Aclima a firm that builds environmental sensors, is teaming up to turn Google Street View cars into mobile pollution sniffers.
Initial tests were conducted in Denver resulting in three Google Street View cars being equipped with hardware to measure harmful compounds in the atmosphere including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) – air pollutants that have an impact on health and climate change.
Air pollution monitoring
The search engine giant it’s hunting for pollution in the air by equipping its Google Street View cars with a mobile sensing platform as part of a study being conducted by NASA and the EPA that’s focused on improving the collection of air quality data.
“We have a profound opportunity to understand how cities live and breathe in an entirely new way”, Aclima CEO Davida Herzl said in a statement. “With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, environmental health is becoming increasingly important to quality of life.”
Latest reports by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) show that air pollution – both indoor and outdoor – kill some 7 million people across the globe every year, “making it the world’s largest single environmental health risk”, according to recent figures.
Furthermore, it is estimated that more than 1 billion people are exposed to outdoor air pollution annually. Urban air pollution in particular, is estimated to cost approximately 2% of GDP in developed countries and 5% in developing countries where rapid urbanisation has resulted in increasing pollution issues in major cities.
Google Street View cars are everywhere
From the tick Amazon rainforest to the heights of Mount Everest, Google Street View is mapping our world with “360-degree panoramic views” and “locations on all seven continents”.
The goal now, is to introduce these mobile sensing platforms to communities anywhere Google Street View cars drive. The data will help inform local health studies and shape community planning decisions.
“Environmental air quality is an issue that affects everyone, especially those living in big cities”, said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, program director for Google Earth Outreach.
Pollution Sniffers
Reports unveiled that the system processed 150 million data points in 750 hours of drive time on everything from humidity levels to light intensity and air pollution.
The partnership between Aclima and Google has already worked on mapping indoor environments. The two companies have created a network across 21 Google offices around the globe to monitor levels of pollution and temperature – calculations aimed at improving workplace design. In the Fall, the experiments will move to San Francisco. Aclima and Google are partnering with communities and scientists to explore new applications.
What do you think of Google Street View cars being turned into pollution sniffers? Share you views in the comments section below.
