Concept

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Citizen Sensor Concept Diagram

Citizen Sensor is a DIY, open-source hardware and software initiative to bring pollution monitoring to maker and education communities.  The project can be summarized as a reconfigurable sensor pack and data contextualization system that allows users to collect, share, and understand their immediate surroundings using sensors recording environmental and locative conditions. Users choose what environmental aspect to sense, and then connect with others around the world to analyze, interpret, and share knowledge and experience.   The device is being developed as a bluetooth cell-phone peripheral, which pairs with an custom Android application that sends data to an online database where it is then fed to Google Maps, Earth, and LAYAR, an augmented reality platform for iPhone and Android.  I am developing the hardware as a kit, so that makers can assemble and ‘hack’ theirs to their taste in terms of pollutants being measured, as well as aesthetics.  

During the summer of 2011, 10 stationary Citizen Sensor units were deployed to universities around the world, measuring CO, CO2, Dust, Noise, Light, Temp, and humidity as part of the “Weather Tunnel Project”. Each unit updates real-time environmental conditions every 2 minutes directly to an online database, hosted by Pachube.com. Partners were located in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia and all came together in Beijing, China to install interactive, kinetic sculptures which used the real-time weather data being pulled from all data feeds. More will be installed in the next 2 – 4 months, as this project continues on through 2012.

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Most importantly, users will be able to connect to each other through scientific (medical, environmental, research networks) as well as an online social network, and compare exposure levels from individuals around the world.

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This modular sensing system which contextualizes data from multiple individuals in multiple environmental circumstances, temporally and geographically will nurture an understanding of lifestyles, and lead to communal sharing of knowledge about each other and our physical world.  Tips, information, and raw data can be shared through research and social communities built surrounding the Citizen Sensor system.  All data and process will be released under and open source license, so that anyone can participate by downloading data and using it any way they see fit.  Or, hopefully, construct their own Sensor and become part of the collection community.

The core objective for Citizen Sensor is to quantify and contextualize, temporally and geographically, exposure to specific measurable environmental variables, in a way that allows analysis and interpretation at an individual, as well as specific human group level, in order to further the understanding of the effects of these variables on our bodies and lives as a whole.

Gaining a deeper understanding of how where we live, work and play is important in making improvements to our environment, our health, and our community.  By bringing Citizen Sensor to the global scale, we can learn to relate to each other the different ways we live, and ultimately improve and grow in an individually and societally responsible way.

please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, suggestions, etc!

Citizen Sensor began as a thesis project by Joe Saavedra, as part of the Masters in Fine Arts program in Design and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design, completed in 2010.

  • About Citizen Sensor

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    Citizen Sensor is DIY, wearable, reconfigurable sensor pack and data contextualization system that allows users to collect, share, and understand data using sensors recording environmental conditions such as carbon monoxide, light, noise pollution, and methane gas exposure among others. Users choose what to sense, and then connect with others around the world to share knowledge and experience.

    We want to empower the general public to learn more about their own personal space and measure where we live and play on a daily basis.

    Contact: info[at]citizensensor.cc
  • Related
    • @citizensensor Follow for updates!
    • C3 Project
    • CS on GitHub
    • CS on Upverter
    • Feature in Wired UK Wired UK interview
    • Feature on Gizmodo Interviewed by Gizmodo at the MFA DT Symposium
    • Feature on Inhabitat
    • Joe Saavedra contact me! Feedback, questions, are much appreciated
    • MFA DT Parsons MFA Design and Technology
    • Weather Tunnel Project in NY Times
  • Air Quality Egg on Kickstarter
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