CO2GO: Calculating Carbon Footprints Automatically and in Real-Time While on the Move

Today, more than a third of global CO2 emissions are generated by transportation. CO2GO, a new type of smartphone application, is an effective tool that assists in making smarter individual transportation choices to collectively reduce carbon emissions in cities.
Making sophisticated use of the sensors contained in a standard smartphone (accelerometer, GPS, …) carried in your pocket, CO2GO deploys an unprecedented algorithm to calculate in real-time the carbon emissions while on the move. It does so by automatically detecting your mode of transportation (walking, biking, train, car, bus, subway,…) while tracking the distance covered.

The backbone of the CO2GO smartphone application is a software engine responsible for the collection and interpretation of data generated by a smartphone's sensors. Unlike past work in this field, this approach does not require the phone to be oriented in a specific way - leaving the user to keep it in any position in the pocket or otherwise. Accelerometer traces are interpreted in real-time by the engine's algorithm for the detection of transportation mode while GPS data together with recurring online map queries establish the actual way covered as well as contributing to the accurate detection of the travel mode.

Users can share their low carbon emission routes with the user community, enabling others to consult alternatives to their usual travel routes or even challenge fellow users in a real-world game situations. The application enables users can compare their travel emissions with the total and average emissions generated by the CO2GO user community as well as the whole city. And finally, the app informs users about calories burned during their individual way of traveling, offering an insight into health issues while on the move.