Those who are environmentally conscious can now download an app to
monitor air quality thanks to the work of multiple University of
Southern California (USC) researchers.
The app, named Visibility, works quite simply according to Gaurav
Sukhatme, computer science professor and the head researcher behind
its development. All the user has to do is take picture of the sky
while the sun is shining. This photo can then be compared to
established models of sky luminance to estimate visibility. According
to Sukhatme, visibility is related to the concentration of harmful
"haze aerosols." These tiny particles collect from dust, engine
exhaust, mining or other sources in the air.
Sukhatme, who worked extensively with Sameera Poduri, a postdoctoral
researcher at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering, designed the app
for the Android platform. He said it hopes many people download it,
which would allow them to improve the software.
"We're sure we can improve it if we get people trying it and testing
it and sending data," Sukhatme said in a statement
The reason the app works is because modern smartphones uses a set of
sensors that include cameras, GPS systems, compasses and
accelerometers. The accelerometer in the phone determines how the user
is holding the phone, determining whether it displays information
vertically or horizontally. This ultimately ensures the user will hold
it in the right direction.
According to the researchers, getting the right image is critical in
the success of getting this app to work. The human element is
essential they say. The user must make sure the picture is of the sky.
"Several computer vision problems that are extremely challenging to
automate are trivially solved by a human. In our system, segmenting
sky pixels in an arbitrary image is one such problem. When the user
captures an image, we ask him [or her] to select a part of the image
that is sky," it says in their report.
While the accelerometers and the compass capture the image three
dimensionally, a phone's GPS captures the date and time. This allows
the app to find out the position of sun when the photo was taken. Once
the image is taken, it's uploaded automatically to a central computer,
where the data is analyzed.
The duo has already tested it in several locations.
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