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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Jack Schofield

Another advance for the avian internet

"A flock of pigeons fitted with mobile phone backpacks is to be used to monitor air pollution, New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday. The 20 pigeons will be released into the skies over San Jose, California, in August.," says Reuters.



Each bird will carry a GPS satellite tracking receiver, air pollution sensors and a basic mobile phone.





Text messages on air quality will be beamed back in real time to a special pigeon "blog," a journal accessible on the Internet. Miniature cameras slung around the pigeons' necks will also post aerial pictures.



Comment: Time to dig out that old rfc, A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers, and consider how far we've come in 15 years ;-)

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