Air Lab – A portable and open air quality measuring device

Overview

Air Lab is a portable, open, and hackable air quality measuring device designed for curious individuals, researchers, and communities who want to truly understand the air they breathe. Built as an open artifact, Air Lab combines low-cost hardware with an extensible software stack, giving you full visibility into sensor data, calibration, and processing. Through the browser-based simulator and live dashboard, you can visualize multiple pollutants, compare environments, and experiment with different configurations before deploying a physical device. Unlike closed consumer air monitors, Air Lab emphasizes transparency and modularity. You can inspect how data is collected, tweak algorithms, and integrate readings into your own applications via open interfaces. The system is ideal for teaching environmental sensing, prototyping new interaction designs around air data, or building grassroots monitoring networks across neighborhoods, schools, and studios. Whether you are an artist working with networked artifacts, a developer building data-driven installations, or a citizen scientist tracking pollution hotspots, Air Lab gives you a flexible platform to capture, explore, and share air quality insights. Start in the simulator to design and test scenarios, then extend to hardware setups when you are ready to sense the world around you.