What
do you get when you cross a cell phone with a pollution sensor?
According to Calit2 researcher Shannon Spanhake, '07, you
get a Squirrel-that's what the engineer-turned-artist
calls the device that fits in your palm.
Calit2's Circuits
Lab built the prototype, which combines a battery, a Bluetooth
wireless transmitter and a sensor to monitor carbon monoxide
and ozone levels. Real-time pollution data is beamed at regular
intervals
to the user's cell phone, where software-dubbed "Acorn" creates
a screensaver with the latest readings before forwarding them
to an Internet database.
The engineers are shrinking the size of
the
device while beefing up the sensor to test for other air pollutants
such as nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide. Spanhake says venture
capitalists and private foundations have already inquired about
Squirrel's market potential.
"The price of wireless and sensor
technology is now making it feasible that every person with
a cell phone could become a pollution monitor," says Spanhake. 
Contributors to Making Waves: Mario Aguilera, '89, Rex Graham, Raymond Hardie, Robert Monroe, Neda Oreizy, '08, Doug Ramsey
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