Wearable air monitoring equipment come out

Because it is the Internet companies that do hardware, the news that ink weather has to do with smart hardware has received much attention from the very beginning. The answer was announced on Mother's Day. Ink launched “Air Fruit”, which integrates the detection and reminding of data such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and PM2.5, and is priced at RMB 999. There is also an outdoor version connected to Air Fruit via Zigbee. In addition, Air Fruit also provides APIs for smart air conditioners, purifiers and humidifiers.

The price and battery life become flawed

If you are looking for something similar to Air Fruit, non-U.S. Birdi is none other than.

Birdi monitors elements of health hazards in the air, pollution and emergency situations, including smoke, dangerous substances (carbon monoxide), allergens (pollen), and air quality (particles, temperature, humidity, freshness of the air). In addition to preventing emergencies, Birdi can also rate air quality and provide suggestions for improvement. At the same time it will open APIs to air purifiers and other equipment. Birdi has three characteristics: simple, beautiful and smart. Mobile App can view reports, receive warnings, and the Birdi App can also directly dial fire alarms in hazardous situations. Pricing is $119, or about RMB 740. Its App will support Chinese.

Ink air fruit is almost a subset of Birdi. But its price is as high as 999 yuan, which is even higher than the price of Birdi and Nest Protect smoke detectors. It is even more expensive than some low-cost air purification equipment. 360 and TCL's air guards can monitor and purify. The price is more than 1,000. The pricing has reduced Airgo's audience a lot, and many geek-type users have said that the price is less than 500 yuan before considering it.

Ink air fruit life is a few days, the outdoor version is longer, two weeks. This is still a big challenge for users. The life of monitoring equipment such as Nest Protect can reach several years.

Of course, the simplicity, beauty, and intelligence that Birdi plays are also advantages of Air Fruit. It supports voice and gesture operations, and the industrial design of the avant-garde atmosphere is praised by everyone. The Ink Weather App already has 270 million users, and the software capabilities don't matter.

Addition, ink, brave trial and error
Air fruit prices are so high because the cost itself is high.

MJ Huang Mingjie, the creator of smart monitoring equipment in the car and the founder of Celery Technologies, told Raytech that the main cost of air monitoring equipment is sensor and industrial design. More than one type of monitoring gas requires the addition of one type of sensor. Ink air balloons support so many air monitoring sensors. An air monitoring hardware entrepreneur not far from revealing the name told Ray Technology that carbon dioxide monitoring is not so strong, sensors are expensive, and ink support can significantly increase costs.

The more sensors, the more difficult it is to integrate into a device with a limited size. Ink Air Air integrates so many sensors into such a small device that it can achieve such a beautiful appearance. Industrial design is strong but its cost is high.

Lei technology author "Gao Xiaosong his six uncle" is the author of the analysis, ink air fruit prices so high part of the reason is that ink is APP developers, there is no BAT such appeal, and hardware modules, ODM, OEM manufacturers did not negotiate Pricing right. Only after being scaled, can the industry chain be controlled to keep prices down. Thunder Technology added that air monitoring equipment is relatively niche. Unlike mobile phones and TVs, it has a mature industrial chain. After modularization and scale, the cost can be very low.

Jin Li and his team made additions this time. The pursuit of many functions and the appearance of cool and beautiful, in the intelligent software, the use of voice, gestures and other complex technologies. Crowdsourced air data and an ecological chain based on APIs are also planned. Obviously, Air Fruit is a courageous trial and error of the ink team. The purpose of this version is not to lay the weight, but to face the high-end market and super fever users.

Air Monitor: Next Wearable?

Smart hardware around the air can be classified into three categories:

The monitor detects some gases in the air and provides real-time data and recommendations. It can also direct air purifiers, humidifiers, air conditioners, etc. to make actions. Ink air is included in this list.

The monitor has different usage scenarios and purposes. Indoor, outdoor, car, portable, professional. In addition to the regular monitoring of PM2.5, temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, CO, allergens, radiation, and electromagnetic radiation are also supported by some devices.

The smart monitor collects air indicators by loading sensors, uses the App for analysis and information services, and controls other devices through the API to make some reactions.

