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Air quality reporting on iOS

intergalactic.systems

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Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#51

Post by brookst »

sandworm101 wrote: post #46

>> I noticed something strange in the iOS weather app: The air quality index seems to be defined relative to the country from which one accesses the air quality map. Yup. And if you look closely the underlying map also sometimes changes based on which country one is standing in (Crimea/Taiwan). Services like iOS are not scientific but consumer and government-focused services. They exist to appease a host of intereste…

Many products have multiple stakeholders. I can't think of a single product that exists "to render dispassionate information" and nothing else.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#52

Post by crazygringo »

pnpnp wrote: post #38
lotsofpulp wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious how reliable that air quality data is in the first place. I cannot find anything about Breezometer having invested in installing air quality meters all around the world. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sycbrdpbi This article says they are using “machine learning” and “AI”. Makes me think it is all fake. https://www.breezometer.com/pdfs/Ultimate-Guide-to-BreezoMet... Their own documentation…

Yes - it’s much like now weather forecasting works. Data points may come from 2 places 100 mi apart, but what if someone lives between them? Temperature or other weather data is often an extrapolation based on official weather data collection points, and AQI data is no different. How that data gets extrapolated varies wildly by implementation. edit: Also a fun fact, I live 2000ft above and 50mi from the nearest forec…

Not just forecasting, but reporting values right now.

Spatial interpolation is much more non-obvious than you might initially assume, when the data points are coming from arbitrary locations and not a regular grid. For anyone curious, here [1] is a good place to start, or look up "Kriging interpolation".

The basic implementation of any kind of continuous temperature estimation is to have a generic equation that relates how temperature naturally varies by altitude, use that normalize the temperature reported by weather stations according to altitude to create a "flat" temperature map, interpolate to create a smooth continuous temperature map using something like Kriging, and then de-normalize the temperature at a desired point according to the altitude of that location.

There are always going to be hyper-local variations that won't account for (are you on the sunny side or shaded side of a mountain? is there an air current? how is vegetation/buildings/asphalt affecting it?), but it's the basic starting point.

[1] https://geobgu.xyz/r-2020/spatial-interpolation-of-point-dat...

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#53

Post by zerealshadowban »

I've been using the PurpleAir website (map.purpleair.com) for many years now, mostly out of concern for heavy wildfire pollution and winter inversions vs personal outdoor+athletic activities; one interesting aspect is that you can buy your own sensor and thus join the community of local sensors for increased accuracy of measurements. They let you pick between various international standards and types of pollutants. They seem to have a dense network of sensors in North America, not sure about the rest of the world.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#54

Post by seszett »

joshgachnang wrote: post #19
owl110 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is that the colors have different meaning. The values in the screenshot for Amsterdam using the NL scale translates to 'insufficient' and while the DE scale translates to 'good' for the same city at the same time. At the very least, it means that a user cannot use these scales for inference without knowing/understanding the technology behind them. This is probably not the intention behind showing…

The colors having different meanings shouldn't come up in typical cases, because who's looking at their air quality map from two different countries? There's also a key to the upper left. It's interesting and well designed IMO. I don't think this actually causes issues for any users.

> who's looking at their air quality map from two different countries?

I do it a few times per week while I commute from Belgium to France and when I'm doing my groceries in whichever country is best for what I need. I'm interested in the air quality in France when I'm leaving Belgium, and in the quality in Belgium when I'm leaving France.

I don't look at them from iOS though so I don't really have any problem. But crossing borders is a rather common thing around here.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#56

Post by verelo »

brookst wrote: post #51
sandworm101 wrote: post #46

>> I noticed something strange in the iOS weather app: The air quality index seems to be defined relative to the country from which one accesses the air quality map. Yup. And if you look closely the underlying map also sometimes changes based on which country one is standing in (Crimea/Taiwan). Services like iOS are not scientific but consumer and government-focused services. They exist to appease a host of intereste…

Many products have multiple stakeholders. I can't think of a single product that exists "to render dispassionate information" and nothing else.

I guess you don’t own a TV /s

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#57

Post by wahnfrieden »

brookst wrote: post #51
sandworm101 wrote: post #46

>> I noticed something strange in the iOS weather app: The air quality index seems to be defined relative to the country from which one accesses the air quality map. Yup. And if you look closely the underlying map also sometimes changes based on which country one is standing in (Crimea/Taiwan). Services like iOS are not scientific but consumer and government-focused services. They exist to appease a host of intereste…

Many products have multiple stakeholders. I can't think of a single product that exists "to render dispassionate information" and nothing else.

To recognize stakeholders says nothing of their power dynamics. You're obfuscating by generalizing

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#58

Post by 908B64B197 »

nullindividual wrote: post #55

I should be able to translate what my local government/news says about air quality, just like any other portion of the weather forecast (C, F, etc). Information based on user locality seems like an excellent design.

> what my local government/news says about air quality

That's assuming the local government is giving the truth regarding air quality and that their "official scale" is made to reflect reality and not obscure some measurements.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#59

Post by mfer »

sandworm101 wrote: post #46

>> I noticed something strange in the iOS weather app: The air quality index seems to be defined relative to the country from which one accesses the air quality map. Yup. And if you look closely the underlying map also sometimes changes based on which country one is standing in (Crimea/Taiwan). Services like iOS are not scientific but consumer and government-focused services. They exist to appease a host of intereste…

Who defines what is “good” air quality in a dispassionate way? Or any of the other levels.

If they just showed numbers without colors, how would the UX work for the general public who isn’t all that knowledgeable?

Building a useful [1] experience while dealing with groups who read things differently isn’t easy and it’s not going to lead to global consistency because people are diverse and inconsistent

[1] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-...

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#60

Post by mattnewton »

mfer wrote: post #59
sandworm101 wrote: post #46

>> I noticed something strange in the iOS weather app: The air quality index seems to be defined relative to the country from which one accesses the air quality map. Yup. And if you look closely the underlying map also sometimes changes based on which country one is standing in (Crimea/Taiwan). Services like iOS are not scientific but consumer and government-focused services. They exist to appease a host of intereste…

Who defines what is “good” air quality in a dispassionate way? Or any of the other levels. If they just showed numbers without colors, how would the UX work for the general public who isn’t all that knowledgeable? Building a useful [1] experience while dealing with groups who read things differently isn’t easy and it’s not going to lead to global consistency because people are diverse and inconsistent [1] https://www…

I think the poster is referring to governments that want to control this information too. There are often allegations that China is censoring AQI information for political purposes on iOS https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/30/weather-app-air-quality/

I believe one of the controversial aspects of Google’s “project dragonfly”, (the now scrapped reintroducing-google-search-for-China initiative) were modules that check with Chinese government servers for displaying knowledge cards deemed sensitive, and air quality reports were one of those. https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/27/google-em...

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