Charité App "Pollenius": Data from the Pollen Trap

Brain City Berlin

Burning eyes, runny nose, sneezing attacks: Spring is approaching – and with rising temperatures comes hay fever. A research group from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin has developed an app that allows the pollen count in Brain City Berlin to be tracked at three-hour intervals. With the help of Berlin's population and artificial intelligence, "Pollenius" will soon be able to predict when and where pollen levels will be particularly high.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), around 15 percent of Germans suffer from hay fever. Currently, early bloomers such as alder, hazelnut, and ash are causing allergic reactions. Apps that show when pollen levels are particularly high are therefore a useful tool for hay fever sufferers. However, these are often inaccurate. "Pollen count information in other weather apps is based on modeling," explains Dr. Stephanie Dramburg, head of the Charité project #berlinbreathing. The pollen app "Pollenius" developed by her team, on the other hand, provides quite precise information, as it uses current data and is limited to Berlin. The pollen is trapped in a device that looks like a refrigerator and is located on Tempelhofer Feld. Through a tube, the device sucks in the grains. Artificial intelligence inside then analyzes the images to determine which pollen it is. The AI recognizes the eight most allergy-relevant plants: ragweed, mugwort, birch, alder, ash, grasses, hazel, and rye. The data is then visible in the daily chart of Pollenius just three hours later – clearly separated by pollen type.

Mitigating hay fever with citizen science

But that's not all: Through an integrated diary, users can help further develop the app. They only need to enter their current symptoms, the medications they have taken, and how long they have been outdoors each day. The more data they enter, the more informative the curve progression becomes. The charts provide valuable information to sufferers as well as doctors about the respective allergic reactions.The #berlinbreathing research team also wants to use the data entered into the app to better understand pollen allergies. The team combines the data donations with the data obtained around the clock in the "pollen trap." The severity of the allergic reaction depends not only on the number of pollen but also on their characteristics. "These are influenced by temperature, precipitation, particulate matter, and ozone levels in the air," says Stephanie Dramburg. "Additionally, air pollution can affect the body's reaction, and individual properties of the immune system determine how strongly the allergy manifests." Using AI, a model is to be created that predicts individually for sufferers which symptoms will occur the next day and when they should preferably not stay outdoors. The model will later be integrated into the app.

The Pollenius app can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. It can be used without registration. Data donations also remain anonymous. (vdo)

More Information

#berlinbreathing project (German only)

Looks like a refrigerator: the pollen trap of the #breathingberlin project on Tempelhofer Feld sucks in the pollen through a tube and analyzes the grains inside using AI. (© Charité/Stephanie Dramburg)