Air Quality Sensor
The Air Quality Sensor by studio LUFF is a beautiful home object that helps you discover how air quality is affecting your environment. Air is an invisible life support system that we mostly give for granted. With this sensor people will be able to monitor their indoor air quality, augmenting their senses to be able to perceive the quality of the air.
A BETTER APPROACH IN BUILDING TECHNOLOGY
This project is inspired by the Six Principles for Sustainable Computing that I co-wrote with Zaza Zuilhof, who is an experience designer at Apple.
We believe that technology needs to be built and used with more intention, that is why the Air Quality Sensor is embracing principles like cultivate understanding, strive for longevity, minimize materials, and inspire tinkering.
Cultivate Understanding
By cultivate understanding, we mean making sure that people know where their data is stored and how it's used. In our case, data is stored only locally on the onboard SD card; you can easily take the SD card and put it in your laptop to check the stored data.Strive for Longevity
We are using top-of-the-line microcontrollers that are going to be supported for a long time into the future and are easily updated if needed. The design is so simple that it allows you to easily swap a sensor module if it ever stops working down the line.Minimize materials
Our aesthetic aims to create a simple and effective device, without requiring injection molding or other expensive casings. Less is more.Inspire tinkering
The Air Quality Sensor by studio LUFF wants you to be involved, not just be a hands-off product. It invites tinkering at many different levels. You can just connect the sensor and assemble it out of the box, and it will work, but you can also customize the web interface by simply changing files on the SD card or writing your own code in Arduino. We have included an "extension header" that allows creative to expand the sensor board with other peripherals. The architecture, software and hardware, invites customization and the code of the sensor is going to be open-source for the backers.MY JOURNEY WITH AIR QUALITY
My story with air pollution began when I moved to the west coast of the United States. As I learned more about the surrounding environment, I became increasingly interested in the problem of air pollution. As a designer and technologist, I approached the topic by purchasing air quality modules and positioning them in my living room. I started noticing how air quality was affecting headaches and sore throats.
The pivotal event that pushed me to create a sensor people could use beyond just my living room happened during the wildfires of 2020, when extremely unhealthy air levels made hunting for spaces with good air quality a necessity. This increased awareness made me more conscious about when to open windows or when to start an air purifier. That is why I started working to spread these insights and develop a sensor that can live in many more homes.
Acknowledgments
This project would have not be possible without the relentless help from close collaborators that have inputed energies and supported me in concepting, designing, strategizing, engineering and manufacturing this product.
Special thanks to: