Environment, with Respiro air quality monitoring becomes wearable, in real time

Rome, May 21 (Adnkronos) – An innovative, portable and intelligent device, designed to help every citizen monitor the surrounding environment and make informed decisions in real time, to move around the city and choose the safest routes for their health. It is called Respiro (Real-time Environmental Sensing for Personal Intelligent Risk Optimization) and is a device developed by the University of MilanoBicocca together with Road – Rome Advanced District, in collaboration with XearPro srl.

Respiro is not just a simple sensor, but a real platform accessible to everyone. 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 the 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 created by Eni, Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Acea, Autostrade per l'Italia, Bridgestone, Cisco Italia and Nextchem during an event opened by speeches by the rector of the University of Milan-Bicocca, Giovanna Iannantuoni, and the President of Road and Director of Stakeholder Relations & Services at Eni, Claudio Granata, followed by a round table with 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 intelligent notifications when the air breathed in a place may represent a risk or provides useful data to researchers and citizens active in widespread monitoring activities with a “citizen science” perspective.

The project is linked to the scientific activities that researchers from the University of Milan are carrying out in one of the squares of the Lombard capital, home to several departments of MilanoBicocca (Piazza della Scienza) and which are coordinated by the University's Polaris Research Center. All this is associated with detection campaigns that several volunteers, students, technicians and professors from the University of Bicocca are carrying out thanks to the portable smart sensors Respiro to monitor the air quality within the neighborhood. A parallel data collection campaign will also be carried out in Rome, in the Ostiense neighborhood thanks to the collaboration of Road partners including the University Roma Tre.

"In a world where the quality of the air we breathe is increasingly at the center of political, social and scientific debate - says the rector of the University of Milano 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 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 launched 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 allowing to increase the database available for the analysis of air quality. Road – a network entity promoted by Eni together with leading Italian and international companies to create a technological innovation district in the area of ​​the Gazometro in Rome – was born with exactly this purpose: to activate supply chain collaborations between research and development departments of private and public entities for the transformation processes of companies, facilitate policymakers in the activity of enabling the transition and promote the development of new skills”.