Seeing Bad Smell With a New Odour Sensor Available

AirBase Systems (Germany), an environmental monitoring technology start-up, launches low-cost, easy-to-use air quality sensor devices now capable of monitoring odour.

The product, CanarIT, combines nanotechnology sensors with Internet connectivity, via Wi-Fi or GSM, to deliver air quality data to the AirBase data cloud. The data is made available on the Internet and via a future subscription alert service to mobile phones.

The company's devices measures Ozone (O3), NO2, Total VOC (Volatile Organic Compound), Particulate Matter (Total Suspended Particles), Relative Humidity, Temperature, Noise and now - Odour. The newest feature, the odour sensor, provides continuous real time measurement of odour in ambient air. Odour is an important indicator of a variety of environmental hazards and the CanarIT can now help to detect it.

The odour module is calibrated against the European Odour Unit (OUE) concentration scale, which is based on the response to 40 ppb of n-butanol as defined in EN 13725.

The monitoring devices are designed for municipalities, community groups, citizen scientists and individuals from all over the world who would like to monitor the air they breathe. CanarIT is designed to be used as part of a network of environmental sensors (in Smart City projects, for example). Devices can be purchased directly from the company web site or from an AirBase Certified Partner.

The product is a technology breakthrough for the environmental industry. Current technology, used by cities around the world, is extremely expensive, unreliable and much less sensitive compared to the new AirBase product. CanarIT, at $900 per device, will dramatically change the cost and accessibility of pollution monitoring systems.

Says Liad Ortar, Co-Founder and VP Marketing of AirBase Systems, “Up till today, when citizens complained about bad smell in their neighborhoods, the authorities had to send over specially trained personnel (sniffers) and they would verify the complaint. With the incorporation of the new Nano-tech odour sensor in our CanarIT unit, people and authorities can receive real time information through the web and be alerted just as things happen."