Tirupati: IIT-T students develop app to track pollutants in air

Tirupati: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Tirupati (IIT-T) have come up with an app which can visualise air quality in the location thereby paving the way for bringing awareness among the people.

The app was developed by IIT-T student Noble Saji Mathews under the guidance of Dr Sridhar Chimalakonda from the department of Computer Science and Engineering in collaboration with Prof Suresh Jain of department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The android based app called "AiR – Pollution visualiser" uses 'Augmented Reality' to provide an interactive and live experience of air pollutants.

The researchers take the pollution data from the Central pollution Control Board (CPCB) and visualise various air pollutants present in the locality through GPS in the user's surroundings. It creates awareness in an interactive manner about the different pollutants and how it affects the people nearby.

Users can track the pollution levels by using their mobile phones. It can be downloaded from Google play store and works only on AR Core supported devices. It could be used at 130 odd locations in the country. As the air around the people consists of various pollutants, the quality of air has been deteriorating rapidly which is a major source of worry.

The idea was generated during the time of Covid. "There was much news during the lockdown period that pollution levels have been low while some others denied it. There comes the idea as to how we can visualise the air and work on it", said Dr Sridhar.