Alarms, such as Nest Protect, can be alerted by sound, light, remote App alerts, and fire-fighting calls in the event of an emergency in the air. They monitor hazardous gases, carbon monoxide, smoke, high temperature, and gas.

The processor can make some actions to influence air equipment. Including purifiers, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, constant temperature systems, smart air conditioners, smart fans, smart windows, Activated Carbon purifiers. 360 TCL Air Defender and Midea Smart Air Conditioner are cooperating with TCL.

There are quite a few smart hardware that spans several areas. Birdi is an alarm and a detector; T3 Air Defender can do both purification and monitoring; Nest is a combination of perception, learning, monitoring and temperature control.

Modern people pay more and more attention to health. The poor status of air quality makes everyone attach special importance to the air environment. The appetite for monitoring PM2.5 PM2.5 can be proved. Therefore, it is inevitable that the air monitoring intelligent hardware has received attention. Next, more and more air monitoring related smart hardware will be on the crowdfunding website to meet with us.

Independent air monitoring or counterfeiting needs

The biggest challenge for smart air monitoring equipment is whether it captures people's “needs behind demand” and allows users to pay for it. People are concerned about the hidden needs of air quality in order to make the air better.

Based on this logic, a smart gas alarm entrepreneur who is unwilling to have a transparent name stated to Raytech that he is not optimistic about independent air monitoring equipment. "The user knows that there is a problem in the air, but how can it be?" The people's pain points are not that they don't know how bad the air is, but they know it but it is difficult to change. Whether it is PM2.5 or the newly renovated room, the formaldehyde or the new car.

Air alarms and processors are just right. The alarm informs the user in dangerous situations and the user can immediately take a series of measures to eliminate the danger. The processor can directly change the air, making people's lives more comfortable and safer.

Another point is that the independent monitoring equipment is very deadly: the alarm can do the monitoring of the air at the same time as the alarm, such as Birdi; the processor can change the air at the same time, you can also pass the air monitoring, such as TCL And 360 air guards.

The air monitor can use the open API to “direct” smart window openings and direct the smart air conditioners and purifiers to operate. However, as the Birdi team's point of view, it is not easy to achieve this. Before the product reaches a certain stock, branded air conditioners and purifiers cannot be compatible with you.

Therefore, the air monitor is likely to become the next wearable bracelet, with high attention, but ultimately it fails to solve the needs behind the user and is difficult to sustain. The wearable bracelet tells us movement data, but it doesn't make us slim and robust. Once a smart watch launches similar features, users are likely to choose the latter.

Big data? In the product does not reach 10 million levels, big data is empty talk. There are currently no more than a few categories of smart hardware in excess of a million. Even with massive equipment, it is Baidu, Ali, etc. that can handle this data. Midea's smart air-conditioning data has been handed over to Alibaba Cloud's smart home platform. Baidu's Dulife platform is collecting vast amounts of data from various healthy and intelligent hardware. Smart air monitoring equipment is best to cooperate with them.

Crowdsourcing Weather? A friend of meteorology told me that if there is basic common sense in meteorology, I will not think that the data collected by intelligent hardware can help the weather forecast. Weather forecasting is a discipline with a high degree of professionalism. A large number of weather stations and mass professional monitoring equipment have been laid in the country. The weather forecast itself is a typical big data application.

There are accuracy issues. An air monitoring practitioner also told Ray Technologies that accurate monitoring of air parameters requires learning curves, the need for corrective algorithms, and the need for high-precision sensors. The higher the accuracy, the higher the cost. This is a challenge for Ink Air Fruit and other smart air monitoring hardware.

Air is something people care about. The smart hardware business around it must find people's pain points and just-needs to find the needs behind their needs. Consumer-only smart hardware that only performs air monitoring is difficult to independently exist. In the future, the ink “air fruit” will probably expand to some more needed functions, such as alarms or processors. Ink Air Gog is an advance force for Internet players to enter the hardware. It achieved an initial victory in industrial design and intelligent interaction. This is only its first version. We are even more hopeful of the next air result.