Kites to measure air pollution

A joint effort between a Chinese and US graduate students will soon see kites fitted with sensors flying around the smog-filled Beijing skies to measure air pollution.

A joint effort between a Chinese and US graduate students will soon see kites fitted with sensors flying around the smog-filled Beijing skies to measure air pollution.

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The two students who collaborated on the project were Deren Guler, a master’s candidate in tangible interaction design at Carnegie Mellon University, and Xiaowei Wang, a master’s candidate in landscape architecture at Harvard University.

The ‘Float Beijing’ project’s kites carry air pollution sensors as well as colourful LED lights that show the level of air quality — green for good, yellow for moderate, red for unhealthy and pink for severely unhealthy.

A workshop taught citizens how to attach the sensors and lights to the kites, which will detect and display levels of carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds.