Large-scale data collection
The AirBox concept was originated by Chen Ling-jyh, a research fellow at Academia Sinica, and Hsu Wuulong (who goes by “Ha Ba”), the founder of an online community focused on location-aware sensing systems (LASS). The two first met sometime around 2015. Chen was already working with microsensors, and Hsu had just developed his first microsensing hardware. Since both were interested in the problem of air pollution, they decided to work together on an open-source air quality sensor.
“We worked well together.” Chen says that he and Hsu released the AirBox’s programming, as well as directions for how to make and install the hardware, on the LASS Facebook group. That, along with Hsu’s ability to create Facebook topics, encouraged a group of makers to build AirBoxes at their own expense. Some even traveled as far as the islands of Penghu to install them, in order to collect air quality data from as many parts of Taiwan as possible.
Even so, the community’s capabilities were limited. But then, just as the two men were struggling with a lack of data, Taipei added the AirBox to its Smart City project, attracting media and public attention. Edimax Technology, which was handling the AirBox’s system integration, subsequently decided to donate AirBoxes to Taiwan’s six special municipalities as a corporate social responsibility project. With groups of private citizens also “adopting” AirBoxes, the number of air quality testing sites in Taiwan soared.
The government noted this exercise of civic strength. When it launched the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, it brought in Chen to help with the deployment of AirBoxes, which fell under the program’s green energy category. Chen then worked with the Ministry of Education to install AirBoxes on elementary school campuses all over Taiwan. This not only allowed the collection of large volumes of data, but also enabled teachers to adapt student activities to the current air quality.
In 2017, Hurricane Harvey caused flooding that carried toxins from Houston-area chemical plants into homes. AirBoxes from Taiwan, fitted with volatile organic compound sensors, were used to test local air quality in the aftermath. (courtesy of Chen Ling-jyh)