Sensor journalism lets newsrooms find patterns in data that they capture themselves. Anyone can make a sensor with low-cost, open source hardware and set it up to meet the needs of a story or project.

The Associated Press partnered with the Spatial Information Design Lab At Columbia University to independently measure air quality in Beijing. By connecting sensors to their cellphones, AP journalists captured carbon monoxide levels and used this data to report on air quality conditions in real time.

During a panel at this year's South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, WNYC data news editor John Keefe explained the potential that this easy-to-use equipment and data gathering technique has for journalism.

“Google takes data from maps and Android phones and creates traffic data,” Keefe said. “In a sense, that’s sensor data being used live in a public service. What are we doing in journalism like that? What could we do?” Keefe launched a sensor journalism project of his own, a cicada tracker that helps predict when a much-anticipated brood of 17-year cicadas will emerge.

Sensor journalism still involves a number of challenges, including data accuracy, journalist safety, invasion of privacy and how to protect a "source" when the source is a machine.

What other benefits and challenges does sensor journalism pose? How could you use it in your reporting?

Image CC-licensed on Flickr via .evenwestvang.