Tag: PM2.5

Categories
Sensors/IoT

WEPO CO₂ wearable watches the air so you don’t have to

The air quality in cities around the world is degrading. With the majority of the world’s population concentrated in ever-sprawling cities, this is only becoming a more severe problem as time goes on, only compounded by the lack of information about just how bad it is and will be.

Air monitoring systems in the world are too spread out and outdated to provide meaningful statistics, which is why wearable systems like WEPO are so valuable. Its CO₂ detector allows anyone to set their own level of desirable exposure and use it for up to 20 hours on a single charge to keep themselves informed of harmful levels. A Bluetooth LE connection connects with Android Wear devices along with the Apple Watch in the future.

Unfortunately though, the device only contains that detector alone, leaving out all other particulate matter, or PM2.5. The device is a bit clunky compared to other sleeker, more reasonably priced alternatives like the TZOA and AirBeam that actually take the data and put it to use in creating crowdsource, air quality maps. The $399 price tag for WEPO is tough to swallow even if it offers wearable compatibility. The $10,000 campaign is looking to ship the product in July 2015.

Categories
Connected Objects Health and Wellness Sensors/IoT

uHoo monitors your air, doesn’t taste like chocolatey chemicals

Every single second of our lives, we breathe. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale: it is this unconscious rhythm that keeps us going, but seldom do we stop to think about the quality of the air around us. We can only do so much about the air outside, but there’s no excuse to being ill-informed about the air in our own homes. The company behind the uHoo is looking to make it easy to know what’s lingering in our own bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms so we can take the actions necessary to protect our health.

Bad quality air can be the cause of all kinds of immediate respiratory issues like allergies, and chemicals and other pollutants can affect our health in the long term. That’s why the uHoo has five sensors that measure particulate matter, airborne chemicals, temperature, humidity, and CO2. It communicates this information to you through a companion app compatible with iOS using Wi-Fi, with an Android and Web-based app coming later. The sparse app gives you an overview of your home’s air quality and gives you details about specific sections of your home, sending alerts whenever it senses something out of the ordinary. Stay on top of your air with $129, and expect a uHoo in June of 2015. The campaign is looking for $30,000 to get uHoo out to backers.

uHoo is continuing the trend of arming users with lots and lots of information about the air, like the similar Table Air. But even if the information it provides is valuable, it isn’t doing enough. A device like this should serve not only as a data recorder but intelligently connect to and control other devices in a home to actively provide that cleaner, healthier environment while you go about your business. It was minimally designed to blend in with your home, but maybe it blends in a little too well.

Categories
Sensors/IoT

Portable AirBeam monitors and reports air quality

Air pollution is a rapidly growing concern all throughout the world. Our dependence on mass production and the use of fossil fuels directly affects the air we breathe no matter where we are, because what is created in another part of the world ultimately travels and gets to us. Even if the problem has the potential to wreck all sorts of havoc on our health, it sadly goes largely ignored because it’s invisible. Although there are government sites where air quality is monitored and recorded, the network is too sparse and dated to provide a full and accurate picture, much less be used as proof in matters of legislation. That’s where the AirBeam comes in.

The AirBeam is a portable arduino-based air quality monitor that continuously monitors the air and sends that data to a smartphone with Bluetooth, feeding it back to the AirCast environmental awareness platform. AirCast crowdsources all of this data from the thousands already using AirBeam to create a robust and extremely accurate picture of air quality. This allows citizen scientists, change makers, and ordinary people to be more informed and make an impact. To be effective, though, the monitor must work all day, a length of time smartphones have trouble staying on for by themselves. In any case, the AirBeams rings in at $199 which may be a bit pricey considering what kind of mass aspirations HabitatMap, the non-profit behind AirBeam and AirCast, has. Backers can start monitoring the air in May of 2015, if the creators reach their $50,000 goal.