Investigating the use of commodity dust sensors for the embedded measurement of particulate matter

A variety of studies in the past decades have shown that fine particulate matter can be a serious health hazard, contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Due to this, more and more regulations defining certain permissible concentration limits have been set by governments around the world. However, current standard measurement equipment is large, expensive and sparsely deployed. Additionally, both the exposure to hazardous conditions and the susceptibility to negative health effects vary from person to person. As a result, we see the need for fine-grained, mobile and distributed measurements, e.g. to identify hot spots or monitor people at risk. Our research investigates the feasibility of particulate matter measurements using cheap, commodity dust sensors which are small enough to be incorporated into mobile devices. This paper first discusses application scenarios which would benefit from inexpensive methods to assess the particulate matter load. Subsequently, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors are compared and their general suitability for the application scenarios is examined. Finally, an experimental setup for the evaluation of one of the sensors is presented along with preliminary results.