This is amazing! I've wanted to do some "citizen science" project in waterways around me. For instance, building cheap sensors that detect temperature/water level/salinity/particulates/etc that are so cheap as to be basically disposable.
The sensor itself could probably be made for less than $10 these days using various arduino modules, but I'm stuck on how to have the sensors communicate back to a "base station" to collect the information. Cellular-based would probably have great range but who wants to have a phone plan for each sensor! Zigbee may be an alternative, but it may require line of sight. Obviously it'd also have to be low power to work on a LiIon battery, or possibly have a solar panel to harvest power.
I believe the only way to make change is to show our impacts on our environment. And local government doesn't have the tech expertise, money or political willpower to suggest that "local business" may be destroying our health (when it's creating jobs!).
Anyone have any tech suggestions or organizations that do this sort of thing?
The sensor itself could probably be made for less than $10 these days using various arduino modules, but I'm stuck on how to have the sensors communicate back to a "base station" to collect the information. Cellular-based would probably have great range but who wants to have a phone plan for each sensor! Zigbee may be an alternative, but it may require line of sight. Obviously it'd also have to be low power to work on a LiIon battery, or possibly have a solar panel to harvest power.
I believe the only way to make change is to show our impacts on our environment. And local government doesn't have the tech expertise, money or political willpower to suggest that "local business" may be destroying our health (when it's creating jobs!).
Anyone have any tech suggestions or organizations that do this sort of thing?