NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Pollution Levels At Your Fingertips

Pollution is invisible and knowing how much is around you is not always easy. But a new system called Citisense, which consists of a mobile air quality sensor and smartphone app, could one day give people real-time information about the air around them. 

"Asthmatics, who number in the millions, would find this valuable to their immediate health," said William Griswold, a computer science professor at UC San Diego, who lead the group that developed the system. "What we found is that people are very interested in their personal exposure, even if they are not asthmatic."

The system, which is still in the research stages, has a mobile sensor that a person wears while walking or biking around a city. The sensor detects the levels of pollutants in the air and sends the information to a server that uses machine learning to analyze the information for the app. Users with the app can see maps that display levels of pollutants, estimates of a user's exposure to those pollutants as well as a color-coded scale for air quality that uses EPA standards, i.e. green for good and purple for bad.

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The sensors were tested for four weeks by 30 people all over San Diego, most of them faculty at the university. According to the press release, one tester found that she was exposed the most to pollutants while she rode her bike to work. 

Griswold said in the release that, “The people who are doing the most to reduce emissions, by biking or taking the bus, were the people who experienced the highest levels of exposure to pollutants.” The field tests also found that pollution levels varied throughout the day, depending on variables like traffic.

For the most part, the sensors are mobile and proximity to them is necessary for the app to receive data. However, Griswold said in an email to Discovery News that if enough sensors were put out into an area, personal sensors wouldn't be necessary to receive feedback on the pollutants nearby. "With the machine-learning component in the backend," he said, "it will be possible to get an estimate of your exposure from the machine learning estimates, even if you don't have a sensor."

Toward the end of the testing phase, a few fixed sensors were tested, but Griswold said that they didn't affect the user experience enough to continue.

One of the hurdles facing the project now is battery life. The data exchanges between the sensors and mobile devices takes up a lot of power. When testing, users had to carry around two chargers, one for the sensor and one for the smartphone. Currently, the team is experimenting with replacing constant updates by spacing out times when data is transferred to every 15 minutes to save battery life, or making it a transfer that occurs on demand.

Griswold said in an email that sensors like this will be start appearing on mobile phones in about a decade or so.

via CleanTechnica

Credit: Jacobs School of Engineering

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Machine Makes Short Work of Battery Recycling

For everyone who recycles their batteries, good for you! Your efforts won't be wasted, at least not in Sweden and the U.K., where a machine with artificial intelligence is being developed to sort all of those batteries so they can be sold for their still-usable components.

The machine, built by Claes Strannegard, an artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, has a camera and a computerized brain that runs on a neural network. That kind of system works more like a human brain in that it can learn to "see" patterns and respond to them. It's an ability that's important for sorting batteries, which come in a range of different sizes and shapes and contain materials, such as lead, cadmium and steel, that need to be distinguished from one another because they're valuable for resale.

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Brain in a Dish Flies Plane

At the recycling plant, batteries are fed to the machine on a conveyor belt. Its camera takes images of the batteries and its brain compares them to other batteries it has seen before. The machine may then send rechargeable "AA" batteries in one direction and single-use "AAA" batteries with steel casings in another direction.

The machine can recognize 2,000 different kinds of batteries and identify them in just milliseconds -- much faster than a human. And it can produce real-time information about how many batteries of a given type -- rechargeable or not, AAAs or Ds -- are being processed. This helps the recycling plant operator better manage the inventory that can eventually be resold.

The machine works differently from conventional mechanized sorters that scan for bar codes or color and are unable to discern a battery if it's dinged, dirty, dented or scuffed.

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The battery-sorting machine was developed by Optisort, and so far, the company has delivered two machines -- one to Renova in Gothenburgand one to G & P Batteries in the U.K., which is sorting one-third of the country’s recycled batteries.

Maybe Skynet will be a sanitation worker rather than a general.

Via University of Gothenburg

Credit: University of Gothenburg

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See How Purchases Directly Impact Climate Change

Ever wonder how much that purchase you just made affects climate change? Probably not, but you should. Every time you buy something, you directly affect the environment, whether it's food or entertainment, hardware or software or anything in between.

Now an app from researchers at MIT, Stanford and U.C. Berkeley, called Oroeco, works with the financial tracking website Mint.com to link purchases, including investments, with climate change data.

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The app includes a carbon calculator that breaks down your purchases (i.e. food, living expenses, entertainment, investments) and puts them on a carbon emission scale.

