Cellphones used by bicycle couriers are monitoring air pollution in Cambridge, UK, and beaming the data back to a research lab. [via New Scientist]

"The technique is made possible by small wireless pollution sensors and custom software that allows the phones to report levels of air pollutants wherever they happen to be around town.

Eiman Kanjo, computer scientist at Cambridge University, UK, and the leading technical development of the project gave local cycle couriers air-pollution sensors and GPS units that connect to their cellphones via Bluetooth. Custom software lets the phone constantly report the current air quality and location to servers back in the lab.

"They cycle around the city as usual and we receive the data over the cellphone network," says Kanjo. "We can find out what pollutants people are exposed to and where."

The sensors are carried inside storage bins on the couriers' bikes and record levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and nitrogen dioxide."

[source : textually.org]