Dyson’s into much more than just fancy vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. In case you didn’t know, the company recently, albeit unsuccessfully, delved into the world of electric cars. Now, it has produced tech that may give us all a better idea of how COVID-19 lockdowns across the globe have impacted air quality.
Say hell to Dyson’s air quality backpack. From the outside, it looks like it’s nothing more than an ordinary bag featuring an ‘I’m an air quality scientist’ label. Inside, though, this thing packs sensors for reading air quality, GPS navigation, and a battery pack, and was developed using Dyson’s air filter know-how.
The air quality backpack will be used in 14 countries, including New York, London, Delhi, and Milan, to read, well, indoor and outdoor air quality. Phase one of the study will have participants wear the tech during lockdown, while phase two will have them travel the same routes after lockdown to collect and compare data.
Dyson says it will also use readings collected from city monitoring stations and data from its more than 1.9 million air purifiers across the globe to explore air quality trends further.
“The combined data sets will help to give an indication of the effect of lockdown on indoor and outdoor air pollution in cities globally, bolstered by findings from the pre-existing static outdoor air quality sensor network,” the company says.
In some places, it doesn’t take much tech to be able to tell air quality has improved over the past few weeks. Still, if we want to be specific, a proper study has to be conducted. What do you think Dyson’s air quality backpacks will show once the study is over?
For more of our stories on the ongoing crisis, click here. For the latest news and updates on COVID-19, check out reportr.world/covid-19.
