Real Time Ultraviolet Index Meter with Information Systems to General Public

The radiation emitted by the sun known as ultraviolet radiation is related to several problems that might affect the human being. Most of times, people are well warned about the effects caused to the skin by the solar radiation overexposure but not about the effects to their eyes. This work aims at developing a real time ultraviolet (UV) index meter and a series of information systems that can educate people about the risk of overexposure to the sun, the effects to their skin, eyes health and how to protect themselves. An UV sensor was installed on the rooftop of a building and a radio transmitter circuit communicates the voltage value measured by this sensor to two radio receiver circuits, one attached to a panel, which is responsible to show the real time UV index and other plugged on a computer. The UV index, recommended protection and other information are shown on the screen. All measures transmitted from sensor are saved on the hard disk of the computer and on an online database. A graph of UV index variation per day can be plotted by the software on computer and a website shows the last UV index measured. It was noticed that general public didn’t have enough information about the effects of UV radiation for skin and even less for the eyes. The system is public available at USP. Next steps of this project will aim at developing a mobile phone app and a downloadable version of the UV index software and a website.