A 'human-in-the-loop' mobile image recognition application for rapid scanning of water quality test results

  • Authors:

  • Melissa Loudon;Tahmina Ajmal;Ulrike Rivett;Dirk De Jager;Robert Bain;Robert Matthews;Stephen Gundry

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa;Water and Health Research Centre, University of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom;Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa;School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, United Kingdom;Water and Health Research Centre, University of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom;Water and Health Research Centre, University of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom;Water and Health Research Centre, University of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

  • Venue:
  • EISE'09 Proceedings of the First international conference on Expressive Interactions for Sustainability and Empowerment
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

This paper describes an interactive system for drinking water quality testing in small community supplies, particularly in the developing world. The system combines a low-cost field test (the Aquatest field kit), a mobile phone for data processing and communications, and a human operator who is able to react immediately to a test result. Once a water sample has been collected and incubated, the mobile phone camera is used to 'scan' the test and obtain the result, which is displayed to the user along with information about the health implications of the water quality. Initial prototypes, while not yet sufficiently robust for real-world use, demonstrate that the system is technically feasible. This opens up interesting possibilities for wider use of 'human-in-the-loop' sensor systems in environmental monitoring.