Tuesday 18 June 2013

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When urban people will measure pollution with a green wrist watch

Environment | No comments

par Baptiste Roux Dit Riche | 01.04.10

How will you recognize the future eco-citizen? Because he will carry a “green watch”! Supported by the Fing (New Generation Internet Foundation), a team of the program Villes 2.0 is developpings a personal measurement tool for pollution in the city. More concretely, a watch which will be carried everyday by volunteer citizens and which will include a noise sensor, a CO2 sensor and a GPS. Objective: achieving ultra-local measurements of pollution which will be then transmitted to a central server.

First sketche of the green watch, the design of which will change by June

First sketche of the green watch, the design of which will change by June

As a first step, the system is tested in the capital, and will have a network of 1,000 moving sensors in the city against 65 monitoring stations that are currently spread throughout the Isle of France (Airparif). But it is out of question to monetize these measurements. They will be available as “open data” on the CityPlus platform and may be freely used for the drawing of maps, models, comparatives … CityPulse will make it possible to have real-time display of the urban pollution level in Paris.

Based on previous tests in London, New York and San Francisco, CityPulse is already under development. The first tests should be held next May-June in Paris as part of « Futur en Seine », an event organized by Cap Digital, the digital competitive cluster. The design of the new personal sensor should be unveiled at this time. Not the least of the challenges: it should be entertaining enough to attract future eco-users and to persuade public territorial parties to choose the green watch.

Villes 2.0 in brief

Launched in 2007 by the Fing (New Generation Internet Foundation), the Villes 2.0 program wants to explore challenges and opportunities related to digital for the urban people, territories and businesses.

The program is based on 4 main challenges :

• “The city as an open platform for innovation”
• “The city, both complex and familiar…”
• “A freer and more sustainable mobility”
• “The 5th screen” (mobiles)

Within these themes, Villes 2.0 works on 4 tests:
• The green watch / CityPulse
• CityWall: the touch screen as a new urban media
• CityScan: platform for sharing urban data
• Reveal, represent and animate the hyper local

Innovator
of the week

Guillaume Mathieu
Founder - Cityzen Mobility

Happy new year

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