http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/ Engadget Comments for UCSD researchers hope to track airborne toxins with sensor-equipped cellphones http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 7:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/Agree, especially once you start to think about the wider implications, while it a nice idea...

a) it is useless if the mobile phone is not GPS equipped
a1) sending off your GPS location regularly is pratically surveillance and who knows who gains access to that data...
a2) being in a cellphone I highly doubt this would be 100% anonymous - especially as there would possibly be allowances for firmware updates - and once you have those you can control what is sent...

b) it requires an unlimited data plan - or will they pay people's phone bills?

If that were to become standard I'd either use an old phone or not use one at all... considering I don't use my mobile a lot and I am on pay as you got that wouldn't be a problem for me.]]>May 15th 2010 9:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
Also, why does it need unlimited data? I doubt it'd alert anyone unless something serious was detected, and even then, that's up to the phone manufacturer.]]>May 15th 2010 9:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/I suppose yes - you are right about GPS - but in my case my phone doesn't have any :)

And about sending information - well, it would make the most sense if you monitor constantly, because that would be the most valuable information - how does pollution change.

But even assume it wants to send out information once - I wouldn't want to pay for it - period.]]>May 15th 2010 9:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
It'd be a LOT of data to cover a city, but you could monitor pollutants, temperature, toxins - just about anything across an entire city. It would be more reliable than people ("always" on) and there would be no worrying about privacy.]]>May 15th 2010 10:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
I highly agree about the big brother aspect. This should be something that cannot be remote controlled and is optional. Default off.]]>May 15th 2010 11:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/True - but:
That can only be achieved from the network side as you know where your towers are, the cellphone doesn't know that.
I'm not even sure if it knows which cells its in...

Or am I missing something?]]>May 15th 2010 11:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 12:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
Agreed. These kinds of sensors really have no place in cell phones. Telephone poles and tops of buildings are good, constitutionally neutral place to put things like this.]]>May 15th 2010 1:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 6:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder]]>May 15th 2010 10:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 7:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 8:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
I think this is interesting. But I do wonder what would happen if it did detect something nasty.]]>May 15th 2010 8:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 9:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 9:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 11:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/would you really want your location sent off because your phone detected high concentrations of cannabis smoke? ]]>May 15th 2010 5:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
If the tech becomes feasible then the mass proliferation and networked nature of cell phones makes them ideal for gathering environmental information.
I'll all for privacy - but this is hardly to due with anything truly private and the benefits could be large.
One mustn't forget to stir in a dollop of societal responsibility to their fair share of rights.]]>May 15th 2010 1:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
I wouldn't consider myself a privacy extremist, but thinking that there is a probe in my phone sending out various data and images is borderline disturbing. It already sucks that the GPS does this already.

If you think that this is "social responsibility", then you must also think that a national blood type registry must be a good idea, or having your television automatically take pictures of whoever is watching is a comforting thought.
Imagine the census data! Imagine the targeted ads!
Imagine that.]]>May 15th 2010 1:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
If you see a logical correlation between databases which contain information about you specifically or tv sets which photograph who is viewing particular material and a proposed method of gathering air quality information which happens to use photographic rendering of a sensor to collect data - then, yes, I would recommend you reconsider whether you are an extremist.
The common point of photos is a red herring as large as I have ever seen.
Nowhere, in any of this pie-in-the-sky ambition is anything mentioned about cataloging anything of a personal nature what-so-ever.
The human presence in this scheme is nothing more than a random carrier of technology.
It hasn't even mentioned cataloging general features about you like age or sex - no less any actual personal information.]]>May 15th 2010 2:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 1:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 2:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 15th 2010 3:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/Woohoo! SunGod last night was awesome.]]>May 15th 2010 5:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/
I'd do it for free, but it'd be sweet if researchers would subsidize the phone a little bit this way. ]]>May 15th 2010 7:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 16th 2010 4:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/May 16th 2010 11:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/15/ucsd-researchers-hope-to-track-airborne-toxins-with-sensor-equip/http://www.youtube.com/chemicalsensors#p/u/0/ut00Ifg6rrk

-Brian]]>Jun 9th 2010 4:01PM