Researchers seek to provide real-time ultraviolet (UV) monitoring across the globe for pedestrians with an UV-exposure monitoring technology for the purpose of protecting users from sun over-exposure and aiding in skin cancer prevention. Using a cell phone device and a Bluetooth enabled UV sensor, volunteers walking outdoors contribute to constructing a global UV irradiance map in their respective areas, by periodically uploading UV irradiance samples to the technology's web service. Subsets of the aggregated UV readings are made anonymous, geographically segmented, then made available to the general public for location based UV irradiance queries via a webpage. With smart phone and the technology's App, the typical customer, even without wearing a UV sensor, can keep track of cumulative exposure and can plan travel paths that minimize UV exposure before stepping outdoors.
This technology has the potential to have significant impacts on health and wellness both near and long-term. In the near term: (1) Build a global UV irradiance map in real-time at the pedestrian level through participatory sensing; (2) estimate the pedestrians' UV exposure traveling along a path before they step outdoors: A personal UV monitoring device can prevent over-exposure, however only performs incremental or post processing of the pedestrian's UV exposure. In the long-term: this technology could be used to correlate the pedestrian's UV exposure patterns with skin cancer types: Today, there is little data that correlates UV exposure to the onset of any type of Skin Cancer. If 1 in 5 people are projected to get skin cancer, 20-30 years from now Physicians may be able to obtain UV exposure data from users of this technology that contract skin cancer provided their consent.
Ultraviolet (UV) Guardian: Real Time Estimation of Pedestrians UV Exposure Jerrid Matthews, Mario Gerla In the past 3 decades, there have been more instances of skin cancer than any other cancer combined. Non-melanoma skin cancers such as basal and squamous cell are the least severe and make up 95% of all skin cancer occurrences. Melanoma is the most dangerous and causes 75% of skin cancer related deaths. Skin cancer researchers project that 1 in 5 people will develop skin cancer during their lifetime. Moreover, epidemiologists that we’ve interviewed confirmed that very limited data exists today to correlate UV exposure patterns over time to a specific skin cancer type. The research question of interest is identifying specifically what patterns of UV exposure thresholds over time incite certain skin cancer types for subjects of varied skin type, genetic pre-disposition, and locality. UV Guardian (UVG) is a mobile application that helps establish fine grain UV exposure and skin cancer correlation. Moreover, UVG protects the user from sun over-exposure, while providing recommendations to enjoy sun light benefits such as Vitamin D. We propose a technique for tracking and estimating the UV exposure of a pedestrian traveling along a path in a mapped urban environment. The estimate can be computed either before or during the actual walk. If the user (e.g. a runner) affixes the smart phone facing frontward (e.g.: arm band) so that the sensor can measure the ambient light, fine grain UV exposure can be tracked by feeding the sensor light measurements to a model that maps light intensity to UV irradiance intensity. If the user (like many of us) keeps the phone in their pocket or purse, then exposure is computed using a more elaborate model that correlates travel path, environmental context (i.e.: buildings, trees) and sample UV irradiance readings. The latter method is also used to estimate exposure before the walk. The major breakthrough of this method is the ability to create and maintain a digital history of the users’ UV exposure from the time the UVG app is installed and activated on their smart phone. In the long term, UVG’s ability to track fine grain UV exposure history will enable epidemiologists to obtain valuable data from skin cancer victims (with their consent) and publish effective guidelines for skin cancer prevention.
