Representation of Air Pollution in Augmented Reality: Tools for Population–Wide Behavioral Change

Abstract

Air quality affects health and, unfortunately, has been deteriorating rapidly recently. The problem is significant in smaller towns where the important source of pollution is the heating of households and water from individual sources. Therefore, the inhabitants have an influence on a significant reduction of pollution in their area, but at the same time, they are very often not aware of it. Raising awareness about household-related air pollution plays a vital role as systemic solutions proposed by state and local authorities require the support of local communities. The situation has recently become even more serious as we are facing a crisis caused by the Russian war in Ukraine, which has led to an increase in energy and fuel prices and has postponed restrictions on the use of solid fuels or even incentives to use inferior fuels. Pathologies, such as burning garbage in old-style furnaces, have still not been eliminated. One of the ways of raising citizens’ awareness was to be public, easily accessible information about air quality. Many portals, services, and applications currently provide local air quality data, but few people use them. One reason may be that the figures and graphs can be confusing or unattractive to audiences who are not used to reading scientific reports. Visualizing air quality with augmented reality overcomes these obstacles. A mobile application that can use local elements as triggers and a symbolic representation of air quality based on data read in real-time from sensors is simple, attractive for non-experts, and has an additional educational value. We present the experience of creating such an application and prototype tests with the participation of potential users. Unfortunately, the collected results confirm the low awareness of excessive pollution in a given area and its negative impact on health. However, the interest of potential users and positive opinions about the tested prototype fill with optimism.