You can compare your data to other users and create goals on how to lower those emissions by following the tips and guidelines provided. Over time, you'll be able to see a long-term graph of how your spending has changed and how your carbon output has adjusted with these changes. By making improvements you can earn "oro points" for virtual and real-life prizes.

The app is currently seeking funding in Indiegogo, and everyone who pledges $5 or more will get access to the beta version.

Credit: Oroeco

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Sustainably Smart Bamboo Mobile Phone

Earlier this year, the U.K. tech company ADzero announced that they would be releasing a bamboo mobile phone sometime in 2012. Well, sometime just came. At Droidcon, an Android event in London, the company released full specifications on the phone as well as a Kickstarter campaign.

The phone is made from treated organic bamboo and has 16 GBs of storage as well as an 8-megapixel camera with a shadow-minimizing feature. It will run on Android Ice Cream Sandwich and has a 1.4 GHz Samsung Exynos quad-core processor. From laptops to bicycles, bamboo is becoming a trend. It's has been a pretty popular choice among designers looking for a sustainable, yet durable choice for creating new things.

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However popular the material, the ADzero phone still needs funding. Which is why they mentioned a soon-to-be started Kickstarter campaign. To get a phone, donors must give at least $500, which is apparently an "Early Bird Special" of $200 off of the original retail price.

This announcement was made on Friday, but there was no specific release date announced for the phone or when the actual campaign would start. If you're in the market for a sustainable phone and have the extra dough to spend, keep an eye out.

Credit: ADzero

A Household of Wi-Fi Bulbs Controlled By Remote

In one of the older "Treehouse of Horror" episodes from The Simpsons, Pierce Brosnan voiced a murderous home automation system. Back then, the idea of home automation was practically a dream (or a nightmare) to average folks, but now it's becoming an attainable reality. This set of Wi-Fi-controlled lightbulbs from Greenwave Reality will give homeowners control over their home's entire lighting system with a remote control.

The wireless LED lighting kit consists of four 40-watt equivalent bulbs, a remote control and a gateway box that connects to any home router. They won't be readily available at your local home improvement store -- instead the company plans to sell the sets through utility and lighting companies for around $200, with each new bulb costing under $20.

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Each bulb has its own IP address and once installed, automatically pairs with the gateway. Once all of the bulbs are paired and the gateway is connected to the router, lighting in the home can be controlled through the remote, which will be able to control up to 500 bulbs at one time.

An app downloaded to a smartphone or tablet controls brightness, timers or a large section of lights. Controlling lights through your mobile device might just seem like a novelty but it does serve a purpose. Setting up schedules and timers for when the lights need to come on, or setting dimmers is pretty easy and provides the same piece of mind that persnickety timers do.

via Technology Review

Credit: Greenwave Reality

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6,000 Light Bulbs Make Cloud Art

Earlier this month in Alberta, Canada, at the Nuit Blanche Calgary, an exhibit called CLOUD showed how even the simplest inventions still inspire awe and wonder. The art installation, which was set up in Olympic Plaza park,was made up of 6,000 light bulbs: 1,000 working and 5,000 burnt out.

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Hanging from the cloud were thousands of chains, each of them attached to a single bulb. Visitors stood underneath the cloud and pulled at the chains. The cloud would brighten and dim as this happened, and judging by the video, it was a beautiful sight to see. The incandescent bulbs for the interactive sculpture were collected through donations from local homes and businesses. In an email to Discovery News, Caitlind r.c. Brown, the designer of the CLOUD said that, "The idea was to create an informal collaboration between the community and the artists, reduce costs and experiment with the potential of items post-use."

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Brown described the arduous process of putting up the structure, saying it required "a small team of strong men and heavy machinery." After transporting the sculpture to the park, a base was build on-site, hoisted up with a fork lift and bolted in place. The CLOUD's parts all together weight over 1,500 pounds, and because of its asymmetrical shape, the weight was not evenly balanced. While this seems like a difficult task, Brown says the take down was even harder. Probably because the exhibit lasted from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Check out the video below to see the CLOUD in action.

via DVICE

Credit: Caitlind r.c. Brown 

via DVICE

Credit: Caitlin r.c. Brown

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Shower Doubles as a Washing Machine

 

You do all you can to help the environment. You recycle, use compact fluorescent bulbs and even keep your home slightly balmier than you'd like on a hot summer day. The one thing that's really hard to tone down? The nice long shower at the end of a hard day. Four Industrial Design students from Turkey feel your pain, so they developed Washit.

