Pigeons with mobile phones to monitor pollution

[Mrs Fish]

ananova said:

Pigeons with mobile phones to monitor pollution A flock of pigeons wearing mobile phone backpacks are to be used to monitor air pollution in California. About 20 pigeons will each carry a mobile phone with a GPS tracking chip and air pollution sensors, reports New Scientist. Data will be sent back via text messages to a so called pigeon 'blog' on air quality. And miniature cameras tied around the birds' necks will post aerial pictures of trouble spots. Beatriz da Costa, a researcher from the University of California at Irvine, and two of her students came up with the idea. They built a prototype of the pigeons' equipment, containing a mobile phone circuit board with SIM card and communication chips, a GPS receiver and sensors capable of detecting carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. The pigeons are to be released in August into the smog-filled skies over San Jose in California.

[littlegreenfairy]

Where are you finding all of this tonight??!!!

[Mrs Fish]

ananova

[littlegreenfairy]

Mrs Fish said:

ananova

Wanna find stuff about polymers

[Mrs Fish]

nope


Gotta go do some wedding invites for a friend

[mybrainhurts]

Is our resident Pidge taking part in this jolly....?

[eharding]

mybrainhurts said:

Is our resident Pidge taking part in this jolly....?

He can't type right now....he's on the phone.

[R988]

eharding said:

mybrainhurts said: Is our resident Pidge taking part in this jolly....? He can't type right now....he's on the phone.

Funny I thought the same thing when I read about this in the paper last week.

[Pigeon]

Bloody thing hasn't stopped ringing all day, gonna leave it switched off now