Safecast, a specialist in open environmental data, and Blues Wireless, a developer of IoT cloud cellular solutions, has announced Airnote, an air quality monitoring device with unprecedented simplicity and cost-effectiveness
By removing complexity and barriers to use, Airnote enables the mass deployment of air quality sensors at a cost of nearly half that of other products on the market.
“Ten years ago, the crisis at Fukushima brought together many talented individuals from around the globe to serve a common purpose: enable people to understand the conditions impacting the safety of their environment,” said Ray Ozzie, founder of Blues Wireless and Safecast volunteer. “The nonprofit organisation Safecast, Blues Wireless, and ultimately the Airnote device were all borne as a result of this collaboration.”
All of the air quality measurements collected by Airnote are sent directly to the Safecast platform and published into the public domain as part of their global environmental dataset.
To date, air quality, water quality, radiation, and other aspects of the environment have involved expensive equipment, careful site work for device placement, and challenges in establishing reliable outdoor network connectivity. Airnote is a fully integrated zero-setup solar-powered device that easily attaches to the outside of any sunny window. At regular intervals, Airnote automatically uploads air quality data using cellular networks in more than 130 countries, no registration or network setup required. Airnote includes a pre-paid/pre-activated data plan that will run for the entire lifetime of the device.
These capabilities are enabled by the Blues Wireless Notecard, a small data pump that manufacturers embed within their products to greatly simplify the task of securely moving data to and from the cloud over cellular networks. Blues Wireless began first volume shipments of the Notecard this past December.
Airnote provides information on a display or users can scan its QR code and view charts and graphs online. The device measures temperature, humidity, air pressure, and density of particulate matter in PM1, PM2.5, and PM10. Data uploaded by Airnote devices benefits everyone, designated into the public domain at birth. Through notehub.io, the Blues Wireless real-time data router, and Safecast’s databases and maps, data is available worldwide for analysis, education, or even commercial use. While data is anonymous by default, device owners can optionally claim devices and be credited for data uploads.
“While Fukushima was an unequivocal disaster, the event presented us with an opportunity to better plan for the future and safety of our environment,” said Pieter Franken, co-founder and Japan director of Safecast. “The global data we’ll receive from Airnote will accelerate the pace of citizen-led open data, moving us towards a healthier global environment, while enabling faster and more efficient reactions to future crises.”
