Micro Air Pollution Sensing - MAPS
Worldwide, air quality has been rapidly deteriorating in tandem with economic growth, rapid urbanization and increased energy consumption. In many developed and developing countries, air pollution has raised a series of issues related to public health and the social economy. Among all pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) comprises particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. It has been shown that, because they are so small, PM2.5 particles can harm a person's health by penetrating the alveoli (the gas exchange regions of the lungs) and even pass through the lungs to affect other organs. Recent studies have shown that PM2.5 is directly related to various serious health disorders, such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and premature death. Thus, it is important to monitor outdoor air quality, especially the level of PM2.5 concentrations.
The MAPS system is a joint effort of the academia and the Maker community. Using commercially-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and open hardware, MAPS is designed to be light-weight, accurate, reliable, and responsive for PM2.5 monitoring. Moreover, MAPS is an Internet of Things (IoT) device, which means it is connected to the Internet and all the measurement results can be accessed in real time. MAPS is also supported by the strong research team of Academia Sinica, Taiwan. The measurement results of MAPS will be used for a better understanding of PM2.5 distribution in the environment, finer-grained PM2.5 dispersion models, on-demand responses for air pollution, and government policymaking. For more information about the MAPS project, please check out our project webpage here, or visit our github repository here.
MAPS is also collaborating with the Location Aware Sensing System (LASS) community. For more information about LASS, please visit its Facebook page here or its github repository here. We welcome and appreciate your participation!