A recent report on mobile technology use by NGOs that Paul blogged about last week included an innovative example of how mobile sensing technology is revolutionizing data collection.

“According to [Eric]Paulos [of Intel Research, California], in many cases our knowledge of ambient air quality is limited to ‘a small handful of government installed environmental monitoring stations that use extrapolation to derive a single air quality measurement for an entire metropolitan region.’ He argues that this ‘sparse sensing strategy does little to capture the very dynamic variability of air quality that depends on automobile traffic patterns, human activity, and output of industries.’”

A pilot program in Accra, Ghana overcame many of these issues by equipping seven taxi cabs with mobile, GPS-equipped carbon monoxide detectors. The merged data created a detailed and dynamic map of air-quality data across the city. Not only is this information valuable for researchers and planners, the taxi-drivers themselves started using the information to avoid high-pollution areas on their routes.

According to the report, “Mobile sensing represents an important shift in mobile device usage from communication tool to a ‘networked mobile measurement instrument.’” They may be on to something.

The idea of using mobile technology to enhance data collection has been around for a while, most notably in areas such as personal health monitoring and inventory management. But these uses are only starting to take off, and there seem to be many more to come.

Here are a few other examples of mobile sensing at work:

• CarTel is a project by MIT researchers that uses mobile sensor devices embedded in cars to collect data on traffic congestion and optimize travel routes.  
• A project at the University of Cambridge has equipped bike couriers with carbon monoxide detectors hooked up to mobile phones to collect air-quality data for the Cambridge area.
• Nokia’s recently released Eco Sensor Concept is a phone that collects data on the environment, weather, and a user’s health. It would also allow users to share information, enabling mass data-mapping projects.
• The BBC recently reported on a test that equipped public busses in Berlin with sensors and cameras linked, using mobile technology, to traffic control centers. “The scientists believe the data could be used to give motorists automatic warnings of traffic jams, as well as helping control centres respond to dynamic conditions on roads.”