Captor: a project with a loT to treat ozone pollution

Researchers from several countries of the European Commission participate with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), in a project that seeks to measure and propose solutions for the Tropospheric Ozone Pollution, using sensors and the Internet of Things (lot).

The CAPTOR project, the acronym for "Collective Awareness Platform for Tropospheric Ozone Pollution", seeks to create alternatives for a latent problem in the world. In this sense, the European Commission estimates that 95% of the population breathes ozone concentrations higher than the recommendation established by the World Health Organization.

The study has been developed in summer periods since 2016 and will end the measurement at the end of 2018. The study has been developed between several cities in Italy, Australia and Spain, in which a series of sensors have been installed in strategic areas, in order to obtain the largest amount of data, which help to propose future solutions.

In the selected cities, libelium wireless sensors designed with IoT have been incorporated into the homes of some volunteers and, with the help of a mobile application named CaptorAir, designed at the UPC in collaboration with other partners, indicate the constant variations of ozone and the moments of highest concentration of pollution.

Data will be public and the project will inform the sensor hosts about the air quality and the proposals to change the situation in an understandable way. Likewise, Captor seeks to contribute to an awareness of society by taking action in the main sources of pollution, including urban and interurban traffic in major cities, maritime and industrial emissions, and how we could all collaborate to improve the conditions of the air we breathe.