The brainchild behind the invention is Anirudh Sharma, a computer engineer and member of MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces Group who was visiting family in Mumbai when he got the idea for Air Ink. The megacity is the fifth most polluted in the world, and he was sure there was something that could be done with all the soot flying through the air. The first step, however, was to capture it. Sharma created a cylindrical metal device called Kaalink, which is designed to fit over the exhaust pipe of cars, trucks, and generators and captures 95 percent of particulate matter before it can pollute the air.
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Once the Kaalink collects the soot, engineers filter out any glass or heavy metals within it to leave just the black particles behind. That filtering is important, as Sharma told FastCoDesign: "Overall, the soot is dangerous because of its aerosol nature, which ends up in our lungs. By cleaning it of heavy metals, and confining/binding it as inks, it becomes as safe as any other ink." The filtered particles then get mixed with vegetable oil to create a whole slew of Air-Ink products, including pen ink, markers, and paints.
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