IoT-Mobair

There are a slew of apps and websites devoted to reporting air pollution in cities and major metropolitan areas both for general monitoring and record-keeping, but also to better inform residents about the risk to their health posed by their environment. However, air pollution is often measured on a city-wide scale, which can erase very large differences in pollution between different areas. A collaboration of researchers in New Jersey and Vellore, India, created air pollution monitoring kits connected to the cloud via Internet of Things (IoT) technology to share localized air pollution information on their accompanying mobile app 2019. Their research was formed in recognition that poor and middle-income communities often experience worse air quality compared to wealthier communities and that this discrepancy is not often well-represented in air quality reports for cities worldwide. The gas sensors developed in this study can be installed on specific streets, next to industrial centers, or on residential streets to report air pollution on that localized level. Their mobile app would be available on Androids and would allow pedestrians to better plan their routes. From their research, it appears that the app, as well as the kit itself, is still being developed as a prototype, though in the time since it was published, further optimization may have occurred. In order to be effective, the kit would need to be affordable to be used on a broad scale and the app made to be compatible with Apple products to cover the two primary operating systems for mobile phones worldwide.

Categories

Internet of Things, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution