Air pollution is becoming a huge problem in developing countries such as China. In New York, bikers are also very concerned about the issue of air quality because they are directly exposed to the the air outdoors for a long period of time. Bike commuters are especially dangerous since they go through the same route and at the same time with car commuters. We found out it will be interesting to monitor the air quality of certain routes that are hard to avoid — the bridges, for example. The air quality data can be used to inform bike commuters to choose a different time or bridges while planing for the commute route.
We decided to put a air quality sensor in the Williamsburg bridge. Our biggest challenge is that someone might take it or destroyed, so we went to the Williamsburg bridge on Saturday to check the environment in order to design the container that will not be hacked or vandalized.
- One of our approach is to make the box looks cheap so people will not be interested to take it.
- The other approach is to put the box in a place that is hard to reach.(somewhere high or somewhere hidden)
- The third approach is made the box blend in the environment (blended in one of the street art pieces )
We are using the arduino yun with some sensors (air-quality, noise…). It is powered by a 9V battery and the data are stored in the SD card.
We do have some readings.
Our next step is to receive the data in real time (through GSM shield and Twillo), so bike commuters can check online before they leave the house: and design a better box to prevent vandalism. Our team will continue this project!
