Weighted Air Pollutant Data Aggregation for Exposure Tracking
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for tracking a user's exposure to air pollutants lack accuracy and reliability, as they rely on unverified data from various sources with unknown quality, making it difficult to determine if personal exposure falls within safe limits, especially for individuals with respiratory diseases.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that aggregate pollutant information by assigning weightings to data sources based on their quality, using a network of verified sensors, and incorporating user-specific data like breathing rate to calculate accurate personal exposure over time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If data from multiple sources including unverified sensors is aggregated to increase coverage, then spatial coverage is improved, but data quality and reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent assigns different quality weights to different data sources based on their characteristics. Environmental monitoring stations receive higher weights due to their verified accuracy, while consumer sensors receive lower weights. This local quality differentiation allows the system to aggregate data from diverse sources to improve spatial coverage while maintaining overall data reliability through weighted averaging.
2Loss of information
If data from unverified consumer sensors is used to increase data availability, then data availability is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the raw data from multiple sources by applying quality-based weightings as a parameter change. This allows consumer sensor data to be included in the aggregation process without compromising overall precision, as their lower individual precision is compensated by lower weight assignments in the weighted average calculation.
3Measurement precision
If environmental monitoring stations are used to ensure high data quality, then measurement precision is improved, but spatial coverage deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges data from two distinct types of sources: high-precision environmental monitoring stations and numerous consumer sensors with lower precision but better spatial distribution. By combining these sources with appropriate weightings, the system achieves both high measurement precision (from the environmental stations) and improved spatial coverage (from the consumer sensors).
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The present application relates to a method for tracking a user's exposure to air pollutants, comprising receiving pollutant information from a plurality of air quality data sources at one or more user locations, determining a weighting for at least one of the plurality of data sources, the weighting representing quality of the pollutant information from the respective data source, selecting data sources from the plurality of data sources based on the weighting and aggregating pollutant information from the selected data sources to determine the user's exposure over a predetermined period of time.