Have you ever thought about how much carbon or other pollutants you are exposed to when out and about?

Well, a new EU-funded app will allow you to track just that.

AirProbe, developed as part of the EVERYAWARE research project, has been designed to increase people’s awareness of their environment.

The app works with a small battery-operated sensor box which connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth. It sucks the air in and sends readings for the level of ozone, black carbon and other pollutants to a central server, which then sends around information about the town’s polluted areas as well as peak pollution times to avoid.

It was developed by partners from Belgium, Germany, Italy and the UK and is currently used in schools and for new studies.

Vittorio Loreto, Project Co-ordinator and Research Leader at ISI Foundation in Turin said: “For the time being, I imagine a much smaller, ideally wearable sensor box integrated into our clothes and objects.

“The integration with the smartphones is of course also envisioned, though on a longer timescale. It all depends on which companies are interested in producing the sensor box and how much smartphone makers are willing to invest”.

A similar app related to noise pollution called WideNoise has also been developed.