Neighborhood Networks is a long-term research project that combines community arts, participatory design, informal learning, and engineering to articulate and discover how communities use, or might use, emerging technologies.
The project is a joint project of CREATE Lab and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments (UPCLOSE), and is funded through a grant from the Intel Corporation.
sensor rides
As part of my involvement with the project, I rode my bike roughly 40 miles over two days in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with industrial hygiene sensors attached. I used the Casella 360 noise dosimeter to measure and log sound levels, and the Vulcain SafetyPalm IAQ Monitor to measure and log carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide levels. GPS data was recorded with the Garmin Forerunner 201. The former two were rented from Field Environmental in Pittsburgh.
testing
In the first ride, I put the sound dosimeter in my backpack, and clipped the microphone sensor to the back flap of my bag. The gas probe was put in the waterbottle pouch (mesh) of my backpack. I rode about 20 miles on this trip, at a normal speed. Results were good overall, but gas levels seemed to be uniformly low (and this seemed wrong!)
For the second ride, I made a mount of cardboard to keep the gas probe out in the open–it would not touch any surface during use, and would have free-flowing air on the sides (where the sensors are; except for the stalk, which measures temperature). I also tried to go no more than 20 mph during the entire ride. This configuration seemed to work much better. I kept the sound dosimeter in the same place; it seemed to work well the first time. This trip was also around 20 miles long.
results
sensor ride 1 data (.kml, 124 KB)
sensor ride 2 data (.kml, 260 KB)
KML generator script (.zip, 2 KB)
Cel-360 config file used (.zip, 1 KB)
The results painted an interesting picture of the city, capturing some local ephemera: the Kenny Chesney concert, and the necessary traffic bringing people to it. In the screenshot of Google Earth shown above, you can see a large spike in carbon dioxide levels when I passed under the I-279/PA-65 overpass. I can only assume this overpass keeps gas below it (it wasn’t windy on the day I rode), and the sensors picked it up. Also notice the increased levels along the riverfront: there were also large numbers of idling boats and generators powering TV’s, radios and barbecues–again, all for the concert.
I thought the ride was an interesting way to experience each neighborhood in Pittsburgh (I passed through at least a dozen), and a visual way to look at the issue of pollution: both gaseous and aural. Next steps might include visualizing the data by zoning classification or socio-economic background, and including a personal narrative (mine) of the ride (i.e. “there’s a bus next to me now”) as part of the data.
workshops in lawrenceville
I attended two Neighborhood Nets workshops, offered at the Stephen Foster Center in Lawrenceville, as a participant-observer.
The first workshop used the same industrial hygiene sensors used above as a way of sensing the city. Multiple groups went out and recorded (with a Polaroid camera and the sensors) sources of gas emissions and high levels of noise.
The second workshop introduced participants to the canary, a less expensive (but not as accurate), more extensive and more integrated version of the two industrial hygiene sensors they used earlier. The canary is a custom piece of hardware, that is not yet for sale. 
