Category: IoT

From Boom to Bust: The Great IoT Air Quality Recession

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

The once booming Internet of Things (IoT) air quality monitoring market is facing a harsh reality check. Fueled by a surge in AI startups attracting investments and a subsequent saturation of low-cost air quality monitors, the industry is experiencing a period of upheaval. This downturn, dubbed “The Great IoT Air Quality Recession,” is forcing companies to adapt or face extinction. I see many high-profile executives leaving previously thought innovative startups in the realm of air quality in search of a more “stable” future.

A Wave of Investment and Sensor Saturation

AI startups like ChatGTP and similar, promising to leverage the power of machine learning to generate content or analyze data, became investor darlings. This new influx of cash is fueling the decline of IoT low-cost air quality solutions.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the market quickly became saturated with low-cost monitors that promised that will fix indoor and outdoor environments. Buildings were filled with cheap monitors, but actionable insights remained scarce. The promised AI-powered analysis, in many cases, failed to materialize. Consumers were left with a plethora of data points with no clear understanding of what it all meant or what to do.

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Outdoor Air Quality Monitors 2023Q4

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What’s new? Well, some clean up of discontinued monitors and some updates. In this list you will find ambient air quality monitors for experts who want to supervise and monitor air pollutants in cities and industrial sites, and commercial outdoor air quality monitors for homeowners who want to check the air quality outside their houses/apartments. 

Air pollution can cause a range of health problems, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and even premature death. By monitoring ambient air quality, governments and individuals can take steps to reduce exposure to harmful pollutants and protect public health.

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Dyson Zone an Unnecessary Product or Innovation?

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

I wanted some time to pass before I write my thoughts on Dyson’s new product called “Zone”.


For those who don’t know who Dyson is, Dyson is a company known for its innovative and unique products (mainly vacuum cleaners) and it has recently released a new product that combines two seemingly unrelated items: headphones and air purifiers. The Dyson Zone headphones are a pair of noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones with air purification technology built in. I don’t want to focus on the headphone but on the purification capabilities for individuals.

Points

1st Point: We live in a society where individualism becomes stronger and stronger over time and instead of fixing the air pollution for all we are thinking about how to protect only ourselves, not even our kids or family. The device is not capable of stopping pollutants from getting into the wearer’s body and a n95 mask is more effective because it seals better.

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Tamagotchi for Air Quality

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

Do you remember the Tamagotchi from the 90s? A small and portable digital pet that you had to take care of in order to keep it “alive”?

Wouldn’t it be great to create the same pet but with the only difference that it breathes air and air quality information is taken into account in order to determine its survival chances? I think it will engage people and help them not to get accustomed to the presence of poor AQ. Poor air quality can be due to the presence of particle pollution but also high CO2 levels indoors which will make the character sleepy.

A while ago, I wrote a similar article on Gamification and Air Quality. Same approach but even more fun! Kids will definitely try to keep the character alive, and it doesn’t even require hardware as it can be an app on your phone. Outdoor air quality data are available all over the world, so there is no problem there, but we need to think about how to implement indoor AQ data into the algorithm that calculates Tamagotchi’s health. Remember we spend most of our time indoors.

In this case, a small wearable monitor would be the best. However, 3rd party companies with Indoor AQ monitors will need to give access to the application that runs the companion character. That way, the character can be updated and engage with the user more often based on real data.

A software service will rise here as the company that decides to commercialize such a feature will have to build something similar to what Amazon, ecobee, or Apple with HomeKit provides in order to feed the app with air.

I don’t like the name Tamagotchi a lot, plus there are some copyright issues there, so let’s name our character Nicholas from the titular character of my kid’s books. Nicholas has superpowers and can see particulate pollutants. I cannot imagine a better companion!

Wood Burning Patterns!

