The SMART project marks the collaboration between Treedom and the Institute for BioEconomy of the Italian National Research Council. SMART is part of the research activity related to sensors and their applicability to a wide range of fields.
The project is inspired by observing how nowadays common life is dominated by technology and sensors in many fields, yet they are only shared by “professionals”, both for prohibitive costs and difficulties of installation and usage.
The main focus was to conceive an innovative product, a mini-station called MiniSense, that emerges from the range of commercial sensors for a number of reasons, including:
- Modularity: the product can be customized according to user needs.
- Low Cost: MiniSense represents a balance point between quality-price and performances.
- Plug & Play: the product can be used and enjoyed by everyone, right away, thanks to its easy setup and the straight data that can be visualized.
- Open Data and Open Source: the collected data were made available to all users of the web platform.
Project’s goal was to develop a prototype that can be integrated with different sensors based on the type of physical parameter to be measured and on a laser technology for measuring particulate matter.
Atmospheric pollution monitoring, first applied in the urban and Smart City context, later aims to be used in many other sectors and contexts such as home automation. On these bases, MiniSense is well suited to both public and private market, thus becoming a marketable product.
Also in the environmental field, monitoring platforms play an increasingly leading role in collecting data, both by public authorities and common citizens. To ensure that data are shared with everyone, the European Union is also promoting citizen-friendly projects and activities that can be understanded and used in order to directly join in environmental protection.
MiniSense also conforms to the European Directive 2008/50 / EC, which acknowledges the importance of adopting supplementing air quality measurements through low-cost devices, thus encouraging their use to bring the issue closer to a wider and wider range of population.
