Can sensor technology help keep office workers healthy?

The OpenSensors company uses small, inexpensive sensors to monitor air quality and other conditions in offices. The timing couldn't be better.

This article is part of Upstart, a series about companies that are harnessing new science and technology to solve challenges in their industries.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Yodit Bekele Stanton worried about his daughter's debilitating asthma. As a software developer in London, she knew that data often contained answers that were otherwise unnoticed or invisible, so she installed a sensor in her garden and began monitoring the air quality in her neighborhood, by mapping the data against her daughter's asthma attacks. The results were inconclusive, but Stanton was convinced that such sensors could be used to improve the places where people live, learn and work.

"Fortunately , my daughter grew out of her severe asthma, but air quality is now a passion project,” she said.

In 2015, Ms. Stanton founded OpenSensors, which uses small, inexpensive battery-powered sensors to monitor foot traffic, occupancy levels and air quality in the spaces we inhabit – especially offices.

Seven years later, after the global pandemic changed the way we treat interior spaces, the existence of this technology could not have been better timed. indoor air has become an essential tool to protect people against Covid-19 and others. res airborne diseases, especially now that companies are encouraging workers to return to the office. Studies have shown that office occupancy levels affect indoor air quality and viral transmission.

Other recent studies have shown that the virus Covid-19 can be spread through respiratory aerosols. In fact, airborne transmission may be the dominant form of transmission for several respiratory pathogens, including the Covid virus. In confined spaces, such as offices, contaminated aerosols can accumulate over time, increasing the risk of transmission.

OpenSensor devices measure carbon dioxide using Internet of Things, or IoT, technology. , in which sensors publish real-time data to a network. Breathing produces CO2, which is exhaled with the aerosols, so the sensors can be used to measure the accumulation of exhaled air in a space - and therefore the potential level of pathogens. (Essentially, CO2 serves as an indicator for potentially high levels of pathogens.) This, in turn, allows building managers to monitor and adjust air quality as needed.

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CO2 levels build up throughout the day, often reaching peak levels of 2,000 parts per million in the late afternoon. To keep employees healthy, CO2 levels need to be monitored throughout the day, and not just once, as is the case with most organizations today, if they monitor CO2.< /p>

OpenSensors uses low-power, wide-area technology that transmits data over a license-free spectrum, similar to that used by radio-controlled cars. The sensors are extremely energy efficient, so the batteries don't need to be changed more frequently than they would for a wristwatch.

Sensor signals are received by a router which forwards them to an OpenSensors server over a cellular network. The company aggregates the data into a web-based dashboard or sends the data back to the customer's own systems via an app. There are no cables involved. Companies plug in the router, called a gateway, and stick sensors where needed.

"OpenSensors is an overlay service that can...