“spirtually and passionately alive”
I woke up yesterday thinking my skin looked clearer and fresher than normal. This made me happy. A quick refreshing wash and I felt yet better. Then, I walked out the door only to be quickly blasted by thick cloud of diesel smoke from a passing bus here in Chihuahua, MX. ‘So much for my fresh, clear face,’ I griped inwardly. Then, I began to ponder about all the crud that would collect upon my face throughout the day.
I arrive at my favorite coffee shop – Kaldi – by foot, order my daily double espresso and log online. The unmistakable fwooop sound from Skype means a message is waiting. It seems my genius friend Ishac, who is completing post-grad work at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, has picked up a new trait: ESP, or extrasensory perception. Er, wait. Maybe it’s just me finally recognizing yet another rare ability of his. Makes sense that an interactive design genius would have extrasensory perception. 
Anyway, check out the new project he just finished and ironically enough alerted me to on the very same morning I oddly found myself wondering about daily pollutants that affect me:
Concept, prototype | 2009
Atmo is a wearable object that senses and records environmental data.
When docked to a base station, the raw data is analysed and displayed back to the user, who can understand their cumulative exposure to various pollutants and toxins over time. But it also sends aggregated data to a central authority, who can detect the need for an emergency response more quickly, and get more accurate data over longer periods of time, enabling them to plan and implement longer term changes.
By distributing the sensing across people – mobile, distributed nodes – a bigger picture can be quickly built up, without the need for a new and expensive urban sensing infrastructure, while also giving individuals direct access to their own data.
Atmo was exhibited at KlimaForum09 during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
View the video:
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