Acer's connected Air Monitor tracks six key air quality indicators in real time

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,254   +192
Staff member

Internet-connected devices come in all shapes and sizes and as evident by Acer’s latest entrant, they also offer varying degrees of functionality and usefulness.

The Acer Air Monitor, as its name suggests, is an air monitor designed to help keep tabs on the air quality in your home, office or any other indoor space you or loved ones frequent. The connected device tracks six key air quality indicators in real time – TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compounds), carbon dioxide, PM2.5, PM10, temperature and humidity – which can be accessed at will using Acer’s dedicated mobile app.

Users can configure warnings that’ll trigger push notifications if certain predefined parameters are exceeded. Furthermore, triggers can also be sent to IFTTT, thus allowing actions to be taken without the need for human intervention (perhaps an air purifier can be flipped on automatically, for example).

Wayne Ma, General Manager of IoB (Internet of Beings) at Acer Cloud Technology Inc. in Taiwan points to research from the US and EU showing people on average spend roughly 90 percent of their time indoors. With the Acer Air Monitor, they want to empower people with actionable information to make better life choices.

As the saying goes, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. According to the World Health Organization, some 4.3 million people die each year from exposure to household air pollution.

The Acer Air Monitor will be on display at Mobile World Congress. No word yet on pricing and exact availability.

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Also no word on how it intends to maintain calibration. TVOC's and other pollutants tend to leave behind their residue on sensors, which can cause constant high readings when no TVOC's are present. Perhaps simple cleaning instructions might help, but the company certainly should address these issues by projecting the lifespan of the product w/o re-calibration, etc, etc.
 
I don't think those 4.3 million people can afford something like these, let alone internet. I've certainly not heard of these types of death figures in North America, or the EU.
 
I don't think those 4.3 million people can afford something like these, let alone internet. I've certainly not heard of these types of death figures in North America, or the EU.

I think they lumped in premature deaths due to lung cancer, 2nd hand smoke, exposure to formaldehyde, etc. and pre-mature deaths to other things like asbestosis, messelthelaona, etc.etc ..... that would then be about the right number ....
 
Makes sense. Once you've impressed the hell out of your buddies with your new fangled A/C, you wind up in some old dirty, stale booze and smoke filled smelly pub with them for hours on end toasting to your new, healthy acquisition.
 
Also no word on how it intends to maintain calibration. TVOC's and other pollutants tend to leave behind their residue on sensors, which can cause constant high readings when no TVOC's are present. Perhaps simple cleaning instructions might help, but the company certainly should address these issues by projecting the lifespan of the product w/o re-calibration, etc, etc.

Considering the fact that it's Acer, you more than likely won't be able to do it yourself as all the Acers I've come in contact with have been a pain in the patooty to repair and aren't the best of quality. But hey, maybe *cough*not*cough* they've changed.
 
/sigh First thing I thought of was "and how do I get it off the net" I'm using a Dylos particle counter in front of me with large and small particle numbers displayed. There isn't any color code but it was fairly eassy to figure out big number = bad!. About one foot under it is a CO/Smoke monitor. Also digital display but has a red light = bad! to go with the 120db alarm.

To say this is an unimpressive device is understating it. If I had to guess, it looks like it was designed to be put in the baby's room for remote monitoring with a phone for bragging rights on how well you pay attention. I agree with UncleAl, keeping it clean enough so +/- 5% accuracy would be very useful. The Dylos I have self calibrates on power on, so cleaning is done with a can of compressed air and some care to not overspin the fans. Aside from really wishing it was a local password protectable wifi/bluetooth for privacy purposes, I'm not seeing any decent "average homeowner" logistical engineering on this critter.
 
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