Internet of Breaths: Smart Air Masks Combating Air Pollution

Over 95 percent of the world's population is breathing unhealthy air. Living in Beijing, one of the most air polluted cities, we hope to engage the public and the government to combat air pollution. 

The Internet of Breaths (IoB) is designed to infuse intelligence into everyday objects by leveraging the power of real-time data in novel ways and to delineate an unambiguous picture of the critical socio-environmental issue. In this case, everyday objects interacting with citizens in daily life are imbued with intelligence for the purpose of social well-being.

The IoB is a two-fold system consisting of smart air masks and a mobile app for public users and a real-time IoT environmental sensing network for the government. It aims to create a collaborative approach with decentralized feedback mechanism, combining bottom-up data collection and top-down environmental management, to combat air pollution.

Over 95 percent of the world's population is breathing unhealthy air, according to W.H.O. Living in Beijing, one of the most air polluted cities, we hope to reemphasize this critical socio-environmental issue in a direct and intimate way and engage the public and the government effectively to combat extreme air pollutions through the IoB. 

Citizens, organizations and governments in cities suffering from air pollution globally, especially those living in most polluted cities.

The Internet of Breaths (IoB) is a two-fold system consisting of smart air masks and a mobile app for public users and a real-time IoT environmental sensing network for the government. It aims to create a collaborative approach with decentralized feedback mechanism, combining bottom-up data collection and top-down environmental management, to combat extreme air conditions and to foster a community that pays adequate attention to air pollution and public health.

The smart air mask is a detection, protection, and communication interface for the public users to measure ambient air conditions. The real-time IoB network is formed by mask sensor nodes with air quality and GPS location information transmitting to the cloud. The air condition is then visualized on a digital map accessible to public users through the mobile app and a management interface accessible to the government to take strategic combating approaches.

The smart air mask's built-in MQ135 sensor monitors real-time airborne contaminants and alerts the user to wear a mask when pollutant is detected. At the same time, the sound sensor in the mask connects brightness of the light to the sound of the user's breath, creating synaesthesia of sound and vision, making the mask a lighthouse in the smog, warning people around of the pollution and connecting people in the smog.

The real-time IoB environmental sensing network is formed by data collected from IoB mask sensor nodes. It transmits the AQI (Air Quality Index) information and the mask’s GPS location to the cloud through the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network. The real-time air condition is then visualized on a digital map accessible to public users through the mobile app.

The real-time IoB management interface has multiple layers of information for the government to take immediate and strategic combating approaches, including:

I. base map—Digital interactive map providing geolocation references on multiple scales

II. sensor input—Pollution data collected from the user end

III. pollutant distribution—Simulation results for severity of damage in different regions

IV. evacuation route—evacuation routes that could handle large traffic influx and outflow (for personnel evacuation and material logistics)

V. infrastructure network—Medical facilities / pollutant control devices / emergency shelters / relief material reserves

VI. planning strategy—Auto-generated planning advices based on data analytics

Connecting to IoB is a manifesto, one that reconfirms our sensitivity of the social and natural environment, one that shows our determination to charge against air pollution.

Our solution marks the emergence of a new generation of infrastructure — the Wearable Infrastructure.

Wearable infrastructure is a real-time big data-enabled network of wearable devices and objects that facilitates urban interactions and provides crowd-sourced intelligence to citizens, organizations, and governments.

Technically, it leverages the advancing environmental sensing technology and big data analytics. Strategically, it combines bottom-up data collection and top-down urban governance to address social and environmental challenges by infusing intelligence into everyday objects and natural interfaces.

In the case of air pollution, the intelligent everyday interface is the air mask. By adding sensing capacity and engaging the public, the everyday wearable and objects form a wearable infrastructure. With big data analytics and prediction, the Internet of Breaths (IoB) enables the next level of urban interaction.

The core technologies behind the Internet of Breaths (IoB) are environmental sensing for gases, wireless communication, Internet of Things (IoT), real-time data visualization of environmental data, AR/VR (Augmented/Virtual Reality), and planning & prediction based on machine learning.

The smart air mask's built-in MQ135 sensor monitors real-time airborne contaminants and alerts the user to wear a mask when pollutant is detected. At the same time, the sound sensor in the mask connects brightness of the light to the sound of the user's breath, creating synaesthesia of sound and vision, making the mask a lighthouse in the smog, warning people around of the pollution and connecting people in the smog.

