via the Wall-Pad.

4.2.3 Service Functions

The functions of the service can largely be divided into cognitive function, data management and accumulation function, and notice in advance function (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4.

Information architecture of wall-pad app and management web

First, the cognitive function detects the noise with the device of the inter-layer noise reduction of the LNSC, and gives the audiovisual warning to the noise maker’s Wall-Pad so that the user can recognize the noise generated by the user oneself. From the app’s Information Architecture, a warning screen would pop-up with the buzzer sounds. If user press the button ‘I’ll be careful’ on the screen, the perpetrator can confirm the data of the noise that perpetrator just made, so user can resolve the difference from the noise perception standard between perpetrator and the victim. In addition, by checking the real-time and monthly statistics of the App-IA, users can see at a glance how much noise they have made, and compare it to the standard and also to the other residents in the graph. Second, the decibel of the noise generated in the apartment is digitized and accumulated on the server of the management office. In IA of management web, decibel of each household and average of each building can be confirmed in real time, and through comparison, it helps noise management. The accumulated data makes it easy to output, so that it can be used as an evidence for the difference between the perpetrator and the victim in future disputes. Finally, the advance notification function is available in the announcement of the IA of the app. This function helps the potential perpetrator to work on the inter-floor noise by seeking neighbors’ understanding through the function of notification on moving, construction, or a certain meeting in advance the perpetrator is expected to generate a louder noise than usual. At the same time, it reflects the characteristics of modern people who do not want to meet with their neighbors due to the interlayer noise problem, announcements can be registered and confirmed with the Wall-Pad installed in each household, thus creating an environment that can be considered without facing the neighbors.

5 Research Conclusions and Limitations

As a result of this study, it is recommended the victim who suffered noise damage should seek a more aggressive method in order to solve the noise conflict in Korea. In addition to this, this paper proposes a service that gives the perpetrator a task and alerts with the sound of the doorbell in conjunction with the pad for instant recognition of the sensory noise. Through this service, the perpetrator stops himself/herself by perceiving a situation that he/she is making a noise and induces a self-check through a noise report. The awareness of perceived noise and behavior makes it possible for the perpetrator to prepare for future cases, in which the noise is to occur, beforehand using the advance notification function. This service is important as it helps the perpetrator to actually recognize by providing an environment to be careful and caring first.

However, since the noise reduction induction technology used in this service should be buried on the floor and all households in one apartment building should be installed, the service proposal can be only in the form of B2B⁶, not B2C⁷. In addition, feedback of the victim is necessary because the noise criterion is relative and subjective. Future research will try to find a way to set the noise criterion by allowing the victim’s feedback through the Wall-Pad.