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Washit is a shower and washing machine all in one. Two waters pumps, three different kinds of filters (carbon, organic and chemical), UV filters and a water heater make up this double-use appliance. Don't get weirded out, here's how it works: The shower stall takes gray water that collects at the bottom during a shower, filters it, puts it through a UV cleaning phase and then sends it to a water tank. When a user wants to do laundry, she can access the washing machine from outside of the stall and use the filtered water to clean her clothes.

The Washit is still in design mode, but it did win the IF Concept Design Award. After such a big win, the creators are now working on a usable prototype.

via DVICE

Credit: Ahmet Burak Aktas, Salih Berk Ilhan, Adem Onalan, Burak Soylemez

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Solar Panels Light Up the NFL

 

The next time you sit down to watch a NY Jets home game, take a minute during those overhead shots to look at the MetLife Stadium's ring of colorful lights. Those are solar panels, part of a renewable energy push from the NFL to make stadiums more energy efficient.

The 1,350 panels change colors from green to blue, depending on who is playing. The panels aren't just for looks, though. They generate 350,000 kilowatt hours of power, about 10 percent of what the stadium needs on a typical game day, and 25 times the electricity needed to power the LED lights that illuminate the stadium.

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According to National Geographic, the power sector-focused company NRG Energy is responsible for this effort and many other renewable energy projects in sports. This includes a solar canopy still under construction at the New England Patriots' sports complex called Patriot Place and the 8,000-panel project in the parking area of the Redskins' FedEx Field in Maryland.

David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, told National Geographic that projects like these are a good way to bring attention to sustainable efforts and building fan's team pride. He said that he understood fans weren't going to football games to look at rooves, but that when they do see the panels “fans will look at them and say, ‘my team is doing the right thing.’ It’s really about raising awareness with the fan base.”

via National Geographic

Credit: NRG

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Fuel Cells Turns Waste Into Electricity

Waste not, want not...even when it comes to electricity.

Waste treatment plants may soon have a new way to treat wastewater that will also generate electricity. Oregon State University has developed a method using microbial fuel cells that can generate 10 to 50 times more electricity from waste treatment plants than methods that use similar cells. 

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Currently, waste treatment plants use a process called "activated sludge" to speed up the decomposition process of solids in waste water. This uses microbes to break down organic material. During this process, anaerobic organisms (that don't require oxygen) convert organic materials to methane.

It's effective but has environmental drawbacks because methane is a greenhouse gas.

OSU's microbial fuel cell uses microorganisms to break down the particles directly on an anode, which generates electrons and protons. These transfer from the anode to a cathode (terminals where electricity flows in and out) inside of the fuel cell which creates an electric current. 

Engineers on the project say the method was improved by reducing the space between the anode and cathode and using advanced microbes. This made it possible to produce more than two kilowatts per cubic meter of waste.

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So, why is this important? According to a press release from OSU, 3 percent of electrical energy in the United States and other countries is used to treat waste water. Most of that electricity comes from coal, oil or gas.

A fuel cell process could make it so that waste treatment plants can create their own electricity to power their facilities.

If this process is put into place, treatment plants could even sell the excess electricity. Now we can't just focus on the wonders of sewage, this process can also be used for breweries, animal waste, dairy byproducts and water treatment plants.

A full pilot study will be underway soon in the hopes of moving the concept towards commercial use.

via Engadget

Credit: Oregon State University 

 

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AT&T Scores Phones Based On Sustainability

Earlier this summer, AT&T conducted a survey to find out how important environmental sustainability is to customers when they buy a new mobile phone. The company found that 60 percent of potential buyers consider the environmental impact of a phone before making a purchase. As a result of the findings, the carrier is introducing an eco-rating system into their stores. The label will include all pertinent environmental information and a rating based on it.

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The devices are rated with five categories in mind and each category has a point value. For example, having less hazardous materials earns 4 points, product energy efficiency 2 points and environmentally responsible manufacturing, 3 points. The more points the device has, the better the rating, they must earn at least 14 points to get a five star rating. The only phone to earn that so far is the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate. AT&T isn’t the first company to think about the impact their phones have on the environment, a few years ago Sprint introduced green initiatives that included the addition of eco-devices to their line-up and a buy back program to recycle phones. Verizon has similar initiatives.

The only phone not included in AT&T’s eco-rating system is the iPhone, which after their recent EPEAT debacle isn’t much of a surprise. Since the carrier has said future devices will be rated, maybe Apple can earn a good rating next year.

Credit: AT&T

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