Monday, May 7, 2007
Squirrel, a Personal Air Pollution Monitor
Filed under: Public Health
This cool Bluetooth-enabled gadget is being developed by Shannon Spanhake and colleagues at the University of California San Diego and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2):
The price of wireless and sensor technology has dropped enough that everyone of us could become a pollution monitor, taking readings 24/7... The results could then be fed wirelessly to a database that would give us a lot more concrete data to make informed decisions about how to fight pollution at the level of the individual, the region, and the country...Squirrel fits in the palm of your hand and can be clasped to a belt or purse. The small, battery-powered mobile device can sample pollutants with its on-chip sensor. The current prototype measures carbon monoxide and ozone, but eventually the device will be able to sample nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide in the air, as well as temperature, barometric pressure and humidity.
It's what happens next that makes Squirrel a powerful tool in the fight against pollution. Using a Bluetooth wireless transmitter, the device connects to the user's cell phone. A software program called Acorn allows the user to see the current pollution alerts through a screensaver on the cell phone's display. The phone also periodically transmits the environmental data to a public database on the Internet operated by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), which is funding Squirrel's development...
The personal pollution device also has the advantage that it measures pollution where people are, whereas most existing sensors are located on top of buildings, not at ground level.
UCSD: Meet Squirrel, a Personal Pollution Monitor
Calit2: Tracking Pollution and Social Movement: Love Fest for Calit2 Technologies at 'Make Fest 2007
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