Fed II Star - February 12, 2006

REAL LIFE NEWS: THE PIGEON PATROL TACKLES SAN JOSE SMOG

There's a new task force in town, getting ready to monitor levels of pollution in the skies above San Jose. They are a flock of pigeons.

Later this year, 20 of the feathered creatures will have a GPS receiver, air pollution sensors and a cellphone strapped to their backs, and then be released to fly around as normal. Their equipment will measure levels of pollutants they encounter, and beam the results back as text messages to a blog.

That's the plan, anyway. It's the brainchild of a researcher and students at the University of California, Irvine. They have built a prototype of the pigeon's kit containing a cellphone circuit board with SIM card and communication chips, a GPS receiver, and sensors for carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. They now plan to squeeze all the components onto a single board which is small enough for the birds to carry.

The pigeon bloggers are due to be released on August 5, and the data they send back will be displayed on the blog in the form of an interactive map. The birds will also carry cameras around their necks and post aerial photos to the blog.

Let's hope Dick Dastardly and Muttley don't try to stop the pigeons from doing their job!