General Description
The AirBeam by HabitatMap is an open-source platform that measures fine particulate matter, namely PM
2.5.
Principle of Operation
The AirBeam uses a light scattering method to measure PM
2.5. Air is drawn through a sensing chamber wherein light from an LED bulb scatters off particles in the airstream. This light scatter is registered by a detector and converted into a measurement that estimates the number of particles in the air.
Via Bluetooth, these measurements are communicated approximately once a second to the AirCasting Android app, which maps and graphs the data in real time on a smartphone. At the end of each AirCasting session, the collected data is sent to the AirCasting website, where the data is crowdsourced with data from other AirCasters to generate heat maps indicating where PM
2.5 concentrations are highest and lowest.
Features
- Dimensions: 4.1 x 1.8 x 4.0 inches
- Weight: 7 oz.
- Battery: Yes (2000 mAh 3.7V rechargeable lithium battery)(up to 10hrs battery life)
- Power supply: Yes-micro usb port
- Sensor lifetime: N/A
- Clock function: Yes
- Sampling mechanism: Fan / Resistor
- Environmental operating conditions: N/A
- Internal data logging: N/A
- PC data logging: Yes via Bluetooth
- Communications: Bluetooth and Miro-USB port
- Weatherproof: N/A
Applications
- Ambient air quality monitoring
- Personal exposure monitoring
Manufacturer's product webpage