Air pollution is a silent killer. It leads to death over 3.7 million people every year. We are often unaware about being exposed to dangerous concentrations of pollutants.
Hawa Dawa air pollution device, ‘Hawa’, is capable of measuring CO, CO2 and VOCs levels, then processing and sharing the information about the quality of the air in the environment.
Awareness engages us to take action to protect our health.
Miners used to carry caged canaries down into the mine tunnels with them.
If dangerous gases, such as carbon monoxide, collected in the mine, the canary would have been their warning to exit the tunnels immediately.
That’s why their called sentinel species.
The sensor is wrapped in what we can picture as a bird cage. This prevents the sensor from being damaged, as it works more efficiently when fully exposed.
As the device would be initially for purchase in Egypt, the ‘cage’ recalls an Islamic geometric patterns to appeal specifically the Arab market.
Being a desk object, it has been my intent to make customers happy to have the device on display, which of course invites them to interact with the product.
The user obtains the analysis of the air quality by pressing the button of the device.
A LED light circle provides a feedback of the pollution level by glowing in specific colours.
When the device is connected to a smartphone, a real-time map informs about pollution levels.
Hawa Dawa provides practical solutions to reduce exposure and improve health.
Hawa Dawa joined the Eight Billion Lives challenge, hosted by the Impact Hub in Munich.
In addiction the the business model, a working 3d-printed prototype has been presented to the jury. They finally selected the start-up initiative among 8 other teams, paving the way for a full development of the project.