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

I live in an area where wood burning is an unfortunate “cozy” habit for the people around me. So, I decided to see if patterns appear after monitoring the ambient air quality for 30 days in order to identify if there is any window that will allow me to open the windows and get some fresh & clean air. For the sake of simplicity, I will use only PM2.5 values.

I don’t mind if I have to wake up at 3:00 AM in order to allow some outdoor air to come inside and dilute some VOC and CO2 that build up. Indoors, PM2.5 concentrations are kept well under 5μg/m3 because I run the air purifiers 24/7. By the way in a recent, poster the position of the air purifier inside the house plays an important role in how well particles are captured.

Anyway, let’s jump into the data I collected and analyzed.

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Review: Canāree by Piera Systems

Sotirios Papathanasiou6 Comments

This is a quick review of the Canāree. An indoor air quality monitor that you can carry around thanks to its compact size.

Specifications

  • 7-Bin Optical Particle Counter Sensor (PM1.0/PM2.5/PM10)
  • Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
  • Temperature Sensor
  • Humidity Sensor
  • Air Pressure Sensor
  • USB-A
  • WiFi Module
  • RGB LED AQ Indicator
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Air Quality Monitors – Comparison List 2022 Q2

Sotirios Papathanasiou4 Comments

The famous list with all the available indoor air quality monitors is finally updated. In this version there are two tabs. Air quality monitors for consumers (B2C) and for businesses (B2B). As always, I stay away from knockoffs and cheap products. An air quality monitor needs to function properly for 5 to 10 years depending the sensors − gas sensors tend to have a shorter lifespan.

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Review: View Plus by Airthings

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

View Plus is the flagship air quality monitor from Airthings which was designed to address as many indoor parameters as possible and it complies with Green Building Certification.

The philosophy behind Airthings air quality monitors is simple. They try to make B2C and B2B clients’ life easy. One clear example is that all monitors, including the View Plus, work on simple AA batteries in order to avoid installation fees (from construction workers) and ugly cables running all over the walls.

Specifications

  • Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Laser OPC Sensor 0-500 μg/m3
  • Carbon Dioxide (CO2) NDIR Sensor 400–5000 ppm
  • Volatile Organic Compound (VOCs) Metal-oxide Sensor 0-10000 ppb
  • Temperature Sensor
  • Humidity Sensor
  • Air Pressure Sensor 500-1100 mBar
  • Light Sensor
  • Hand Gesture Sensor
  • Noise Sensor 35 – 120 dBA SPL
  • E-Ink 2.9″
  • RGB LED Indicator
  • 6 AA batteries or USB-C
  • Mesh SmartLink and Bluetooth LE
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Office Study – Tapping Into The Real World Air Quality Data

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Nowadays, it is a privilege to have access to a real indoor environment where you can measure and quantify indoor environmental quality (IEQ). It is not an easy task because most companies keep AQ data private, and we totally respect that. However, sometimes tapping into the real world data is fundamental in order to understand the conditions white color employees and employers work in an effort to improve work conditions and productivity.

The owner of the building and the office granted me access to installing the Atmocube IAQ monitor for two months, in order to figure out what improvements shall apply in their effort to mitigate covid19, improve working conditions and boost productivity. The office is located in Almeria, Spain which is a coastal city.

They don’t have any mechanical ventilation systems, so the indoor conditions were subject to their human actions and whether they opened the windows/doors or not.

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Review: SODAQ AIR – An Air Quality Monitor for Your Bike/Your Lungs

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More and more people choose to ride a bike for their daily commutes and although SODAQ AIR is not the first air quality monitor for a bike, it is the first to have collected over 20M data points. This is particularly import for the development of an IoT air quality monitor as the developers have enough information to debug and develop a super stable product that needs very little troubleshooting from its users.

SODAQ is not a new company as it was founded back in 2013, and they have been working on this particular project (SODAQ AIR) alone since 2015. It seems that consumer satisfaction is always their priority, which is very important nowadays as we need sustainable products that will last for a long time.

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