## 1 Introduction  
The issue of outdoor air pollution (OAP), such as haze, is well known to the public due to the attention given to it by the media. In contrast, the issue of indoor air pollution (IAP) is less known to the public, although IAP poses similar threats towards human health. In fact, more attention should be given to the issue of IAP, because people normally spend 90% of their time in indoor environments [1]. IAP, which undermines indoor air quality (IAQ), is found to contain indoor air pollutants such as harmful gases and contaminants at a concentration level up to five times higher than the concentration of these pollutants in normal air. In severe cases, the concentration level of the pollutants could rise up to 100 times more than a normal concentration level, which is hazardous for human health [1]. IAP can be defined as the disturbance of any gases, materials or human activities on the state of ambient air in indoor environment [2]. In other words, IAP does not need the presence of disease or infirmity. As long as the concentration in the normal ambient air is disturbed either by gases, other materials or combustion activity, it is already considered as pollution. The most common sourcesof IAP are contributed by combustion activities such as cigarette smoking, wood or paper burning, gas stoves, gas-fired dryers and engines emission [3, 4]. Other materials, such as chemical products, building materials and office materials, are also major sources of IAP. Chemical products such as air fresheners and cleaning products contribute to IAP by emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs), while building and office materials such as printers and carpets also release air contaminants such as dust into the indoor air atmosphere [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. IAP may also emerge as a result of variations of gas concentration in the indoor air, as well as from variations in thermal conditions such as temperature and humidity [10, 11]. Thermal or physical conditions such as temperature, relative humidity (RH) and air movement are important IAP parameters as they could affect people's perception towards IAP. These physical parameters can act directly on building occupants, interact with indoor air pollution factors or affect human responses to the indoor environment [12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. These sources of IAP might not look harmful, but to a certain extent (based on the concentration level) they may be hazardous to human health. The health effects from IAP may be experienced soon after exposure, or possibly, years later, depending on the individuals and type of pollutants they have been exposed to [17]. The common health conditions that may show up immediately include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, asthma and humidifier fever. The health effects of years of exposure to IAP are more dangerous and can be fatal; these include some respiratory-related diseases, heart disease, and cancer [18, 19]. The health effects relating to poor indoor air quality have been divided into four categories: environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), sick building syndrome (SBS), building related illness (BRI), and thermal comfort problems (TCP) [10, 13, 20]. Hence, meticulous attention should be given to make sure the indoor air is safe and comfortable. Indoor air may be polluted by various types of pollutants which may come from cleaning products, construction activities, perfumes, cigarette smoke, water-damaged building materials and outdoor pollutants [21]. Although these gases are usually safe for humans, they could be hazardous to human beings, especially people with respiratory-related problem and children, if their amount exceeded certain limits of exposure for human health. In terms of the current technology, certain sensing devices have allowed researchers to get continuous, quick and reliable information about ambient air [21] which enable advanced data processing to be applied to the data of ambient air.