Synairgy - 3rd place @ CSIDC 2006

Project name: Synairgy
Contest: CSIDC 2006
Award: 3rd
Team: Maximilian Machedon, Iulian Moraru, Bogdan Marius Tudor, Dan Ştefan Tudose
Mentor: Nicolae Tapus, Vlad Panait

(report)

In the news:

Revista VIP

RoEmbus

9am

IEEE

Abstract:

One of the major environmental concerns of our time is air pollution. Apart from severely degrading the natural environment, air pollution directly affects our health. Short term and long term effects range from light allergic reactions – irritation of the nose, throat and eyes – to serious conditions like bronchitis, pneumonia, aggravated asthma, lung and heart diseases. Air pollution is also the cause for many premature deaths (50,000 to 100,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone, 300,000 in the EU and over 3,000,000 worldwide [1] and [2]).

Damage done to the environment by air pollution includes acid rain, climate change – shifting from a four temperate seasons to two seasons – and global warming. Economic losses from acid rain surpass 13 billion USD annually only for the eastern part of the United States [3], and 13.3 billion USD in China [4]. With the current trend holding, by 2060 predictions indicate costs up to 220 – 330 billion USD per year in the U.S. alone [5]. The cost of global warming was, as of 2001, 0.5% of the combined GNP of the entire world [6]. Synairgy is a solution for both the health and the environmental problems.

People suffering from heart diseases or chronic respiratory diseases like asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) would benefit from being warned about high concentrations of car exhaust gasses like nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and the smog associated (as these could cause an aggravation of their condition). Joggers and bikers would want to know if the air they inhale is clean on their usual trails. Parents would want to be assured that their children breathe fresh air on their playgrounds. People moving to a new city would like to choose their new home based among other things on information about the air quality.

The solution offered by Synairgy to all these people relies on a small portable device that will warn the person carrying it when it detects an abnormally high concentration of an air pollutant. If the user has a Bluetooth enabled smart-phone or PDA, he can connect to the device and obtain details. The device records the measured data along with location coordinates and can later transfer it to a computer running the Synairgy application. With the user’s acceptance, the application can share the data with the Synairgy Internet server. As a result, the system’s user – and the entire community – can benefit from a potentially wide information-gathering network. The Synairgy application displays maps with the data measured by the device and the statistics received from the server. The feedback loop completes with the device receiving information from the application about the polluted areas, so that it can caution the users as soon as they enter one.

Probably the best approach to solving the environmental problems caused by air pollution is to make people aware of it and of their actions that possibly favor it. Synairgy does just that by gathering and publishing meaningful and up-to-date information. This is the result of people using Synairgy devices and sharing the measured data. Synairgy is innovative in offering a customizable mobile device (the user can select which sensors to plug in) that helps protect the people with respiratory illnesses or people concerned about the air they breathe, relying not only on the data it gathers but also on the data measured by other Synairgy devices. Furthermore, the sharing of air pollution information between the users is original in its own.