October 14, 2016

Diffuser alerts Internet uses to data leaks

Filed under: Design,Gadgets by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am
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Graphic artists Leanne Wijnsma and filmmaker Froukje Tan have created a product called ‘The Smell of Data’, a ‘grenade-shaped scent diffuser’ designed to alert Internet users of data leaks from their smartphones, tablets and computers. After all my recent reading on data security by Edward Snowden and Jacob Appelbaum (did you know he’s studying in Eindhoven?), you’d think a diffuser like that would be on almost constantly. Since most people don’t experience the consequences of a data leak, they don’t really care until something goes terribly wrong and by then it’s too late, a bit like carbon monoxide.

Wijnsma and Tan researched the human response to gas leaks, inspired by a 1937 explosion in Texas caused by an unnoticed gas leak. The incident prompted the government to artificially add an odorant to odourless gases (tert-Butylthiol, which smells like rotten eggs), making them more easily detectable. Carbon monoxide, also know as the ‘silent killer’, is a byproduct of combustion by stoves or heating not working properly in a home and is odourless, which makes you feel grateful for the smell of rotten eggs keeping you safe.

Launched in September 2016 at the Science Museum in London, The Smell of Data is meant to give people the same reaction as smelling a gas leak, hoping that people will finally take it seriously. Watch the video:

(Link: www.dezeen.com, Photo of grenade by macspite, some rights reserved)

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November 23, 2011

A child and a cat as carbon monoxide detectors

Filed under: Animals,General,Health by Orangemaster @ 2:19 pm

A family in Edam (yes, where the cheese comes from) and a couple in Heerhugowaard have recently escaped death by carbon monoxide poisoning, according to Radio + TV Noord Holland who can sometimes be hard up for hard news.

Last week, the family in Edam was woken up in the middle of the night by their little boy who wanted to pee and in waking up the parents, he also saved them from dying, although the story offers little detail. They assume their house needs to be renovated, while the housing corporation denies it, but will check it out.

The couple in Heerhugowaard had noticed that their cat was acting very weird when in fact he was presenting with the early symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. Thanks to the cat acting as a carbon monoxide detector, they discovered a straight leak of gas into their house from the upstairs neighbours, and in turn saved a few neighbours from death.

(My old cat Pussyminou couldn’t monitor anything but her own sleep)

(Links: rtvnh.nl, www.rtvnh.nl)

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