The mask that maps pollution across the city
The image of Chinese city-dwellers clad in surgical-style face masks has become a potent symbol of that country’s modernity.
For Westerners it can be a confusing, even troubling spectacle; one that evokes the environmental traumas associated with China’s industrial advance, as well dystopian fears of global disease outbreaks, like the 2003 Sars crisis. For residents of megacities like Shanghai and Beijing, however, face masks are a more prosaic proposition — an everyday solution to all manner of urban irritations, from summer rays to winter viruses; it can even be a fashion statement.
Then there is the ever-present pollution, record levels of which have seen sales of masks boom in recent months. Up to 100,000 a day were being purchased in Beijing alone during a particularly smog-filled January.
By combining this pressing issue with an ongoing focus on wearable technology, the Shanghai branch of international design firm Frog — famous for their work with computing giant Apple — has reimagined the basic mask as an intelligent, Bluetooth-enabled device which can instantly collect and share air quality data.
No longer purely a health product, Frog’s version has a more idealistic purpose: a tool in a connected, data-driven world, in which the power of information is placed directly in the hands of individuals.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130307-smart-mask-maps-polluted-streets