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The Awair helps you breathe easier by tracking air quality

If you have allergies, you know that air quality can mean the difference between having a productive day and being a congested, sneezing pile of sadness. The Awair from Bitfinder analyzes the indoor temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, fine dust particles and volatile organic compounds in the air and uses that information to provide individual recommendations via a companion app and trigger IoT devices help reduce the chances of spending the day leaking snot.

The Awair started as an Arduino board with multiple sensors attached to help Bitfinder co-founder Ronald Ro track the air quality of his home to help manage his daughter's eczema. After realizing that the information could help others, the Awair was built using a state-of-the-art calibration chamber with sensors far beyond what his prototype had. Ro says the device can help people manage their allergies, sleep habits and productivity. Users just select one of those options in the app and it begins tracking and analyzing the air and a user's behavior and builds recommendations around that data.

To help maximize the recommendations, the Awair connects to a backend that can be used by other manufacturers to connect to the air sensor to launch IoT devices. For example, if the air is too stuffy, a Nest can be triggered to turn on the fan in a house. The company has an open API for developers to plug into that backend and a WeMo-like plugin module called the AWAIR Connect is in the works. Plus, it's working on developing a channel on online-scripting service, IFTTT. The Awair will be available for pre-order on May 27 for $149 and will ship in the fall.