Dyson loves a bizarre piece of tech. Dyson also loves to bring everything it does back to air quality and today, that comes to us in the form of a backpack. Yep, a backpack.
Dyson, alongside Deakin University, have armed over 300 primary school students and 12 teachers across six schools in Melbourne with backpacks that track air quality. The participants will be walking around with the air sensing backpack tech (to and from school) for four days.
The initiative is called ‘Breathe Melbourne’ and the idea behind it is to really just measure children’s exposure to air pollution on their school commute in Melbourne’s inner west. From there, Dyson hopes the students wearing the air quality backpacks will better understand just how awful pollution is, even in suburbia.
According to Dyson, the data will be analysed by Deakin University researchers, who will work with the students involved in the project on “behavioural solutions to improve the quality of air they breathe”. Students will also complete a survey to identify how the study has impacted their understanding of air pollution and engagement in science and technology.
The Breathe Melbourne initiative sees Dyson re-working the existing sensing technology used in its air purifiers. Essentially, Dyson’s air quality backpack is a portable air sensing device. With on-board sensors measuring PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, VOCs and CO₂, a battery pack and GPS, it collects air pollution data on the move.
The backpack was initially developed by Dyson engineers for the Breathe London Wearables Study – a similar project in the UK in collaboration with King’s College London and the Greater London Authority. As a result of the study, over 31 per cent of the children said they would change the way they commute to and from school to reduce their exposure to air pollution. So that’s something, I guess.
Why Melbourne? Due to its industrial history, proximity to the Port of Melbourne, and the high volume of diesel-fueled vehicles in the area, Melbourne’s inner west has higher air pollution levels than other areas in Melbourne, Dyson said, answering that question.
“It also has higher rates of emergency department presentations for childhood asthma compared to other areas,” the company added.
In addition to the Breathe Melbourne air quality backpack study, two of the participating primary schools will be involved in the ‘Idle Off’ Pilot project which seeks to educate individuals on the risks of idling vehicles and encourage parents to turn off their engines when not using them, to help reduce air quality and improve student health.