What's That Smell? Detecting Air Quality with Python, Raspberry Pi, and Redis

With a little wiring and a few lines of code, one can create your own hyperlocal air sensor system to send alerts, activate smart-windows, and gather data. A sensor measures air particulate density and sends the values to a Raspberry Pi compute unit. The Raspberry Pi then sends the data along with a timestamp and location information to a cloud instance of Redis, a NoSQL data store. Once in Redis, the data can trigger SMS notifications, feed data visualization libraries, or activate electronics such as air purifiers or motors to open or close windows. This can be scaled to monitor air quality in multiple rooms, offices, city blocks, or cities.