Smog Blog

In the News

It was only a matter of time. After Google started using Pigeon ranking, naturally the pigeons would start campaigning for their own blog!

On August 5, 20 pigeons

...will take to the skies above San Jose, California, each carrying a GPS receiver, air pollution sensors and a basic cellphone. They will measure levels of pollutants they encounter, and beam back their findings as text messages to a blog in real time.

[Combining an air pollution sensor with a home-made cellphone] the pigeon bloggers are due to be released at the Inter-Society for Electronic Arts' annual symposium in San Jose on 5 August. The data they send back will be displayed on the blog in the form of an interactive map. As well as providing local residents with real-time data on air quality, [researcher Beatriz] da Costa hopes the pigeon blog will inspire people to come up with new ways to monitor the environment. The pigeons will also carry cameras around their necks and post aerial photos to the blog.

[ Pigeons to set up a smog blog 02 February 2006, NewScientist.com news service ]

Smog Blog ( in category In The News , Odd Corners ) - posted at Sat, 04 Feb, 08:00 Pacific | «e»