Pigeons monitor air pollution

Twenty pigeons equipped with mobile phone backpacks are to be used to monitor air pollution in California.

The birds' backpacks will contain a basic mobile phone, a GPS satellite tracking receiver and air pollution sensors.

Automatic text messages on air quality will be transmitted in real time to a special pigeon online journal.

Miniature cameras slung around the birds' necks will also send aerial pictures to produce interactive pollution maps online.

Researcher Beatriz da Costa, of the University of California at Irvine, and two of her students came up with the unusual idea.

The team have built a prototype of the pigeons' equipment and plan to fit all the components onto a single board small enough to be carried in a backpack by the birds.

"We are combining an air pollution sensor with a home-made cellphone," da Costa told New Scientist.

The flock of 20 techno-pigeons are set to be released into the skies of San Jose on 5 August at the Inter-Society for Electronic Arts' annual meeting.

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