Un innovative, portable and intelligent device, designed to help every citizen to monitor the surrounding environment and the make informed decisions in real time, to move around the city and choose the safest routes for your health. It's called RESPIRO (Real-time Environmental Sensing for Personal Intelligent Risk Optimization) and it is a device developed by theUniversity of Milan-Bicocca together with ROAD – Rome Advanced DistrictIn partnership with XearPro srl. RESPIRO is not just a simple sensor, but it is a real platform within everyone's reach.
RESPIRO detects air pollutants, including CO2, carbon monoxide, fine and ultrafine dust, as well as temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure. All data is georeferenced in real time, providing a detailed picture of air quality surrounding the person using the device.
The project was presented this morning at the Gazometro in the Ostiense district of Rome, home to the ROAD – Rome Advanced District technological research hub the network entity for innovation wanted by Eni, Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Acea, Autostrade per l'Italia, Bridgestone, Cisco Italia and Nextchem during an event opened by the speeches of the rector of the University of Milan-Bicocca, Giovanna Iannantuoni, and of the ROAD President and Director of Stakeholder Relations & Services of Eni, Claudio Granata, which was followed by a round table in the presence of researchers from the University of Milan-Bicocca and ROAD.
Thanks to its low-cost, compact and wearable structure, RESPIRO can be attached to a backpack, a bag or a jacket. Through real-time monitoring and GPS localization, its LED screen offers the user an instant view of environmental parameters, while the dedicated app, connected via Bluetooth, warns with smart notifications when the air you breathe in a place may represent a risk or provides useful data to researchers and active citizens for widespread monitoring activities in a “citizen science” perspective.
The project is linked to the scientific activities that researchers from the University of Milan carry out in one of the squares of the Lombard capital, home to several departments of Milan-Bicocca (Piazza della Scienza) and which are coordinated by POLARIS Research Center of the University.
All this is associated with detection campaigns that several volunteers, students, technicians and teachers of the Bicocca University are creating thanks to the sensors smart portable BREATH to monitor the air quality within the neighborhood. A parallel data collection campaign will be carried out also in Rome, in the Ostiense district thanks to the collaboration of ROAD partners including the Roma Tre University.
«In a world where the quality of the air we breathe is increasingly at the centre of political, social and scientific debate – says the rector of the University of Milan-Bicocca, Giovanna Iannantuoni – our university wants to do its part, proposing a model of regeneration of a space like Piazza della Scienza and promoting cutting-edge technological tools like RESPIRO. The project of the square is continuing thanks to the actions of monitoring pollution and studying and implementing biodiversity that involve our academic community. In this context, the new device that we presented today, cutting-edge and accessible to everyone, was designed to help every citizen monitor the surrounding environment and move more consciously through the city. A true ally for health, sustainable mobility and citizen science».
“With RESPIRO and the collaboration with the University of Milan – Bicocca, we have the first concrete implementation of the activities started by the Rome Advanced District, less than two years after its birth – says the President of ROAD, Claudio Granata. The device will be tested simultaneously between Milan and Rome, thus increasing the database available for air quality analysis. ROAD – a network entity promoted by Eni together with leading Italian and international companies to create a technological innovation district in the Rome Gazometer area – was created precisely for this purpose: to activate supply chain collaborations between research and development departments of private and public entities for business transformation processes, facilitate policymakers in the transition enabling activity and promote the development of new skills”.
