By Alison Hewitt

Originally published in UCLA Today

UCLA's Center for Embedded Network Sensing is testing new cell phone software that helps people track their carbon footprint and their exposure to pollutants.

For Estrin, a computer science professor and director of UCLA's Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, it's not about socializing. It's beta testing for CENS' newest invention — the personal environmental impact report.

By downloading software onto a GPS cell phone, users can get daily reports on how much smog they produced while driving, how much pollution they inhaled while walking and even how many fast-food joints tempted them along the path of their commute or jog. An interactive Web site traces lines across a map showing details such as where a user drove, how long the trip took and whether the driver passed through any particularly polluted areas.

The project currently covers the greater Los Angeles area, but will begin a pilot program in the Bay Area this fall. And the CENS team hopes to expand to other locations soon.

How did they do it?

CENS compiled a slew of government reports that identified, among other data, concentrations of local particulate-matter and emissions from different types of cars. The new software then sifts through all the data to make it meaningful to an individual person's life.

"The models and information were all there already, but this makes sense of it and makes it personal," Estrin said.

CENS is a major multidisciplinary research enterprise that's focused on developing wireless sensing systems and applying this technology to critical scientific and societal pursuits. Its faculty, staff and students come from a wide spectrum of fields that include computer science, engineering, biology, information sciences, urban planning, and theater, film, and television.

The CENS team envisions people using its latest innovation to try out different commutes in order to minimize their carbon output or to reroute their jogging path to avoid pollutant hot zones. Users can even compete with friends to see who can have the lowest environmental impact.

"It's meant to be a tool to compare different patterns and habits in your own life, so you can say, 'Well, doing this seems to expose me more,' or 'I have a greater impact from this commute compared with that commute,' "explained Jeff Burke, who, along with Estrin, is one of four principal investigators on the project.

The personal environmental impact report project, or PEIR, has been in the works for about a year, and will make an appearance at Wired Magazine's technological showcase, NextFest 2008, in late September. The project, within UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, received support from Nokia and the National Science Foundation.

The PEIR team hasn't set a date for public consumption yet, but continues to slowly expand their pool of beta testers and is seeking Bruins who want to join, Burke said. Users load software to their GPS cell phones, which then ping the CENS servers every 30 seconds to track users' locations. The CENS servers scour the mathematical models used to calculate pollution input and output, and users hop online to check their stats.

Users' specific location information is a carefully guarded secret for privacy reasons. "The beta testers don't have to share their location trace with friends," Estrin said. "When people see how much is visible about them just from a location trace — well, it's pretty powerful."

A Facebook widget, complete with bar charts, lets PEIR users engage in a little friendly competition. Polluters get smacked with a smokestack image while greenies see a palm tree — or is it a windmill? "I've never seen anybody without the smokestacks, but I think it's a windmill," said Burke, who is also a researcher with the School of Theater, Film and Television and executive director of the Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance.

Beta testers have asked for more interactive features, such as a way for the site to point out the most (carbon) efficient route to drive to errands, or the closest park with the cleanest air. They also want to set weekly goals.

CENS recently added a feature that determines whether users are walking or driving based on the speed at which they're moving. So what if you are parked on a gridlocked freeway? You can't fool the software into thinking you're taking an environmentally friendly walk. Mapping technology detects your path and presumes no one's walking on the freeway.

Taking a green perspective is just the beginning, said Jeff Goldman, CENS program development director. Tracking one's fast-food exposure has already been added as one measure of health. After all, Goldman explained, simply driving past a restaurant can be a temptation. "The psychology of the advertising is very well documented," he said.

The project continues to expand in several different directions, Burke said. In the end, it's all about connecting a wealth of existing information to individual lives using the cell phones that people already have. And, of course, sharing the results on Facebook.

Published: Wednesday, August 27, 2008

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