Pollution Guardian
Lead Participant:
ALL ABOUT THE PRODUCT LTD
Abstract
"A feasibility study for an affordable, air quality alerting solution for use within vehicles which will **transform the ability** of both consumers with existing respiratory conditions and others wishing to protect their lungs to take actions to improve their health outcomes.
Air pollution is a challenge in many countries at the moment, but it is a burning issue for those with existing respiratory conditions. In the UK today, there are 5.4M asthmatics with over 60% identifying air pollution as the main trigger for an asthma attack and **30% requiring unplanned care** at hospital/out-of-hours centres each year.
Several studies indicate the car as the place for the highest exposure to air pollution. We believe that mitigating the exposure within the car will have a significant impact on overall health outcomes.
We aim to perform market research within and beyond the asthmatic group to identify suitable and acceptable ""smart interventions"" to enable the users to take action to avoid the worst air pollution. The results of the research will be fed into a feasibility exercise, working with the University of Surrey to develop a system, characterise the system and validate its performance in the field, before trialing with friendly users to gain real world feedback.
The solution will consist of a re-chargeable, battery powered sensor which will be mounted in-car to measure the levels of NO2 and particulate pollution and communicate locally with a Bluetooth enabled app running on a smartphone. Data will be transferred between the smartphone and back-end system in the cloud to provide processing, storage and ""presentation"" feedback to the smartphone app. Local alerts will be raised according to a 'machine learning' trained algorithm, when pollution levels become high and the user prompted through visual and audible means to make ventilation changes in the vehicle to reduce their air pollution dosage. Offline guidance e.g. logs and pollution maps will be developed according to the guidance seen coming from market research."
Air pollution is a challenge in many countries at the moment, but it is a burning issue for those with existing respiratory conditions. In the UK today, there are 5.4M asthmatics with over 60% identifying air pollution as the main trigger for an asthma attack and **30% requiring unplanned care** at hospital/out-of-hours centres each year.
Several studies indicate the car as the place for the highest exposure to air pollution. We believe that mitigating the exposure within the car will have a significant impact on overall health outcomes.
We aim to perform market research within and beyond the asthmatic group to identify suitable and acceptable ""smart interventions"" to enable the users to take action to avoid the worst air pollution. The results of the research will be fed into a feasibility exercise, working with the University of Surrey to develop a system, characterise the system and validate its performance in the field, before trialing with friendly users to gain real world feedback.
The solution will consist of a re-chargeable, battery powered sensor which will be mounted in-car to measure the levels of NO2 and particulate pollution and communicate locally with a Bluetooth enabled app running on a smartphone. Data will be transferred between the smartphone and back-end system in the cloud to provide processing, storage and ""presentation"" feedback to the smartphone app. Local alerts will be raised according to a 'machine learning' trained algorithm, when pollution levels become high and the user prompted through visual and audible means to make ventilation changes in the vehicle to reduce their air pollution dosage. Offline guidance e.g. logs and pollution maps will be developed according to the guidance seen coming from market research."
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| ALL ABOUT THE PRODUCT LTD | £107,675 | £ 75,413 |
Participant |
||
| INNOVATE UK | ||
| UNIVERSITY OF SURREY | ||
| UNIVERSITY OF SURREY | £45,599 | £ 45,599 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Robert Alfonsi (Project Manager) |