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As part of its transatlantic collaborative research activities in the smart city domain, Inria@SiliconValley has nurtured the development of the Ambiciti solution for changing environmental consciousness. The App gives people a new tool to understand their environment.
San Francisco, 8th March 2017 – Protecting ourselves from environmental pollution requires the best possible information about exposure. Yet, government pollution agencies often monitor pollution in only a few places and therefore may not capture all the areas where people live, work and play. Technological innovations can provide better methods to measure pollution exposure and thus produce better information for protecting our health. Armed with personalized information, people can make decisions to limit pollution exposure for themselves and be more aware about pollution in their communities.
“We created Ambiciti to help people become more aware of how their own exposure to pollution varies from place to place and to empower them to make decisions to protect their health,” said Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, Ambiciti co-founder and environmental health expert.
Originally launched in Paris in September 2016, Ambiciti estimates noise and air pollution levels for every street in a region, in real time, by bringing together and combining data from multiple sources. The Ambiciti app tracks a user’s exposure to air and noise pollution, helping people make choices to protect their health and showing how personal choices can change exposure.
The Ambiciti App can tell users, simply and understandably:
- How high their exposure is to air pollutants and sound wherever they are,
- If their exposure is higher than what public health experts recommend,
- If their exposure is higher or lower than others in the same region,
- Where and when a user’s exposure is high ,and
- What is the least polluted route on which to walk or run?
The mobile app is free and works in the background as users go about their day. “I’ve lived here over 20 years and I was surprised to see how much pollution changed from place to place,” said Colleen Kavanaugh, a long-time San Francisco resident. “My kids and I love to walk around the city and I’m definitely going to use the app to find the safest routes.”
The app also has a social impact. “We often get asked by communities affected by pollution to help them make the case that their exposure is harmful,” said Jonathan Heller, co-director of Human Impact Partners. “I can imagine communities using Ambiciti to monitor their own exposures.”
Learn more by watching this video or check us out at Ambiciti.io.
Ambiciti is a French startup created through a partnership among the French National Institute for Computer Science and Applied Mathematics (Inria), NUMTECH and The Civic Engine and supported by EIT Digital – Digital Cities Action Line, and Inria@SiliconValley.
