You know the good feeling you get when you think about how your computer is running Folding@home all the time, or that you’ve been careful to clip six-pack rings all your life? Well, soon you might have one more warm fuzzy feeling, if this project underway at Intel Labs Berkeley comes through. They’re designing portable air-quality sensors that monitor and sample the air around you throughout the day and allow it to be shared and analyzed later.
The current sensors are a little bigger than a phone, but one “long-term” plan is to use mobiles as sampling points; just write an app, add a sensor to the phone (could be an accessory), and let people do their thing. It could upload quality, temperature, and GPS location in real-time. Sounds good to me, I just hope it doesn’t kill my battery.