A local research group in the U.S. has created a smartphone sensor system which is designed to make monitoring the air quality easier.

Dubbed CitiSense, it is an air quality detection system developed by the researchers at the University of California San Diego. It will be equipped with small boxes, each containing a suite of sensors that detect ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, barometric pressure, humidity and temperature.

The box will connect to a person's smartphone via Bluetooth and track the location of its user as they move around over the course of the day. The aggregated data from all the sensors will be able to create a "citizen infrastructure" taking a look at a particular community's air quality.

Each sensor box costs about $1,000 to construct, but the developers hope bring that cost down significantly.

CitiSense, via CleanTechnica