PR: Sensaris Launches its Global “SMARTPHONES FOR AIR QUALITY” Program

Integrated solution initially targets fine particles and indoor air quality monitoring. Appcessories are designed to be compatible with both iPhone and Android platforms.

There is growing interest for air quality monitoring as the recent controversy in London or the need for Chinese cities to publish fine particles levels recently revealed. Citizens and communities are increasingly aware of the correlation between personal exposure to environmental pollution and health.
After pilot projects and deployments in 15 cities on 4 continents, Sensaris is now launching the first global network for air quality monitoring based on cloud technologies and smartphones.
Environmental data such as noise, CO2, CO, fine particles, humidity, temperature, along with positioning information is sent wirelessly to iPhones (starting this summer) or Android mobile devices. Users can choose to store data on the phone, send it to a server for real time mapping or store it locally on the Senspod’s memory card for later or periodic automated transfer. The patent pending solution will now enable citizens to monitor indoor and outdoor air quality and compare or share results via social networking applications. For smart city services, pocket sized Senspods have been used by pedestrians, mounted on vehicles (bicycles, cars) or placed on urban furniture. The scalable architecture combined with the ease of use the mobile application and web based interface ensure easy deployment.
Michael Setton, CEO indicated: “In many cases there are more sensors in a car than air quality monitoring stations in a city. After getting a boost from the Bluetooth Innovation world Cup in January, we are very excited to deploy Senspods in several new cities this summer. Our devices and software will provide citizens and communities with new means of improving air quality, and the use of social networking tools will foster exchange of ideas and solutions on a global scale. This is an important step in increasing people’s engagement to bring local solutions to this growing issue. In subway stations our sensors can be combined with LED lights to provide energy savings and environmental information to citizens. For more than 9000 metro stations worldwide, public transportation users could soon get real time indoor air quality values on their mobile phones.”

Mobile Health Around the Globe: Zao mHealth Device Field-Tested in India and Nepal

The Health Work Collective published an article about ZAO, the all-in-one mHealth device released by Sensaris.

This interesting article explains how ZAO has been designed and tested in though conditions in Nepal and what could be its first applicartion with EHealth Points Services India, which provides families in rural villages with clean drinking water, medicines, diagnostic tools and telemedicine.

Health Work Collective is an editorially independent, moderated community for thought leaders in international healthcare. They aggregate content and provide resources about all aspects of modern medicine, providing a community where healthcare professionals can debate the latest issues and advances in their field.

Read more here.

Fine particle measurement system compatible with mobile phones (PM)

To facilitate measurement both outdoors and indoors indoors (where we spend the majority of our time), Sensaris is releasing its Senspod EcoPM so users can now check ultrafine particle levels directly on their mobile phones.

Growing worldwide concern about PM

A growing number of city government are asked to act on improving environmental quality. For example, at the beginning of March 2012, the Hong Kong government began releasing hourly readings of ultrafine particles, as it bowed to public pressure for greater transparency about air quality.

In 2013, the monitoring of PM2.5 and Ozone will be extended to 113 cities in China.

If you’re interested in having international comparison for PM 2.5 and PM 10 in cities, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has conducted a very interesting study with a lot of data available.

Impact on health

Particles in ambient air have been associated with adverse health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular effects. (See “Tackling the global clean air challenge report” by WHO)
Find additional information about air quality impact on health

Such Ultrafine particles can be “imported” from the outdoors but they can also be generated by combustion (cooking, heating, smoking…..) or by reactions between ozone and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
You can find more information about ultrafine particles here

A mobile sensor with a phone application

The ability to use low cost mobile phones to record the fine particle levels provides a new tool to understand adverse possible causes of high particle counts as well as monitor trends, evaluate the effectiveness of control strategies and the degree of improvement brought by new solutions.

The GPS module also enables the unit to be carried by pedestrians or mounted on vehicles in order to map out cities and help city governments to provide citizens with the means to compare areas and evaluate progress.

Go to our Products page to learn more about EcoPM.

EcoPM Sheet

Winner for the Automotive and Entertainment category in the Bluetooth Innovation World Cup 2011 !

Yesterday was a very special day as we received in Munich an award for the Bluetooth Worldwide Innovation Cup in the category “Automotive, entertainment and other” .
This has a special meaning for us as it validates our vision to build a global network of environmental monitoring sensors for citizens. Mobile phones are personal devices but our environment is a shared responsibility and concern. The Senspod family is growing quickly and there will be exciting announcements in the near future so stay tuned.

We thank the Bluetooth SIG and the members of the jury for this recognition, and for those of you that could not attend the ceremony at ISPO, here is our presentation.

LumoPod released at Wearable Technologies conference

Sensaris and SensingTex released the LumoPod, a wireless device which work with a color-changing armband.

LumoPod is a complete set of functionnalities. It includes a Move-it device (motion wireless sensor embedding 3 axis gyroscope, 3 axis magnetometer, 3 axis accelerometer and GPS), a luminous armband and a 1000mAh battery.

