Smartphones are poised to become personal air quality monitors, offering guidance on when to get some fresh air or seek a shady spot to rest.
That's the goal for experts from Israel's Mobile Physics, a company that plans to leverage sensors on smartphones — and eventually crowd-sourced data from other phone users, satellites, and appliances — to provide "tailored insights" about nearby air conditions.
They see the service as a boon to public health.
"If the levels are hazardous, you will have a pop-up that says, 'Levels are high, maybe open the window,'" Mobile Physics co-founder Erez Weinroth said to Axios about indoor air monitoring.
The innovators are working with Qualcomm to integrate sensors and processors that can gauge particulate pollution using light and distance. Samsung and Google are among smartphone manufacturers interested in the tech, which promises to turn phones into little weather stations, per Axios.
"By sometime next year, you'll have the option of buying a phone with this capability preinstalled," Stanford University professor and company chairman Roger Kornberg said in the story.
The warning from our ever-present devices may be a lifesaver. The World Health Organization estimates that 6.7 million people die prematurely from air pollution each year.
Stateside, the Canadian wildfires in the summer of 2023 enveloped the East Coast in a haze of smoky, microscopic particulate pollution that can be devastating to our bodies. As our planet overheats — seeing a rise of about two degrees Fahrenheit since 1850 — more extreme heat and weather events are likely, according to NASA.
An early warning for UV spikes and foul air could be part of the way we protect ourselves. At least, that's how the Mobile Physics team sees the potential for the tech.
"Now we are really able to give anyone the understanding of what is happening around them, and really help them guard their health and wellbeing," Weinroth said in the Axios story.
The goal is for millions of users to be feeding information into a database, used by individuals, health care providers, and governments. The company is considering a subscription model to make revenue from the invention, as well, all per Axios.
"My mission was really to figure out what people are being exposed to, the pollution they are breathing," Weinroth said in the story. He added that the information could help people find safe places to go for a jog or to determine if their homes have proper airflow.
"I am super enthusiastic and excited that we are really on the verge of helping everyone who has a phone," he said to Axios.
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