There’s been a lot of talk about the pollution problem in Beijing lately. Last month, the air quality index there hit 755, going well beyond the top of the scale (which is set at 500). Matt Hope‘s defense against the enormous problem is the Breathing Bike, a bicycle that cleans the air as its pedaled through China’s capital.
Attached to the back of the bike is an Ikea wastebasket, which is positively charged by the generator attached to the bike’s back wheel. The wastebasket charges the particles in the air, which are then attracted to the negatively charged air cleaner mounted inside. The air is then fed through a tube to the rider’s face mask.
“It seems to make more sense to give you clean air rather than to try and filter it.” he says in the video below. “Because when you filter it, you can’t breathe. So I thought I could use my basic knowledge of electromechanical stuff […] to make this weird, provocative object.” [Thanks, Ben! via Core77]
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