During the pollution, the real-time IoB environmental sensing network is formed by data collected from IoB mask sensor nodes. It transmits the AQI (Air Quality Index) information and the mask’s GPS location to the cloud through the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network. The real-time air condition is then visualized on a digital map accessible to public users through the mobile app. The real-time IoB management interface has multiple layers of information for the government to take immediate and strategic combating approaches based on planning and prediction machine learning algorithm.

After the pollution, the urban environments (ex. billboards on building facades as image targets) raises the public awareness by triggering the AR/VR games on mobile apps.

The infrastructure system of the city is transforming thanks to the advancement of sensing and digital technologies. Our solution marks the emergence of a new generation of infrastructure — the Wearable Infrastructure.

Wearable infrastructure is a real-time big data-enabled network of wearable devices and objects that facilitates urban interactions and provides crowd-sourced intelligence to citizens, organizations, and governments.

The Internet of Breaths (IoB) is designed to infuse intelligence into everyday objects by leveraging the power of real-time data in novel ways and to delineate an unambiguous picture of the critical socio-environmental issue. In this case, everyday objects interacting with citizens in daily life are imbued with intelligence for the purpose of social well-being.

The IoB is a two-fold system consisting of smart air masks and a mobile app for public users and a real-time IoT environmental sensing network for the government. It aims to create a collaborative approach with decentralized feedback mechanism, combining bottom-up data collection and top-down environmental management, to combat air pollution.

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As for the near-term target, the electronic prototype will be developed and tested. Data collection and visualization platform will be established to show the potential of wearable infrastructure usage.

The long-term aim will focus on the political influence. With the theoretical framework starting empowering compliance in social system, the wearable infrastructure system will gain more opportunities to impact citizens who suffer from air pollution. The bottom-up initiated problem will be solved by harnessing top-down innovative platform.

In the rise of new generation 5G networks, IoT devices increasingly play a role in the management of societies driven by individual movements and actions. However, currently, such devices meet cultural, legal, financial, market and technical barrier.

As for the cultural obstacle, 'air mask as an interface ' could be combated in some districts such as countries where citizens valuing data privacy and transparency.

From the perspective of law, the promotion of the device could be a problem since more and more countries start to establish stricter laws against the disclosure of personal privacy. May, 2018 witnessed the birth of General Data Protection Regulation in Europes. What we could predict is the more and more strict laws against personal data collection.

The technique barriers and financial cost should not be ignored. How to reduce the hardware costs by optimizing and rationalizing data collection methods is a big issue.

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TEAM STRUCTURE (7 people)

1. Captains:
Yuxiang Zhang, Yujie Wang

2. Strategic Design & Production:
Adolphus Lau, Dinglu Wang, Yuxiang Zhang, Ziyuan Zhu, Yujie Wang

3. Hardware:
Yuxiang Zhang, Yujie Wang, Jianan Ruan

4. Software (frontend + backend):
Ben Wong, Yuxiang Zhang, Yujie Wang

5. Multimedia/Video:
Jianan Ruan, Jiaxi Zhao

6. Logistics:
Adolphus Lau , Jianan Ruan

We are a team of graduate students from MIT, Tsinghua University, and Hong Kong University with backgrounds in:

Architecture x 4 @ MIT & Tsinghua University
Computer Science x 3 @ MIT, Tsinghua University & University of Toronto
Environmental / Multimedia Design x2 @ Tsinghua University
Urban Planning x1 @ Hong Kong University
Human-Computer Interaction x 1 @ MIT Media Lab

Three of us have entrepreneurial experience winning hackathons and subsequently founding startups in Toronto and Boston.

Therefore, our team has the unique capacity to deliver the solution and solve the problem.

Our team is the shortlisted team for 2019 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen) “Eyes of the City” section.

We are working with Carlo Ratti Associati and the curatorial team with funding to develop the project for the exhibition which will start in December 2019.

This technology is aimed at providing a medium for data mining and ambitious applications in the fields of public health, environment regulations, broad policy research, and urban planning. Therefore, this technology is brought to the commons in partnership with the local government bodies. At the first stage, we aim at partnering with municipal observatories. To note, application of this technology is not only aimed at developed areas but also emerging regions, LMICs as economic activities might imply serious environmental exploitation and thus public health expenditure. Furthermore, this system will partner with academic institutions and researchers to bring more applications for public and private use. They include military, humanitarian, and medical use.

Collectively, these partnerships imply three avenues of revenues. Our organisation can provide service to local governments through a PPP Contract. Research partnerships with research institutes also imply. Third, our system will also develop as an independent developer and think-tank outsourcing technologies thereby generating IP patent earnings. An additional potential source of revenue would come from the private sector should any other non-public based applications emerge on new insights.

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