LumoPod is designed to work with mobile phones and we let you develop the application you imagine using our APK.

What to do with this ?

You can develop sport, falling prevention or 3D visualization applications thanks to data collected by Move-It. The luminous armband displays any rainbow colors (blinking or steady colors) to give information to people without having to look at a screen (useful when running or to alert people about something). Move-It can store data thanks to its 2Go SD card or send them to a mobile phone (Bluetooth class 2) or to a distant server using the mobile phone very easily.

Of course, Sensaris would be pleased to promote your LumoPod application through its website.

LumoPod and development kit are available at infos(at)sensaris.com

Human centric sensing.

In the journal “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society”, you can read a fascinating article about “Human Centric Sensing”. Click on the link below to access it:

Human centric Sensing Article

The authors indicate in the abstract “The first decade of the century witnessed a proliferation of devices with sensing and communication capabilities in the possession of the average individual……Social networking platforms emerged, such as Twitter, that allow sharing information in real time. The unprecedented deployment scale of such sensors and connectivity options ushers in an era of novel data-driven applications that rely on inputs collected by networks of humans or measured by sensors acting on their behalf.”

We share the same vision and believe that people are still at the heart of the “Internet of Things”. This is why trust, privacy are key issues for deployments and sociological considerations are as important as technological ones. Sensor networks are just extensions of our senses and provide new ways to interconnect them, but what matters is what is done with the data, not how it is collected or communicated.
We are really excited about new developments and product launches in 2012…..it should be a great year and we will do everything we can to make it a good year for you as well.
Best wishes for this new and exciting journey !

Sensaris software lands on Android Market.

After beta tests in 6 countries (out of 18 countries where Senspods are used), we are now releasing Senspod App.
Starting with EcoSense, you can now download software directly from the Android Market, install it on your Android devices and start making a difference for the environment in your city.
Simple steps:

- Scan the QR code,
- select install,
- launch the app,
- select your Senspod and enter 1111 for pairing.

Send your friends the web address to see your data live. You are done.

Current record is 1:48 (and that was even without any warm-up whatsoever).Can you top that ??

Sensaris is a finalist in the 2011 Bluetooth Innovation World Cup.

We are happy to announce that Sensaris has been selected as part of the 3 finalists in the category “Automotive, Entertainment & More using Bluetooth low energy technology”.

Senspods qualification for this competition confirms our belief that Bluetooth is the leading enabling technology for Internet of Things applications.
This is definitely the right category for Senspods as we showed their use for the IBM Greenhaviour project where Senspods were mounted on a driverless car, and it fits with the entertainment part as well since we initially developed the “Montre Verte” concept and have now taken it to the next level using wearable accessories.

The pervasiveness of mobile phones with Bluetooth radios is both an advantage and a challenge.It is an advantage in terms of power consumption and low gateway costs (any mobile phone with Bluetooth will do). It is a challenge because our software platform needs to work similarly on Nokia Series 40 phones, Android phones from version 1.6 to 2.3 or iOS devices.
Our recent demo in Mumbai definitely showed that crowdsourcing is the way forward for improved sustainability. No matter what the outcome of the competition is, we will be increasingly focusing on wide scale applications in the coming year. Stay tuned !

Press Release

European Cities - Best practices for clean air.

Air pollution causes nearly half a million premature deaths each year in the European Union. In busy cities, air quality is usually at its worst, with high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and ozone. The average life expectancy of people living in the EU’s most polluted areas is reduced by over two years as a consequence of this. A lot can be done at a local level to avoid these emissions.
The European City Ranking is part of the “Soot-free for the Climate!” campaign.Its goal is to demonstrate that many local solutions to improve air quality exist and to find out how cities use these solutions, if at all. This ranking mainly focuses on efforts made to reduce particulate matter (PM10) and soot, or black carbon. However most measures looked at also help reduce other air pollutants, and can therefore serve as general examples for good air quality policy.

The top 3 cities are: Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm.
Then come: Vienna, Zurich, Amsterdam, Lyon, Glasgow, Graz, Paris.

These cities get a shameful F grade: Brussels, London,Madrid, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Milan, Rome.

When will your city start using Senspods ?

For more details:

Making the case for Parking sensors…………

In Vilnius they really take illegal parking seriously:

Watch video

After this, one can imagine that Streetline might provide a free sensor to the mayor for Christmas or better yet a position on its strategic board.

After being named IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year Streetline’s CEO Zia Yusuf announced:

“With our smart sensors, we can dramatically reduce the amount of drivers’ time looking for parking, and improve the efficiency of a city’s traffic and parking network. Smarter Cities will change how people work and live. Parking sensors are only the first step, and we look forward to working with IBM to help make cities ‘smarter’.”

This video opens up a whole range of new services !!

What is the return on investment for cities implementing parking sensor networks ?…..Since there are an increasing number of cities implementing such schemes, like Santander or Sant Cugat we will soon find out…….but it will be hard to match Lithuania’s capital.