Inventors battle to help Beijing beat chronic pollution problem

With no quick solution to pollution in sight, people are inventing their own protection against the dangerous smog.

A few weeks ago, Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde grabbed headlines with his "sky vacuum", a device that generates an ion field to pull polluted particles down to the ground where they can be cleaned up.

Roosegaarde is not alone in his creative approach to combating dirty air. One of the most popular gadgets that debuted at the East China Fair early this year was an air purifier helmet.

It hooks up to a portable air filtration system secured around the wearer's waist and runs on lithium batteries which last for up to eight hours a charge.

"These inventions look silly, but they are highlighting a deadly problem" said Beijing-based artist Matt Hope.

He built his own "breathing bicycle" out of Ikea products and junkyard finds. It works by putting the air filtration system - an ioniser - inside a garbage can which is then connected to a wheel-powered generator. As he pedals, he can breathe the filtered air through an attached helmet.