Mobosens is a project led by Dr. Logan Liu and a team of engineers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign focused on giving anyone with a smartphone the ability to measure and detect common pollutants in their environment.
One of the winners of Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project, Mobosens has an initial focus on accurately detecting nitrate concentrations and is planning to expand its sensors to measure heavy metals, carcinogens, and bacteria levels in water.
According to the team, 3 million people die annually from water related diseases worldwide. In order to help combat this statistic they want to help shift away from traditional bench-top laboratory equipment methods used today, and equip regular citizens with a device that can achieve the same level of accuracy and provide a platform for them to distribute their findings to each other, health organizations and researchers.
Project Description:
"MoboSens provides citizens with a platform for collecting and sharing environmental data, from stream quality to drinking water safety.
- Invent social media connected water sensor on mobile phone for the “People”
- Empower the “People” the ability to detect invisible water contaminants
- Broadcast citizen participatory water sensing information map on both phone and internet
- Integrate mobile phone water sensor network with existing institutional sensor networks'
For more information about the project you can visit: http://nanobionics.mntl.illinois.edu/mobosens/ or watch the team's funding pitch video embedded below with more details on their vision.
Additional: Vodaphone page, Indiegogo page, Android App
Related: WaterCanary
Via: Leo Gaggl