PAQS: Real-time Pollution Mapping Solutions

Urban economic development across the world has brought along with it the baggage of poisoned air, ill-health, and, incidentally, an early death for a great many people. It is today's reality that pollution is the price we pay for modernization, and over the years it has taken stronger roots in our life. Understanding this menace of pollution that floats in the environment today, Bangalore based Personal Air Quality Systems develops solutions to fill a vital gap which serves as the first step toward environmental pollution management–credible, reliable, “hyper-local” pollution data. “We leverage technology solutions and environmental intelligence with the aim to enhance an individual’s health, comfort, and productivity,” says Vaidyanathan, Founder and MD of PAQS. PAQS develops solutions for outdoor and indoor air quality monitoring and caters to different industries and projects such as healthcare, media, smart cities and smart buildings.

The firm has structured its business around three verticals, with distinct products and solutions for each. The firm develops Environmental Sensor ES for smart cities, Indoor Air Monitor and mobile phone app for smart homes, and a Smart Inhaler with an App for individuals The outdoor solution developed by PAQS primarily consists of a Made in India device with an array of world class sensors that monitor parameters such as temperature, humidity, Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, Particulate Matter both PM2.5 and PM 10, UVA and UVB rays, and noise levels, in compliance with the requirements of the National Air Quality Index.

My Air, PAQS’ indoor air quality monitor, on the other hand, has sensors specific to indoor pollution such as carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOC) besides particulate matter (PM2.5) and temperature and humidity. Great care, including device and sensor diagnostics is taken to ensure reliable and credible data for continuous, real time collection of data. The data from a network of hyper local data points is then aggregated, analyzed, managed, and then provided in appropriate formats through API services, real-time heat maps or widgets. PAQS also delivers predictive intelligence solutions for environmental modelling and forecasting, leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence. Also, keeping in mind the sensitivity of data, PAQS has written over a million lines of codes for both firmware and analytics, thus ensuring the data does not cross our national borders.

Citing one of PAQS’s many innovations, Vaidyanathan notes that the firm has successfully developed and installed a Mobile Environmental Monitoring platform on Jaipur Road Transport buses to provide real-time monitoring across various routes in the city, which is one of the global firsts deployed in India. PAQS had also deployed a mobile solution at ELCITA, the Electronic City Smart Township in Bangalore.

The full stack solutions developed is one that sets PAQS apart from others. With a team comprising experienced professionals each with specific domain knowledge, the solution anticipates the needs of the Urban town planners, civic authorities, municipal commissioners and healthcare professionals. The device itself is differentiated in terms of design, clearly standing out from among the many products available in the market. Besides having a large customer base including MNCs such as Cisco, Wipro, IBM, PAQS also has developed specific solutions addressing the ‘Mother and Child’, schools and hotels segments. “Going ahead, we aim to become thought leaders in this domain and help create a safer and pollution-free environment,” concludes Vaidyanathan.