Visualization System Suite for Global and Hyperlocal Air Quality Awareness

Abstract

When people think of deadly environmental conditions, rarely do they consider air quality. Yet, according to the World Health Organization, poor air quality kills 3 to 5 million people annually. Most existing air quality alerts monitor the Air Quality Index (AQI). This air quality measure is often filled with data that is too complex for even most meteorologists to interpret, meaning that the everyday person (who is impacted the most) has a very limited understanding of it. Developing a new system to monitor and relay air quality alerts to people in a consistent, easily interpretable way, will raise awareness related to heavy air pollution, especially helping those people with breathing disorders. By presenting air quality information to users, they will be aware of pollution around them and can make better decisions to reduce health risks. We collect real-time data to determine the AQI from air quality sensors around the world and create a system suite to display the data in various visualization formats such as monochrome heatmaps, avatars, and augmented reality for mobile devices. People are able to inquire about hyper-accurate air quality alerts and statistics, based on their selected location. This paper describes methods, tools, and results of visualizing air quality in different formats utilizing data that is generated by multiple sensor APIs. User evaluations, which are employed throughout our study to validate user-friendliness, are also illustrated in detail.