AIRY

indoor environmental quality monitoring device

The needs

The COVID-19 pandemic made society aware of the importance of indoor air quality, since the worsening of various kinds of pollution can damage people health and increase the risk of contagion.

During this period the SEMAR group came up with the idea of a product able to monitor some environmental quality and comfort parameters. This ongoing monitoring ensures to become fully aware of the surrounding environment

and to implement the appropriate corrective actions, both manual (opening windows and air changes) or automatic (interactions with a Controlled Mechanical Ventilation system).

A comparative analysis on similar existing products led to the definition of the necessary requirements to create an exclusive, innovative, expandable product, with a mix of technological features not available on another single device within the same price range.

The challenges

  • Wide set of environmental measures (up to 20) related to different categories
  • Modular design to support multiple product variants
  • Rechargeable battery with a long working autonomy (over 6 months)
  • Multiple integrated wired and wireless connectivity types
  • Audio playback of sounds and voice messages
  • Customizable APIs and use of secure transport protocols (TLS/SSL)
  • Integration with the most popular home assistants
  • Dedicated mobile APP and web portal for personal and corporate use
  • Native integration for direct connection with the main cloud platforms
  • Compact dimensions and simplicity of production for a competitive cost

The realization

Airy is an IoT device specifically designed to monitor the main parameters that characterize the indoor environment and influence the weel-being of people living in it. Airy detects up to 20 different environmental parameters that can be grouped in three categories.

AIR QUALITY

  • Volatile organic compound (tVOC and bVOC)
  • Carbon dioxide (CO2 and equivalent CO2)
  • IAQ index
  • Particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10)
  • Formaldehyde (CH2O)
  • Carbon monoxide (CO)
  • Ozone (O3)
ENVIRONMENTAL COMFORT
  • Temperature
  • Relative humidity
  • Sound level
  • Ambient light
  • Atmospheric pressure
 ELECTROSMOG
  • Low frequency magnetic fields
  • High frequency electromagnetic fields
  • WiFi level and number of networks (in 2.4 GHz band)

Airy supports multiple interfaces to connect to its services and applications, both wireless (WiFi 802.11bgn, NB-IoT, LTE-M, LTE-Cat1, GPRS, LoRaWAN, Bluetooth/BLE) and wired (RS485 ModbusRTU, Ethernet 10/100baseT with PoE) in order to meet any system and connection need. The device implements a wide choice of application protocols (http(s), mqtt(s), coap, udp-raw) and multiple security features (TLS/SSL, mutual authentication with X.509 certificates, WPA2-Enterprise…) that allow an easy integration even in corporate scenarios and with the main cloud infrastructures supporting IoT. Airy is natively managed from a dedicated WEB portal of iTHINGS family and from a mobile application, but it can be easily integrated into any IT platform already used by the customer.

The device supports the integration with the main home assistants to request, for example, the immediate execution of a set of environmental measures or the current state of the surrounding environment. Airy can be powered by the USB port or by the built-in battery, with a working autonomy of over six months, and it comes with integrated speakers to play sounds and voice messages to inform user about the current state of the surrounding environment or to suggest actions to improve it. The availability of autonomous WAN connections (NB-IoT, LTE-M, LTE-Cat1, GPRS, LoRaWAN) allows the use of the device without depending on customer network.

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