Data-driven air quality platform Aura Air launches new product for COVID-19 patients
Air quality has become a cause for concern in recent years. Several studies have shown that poor air quality can impact our health in numerous ways resulting in acute as well as chronic ailments. With the COVID-19 pandemic further adding to the woes surrounding deteriorating air quality, government, as well as private organizations, are looking to leverage cutting-edge technology to improve air quality. Against this backdrop, Aura Air, a data-driven air quality platform is launching its flagship product to make the air in compact spaces cleaner.
An all-in-one indoor air purification and quality intelligence system, Aura implements a unique 4-stage purification process while vigilantly monitoring air quality in real-time to disinfect and filter the air. As soon as the system detects hazards, it immediately sends out an alert and provides crucial intelligence such as the nature/origin of the issue, the solution to the problem, and alarms if urgent action or evacuation is required. The 3 steps of Aura’s filtration process are:
Detection: The system detects indoor and outdoor air quality based on real-time monitoring through a wide range of smart sensors. In indoor spaces, Aura can identify smoke, Carbon dioxide, PM 2.5 to PM 10 particles, temperature, and humidity. In outdoor spaces, the device can detect CO, NOX, NO2, O3 (Ozone), Allergies, VOC, PM 2.5 and PM 10, temperature, humidity, and the weather.
Personalization: Aura Air uses a unique air quality assistant that personalizes the Aura device precisely to the end user’s requirements. The user will need to complete a questionnaire post which the device will provide relevant recommendations to cater to their specific needs.
Filtration and disinfection: Coming to the key step of the process, Aura uses the pre-filter that filters large particles of dust, pollen, insects, animal hair, etc. Post this, the device uses Aura Air’s patented Ray filter that contains HEPA, Carbon Layer, and Smart Copper Fabric to filter out 0.3-micron particles, VOCs and bad odours, and viruses and bacteria. The third part of the process comes with its UVC LEDs that neutralize bacteria, viruses, and other parasites. Finally, the system’s EPA-approved Sterionizer, a component based on the bipolar ionization technology, generates positive and negative ions to purify and freshen the air by eliminating the aforementioned pollutants.
Speaking on the launch, Mr. Ashwani Mutha, CMO of Aura Air India said, “Poor air quality is one of the biggest challenges that the world is facing, and the pandemic has simply accelerated the need for purified, clean, and healthier air. Powered by cutting-edge technology, Aura’s unique filtration process ensures thorough air purification and disinfection, ensuring a healthy and safe environment in indoor spaces. Aura has also proven to be effective in reducing the concentration of the Coronavirus making it a product with significant antiviral properties. We are delighted to launch Aura and will be coming up with more such announcements soon.”
Tested at NABL Labs for efficacy and efficiency in identifying the Air Quality Index (AQI), Aura Air’s USP also lies in its sleek, compact appearance and 360-degree lightweight design. Weighing 3.5 kgs, the machine can be mounted to the ceiling, a wall, or simply placed on a surface at indoor spaces such as hospitals, schools and universities, hotels, and other commercial establishments. With a presence in Jaipur, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
About Aura Air India:
Aura Air has its presence in UK, US along with India (Jaipur, Delhi, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Mumbai). Aura Air helps in making compact spaces healthier through a data-driven air quality platform based on user behavior intuitive algorithm that makes it different from other air purifiers. Aura Air believes in providing complete solutions to its consumers by providing the latest technology that helps in giving efficient results and helps in purifying the air. Aura Air, a data-driven air quality platform that leverages user behaviour and its intuitive algorithm to make compact spaces much healthier. Since breathing should not require a second thought, Aura Air developed the world’s smartest air management platform which not just cleanses and disinfects indoor air, but does so while vigilantly monitoring its quality in real-time.
Air purifier could bring Japan’s karaoke industry back to life
Aura Air has signed a $30 million deal with Japanese distributor J-TEC to supply the Japanese market with its advanced technology, which is specially designed to purify air in closed spaces. The company’s system has proven to be 99.99% effective at eliminating COVID-19 particles, among other pathogens.
Oren Eliyasov, business development director at Aura Air, told The Media Line that the agreement with J-TEC includes the Japan Karaoke Box Association and other major clients in Japan, such as SMBC Trust Bank and JTB Corporation, one of the largest travel agencies in the country.
“The karaoke association says that there are 100,000 [karaoke] rooms all over Japan,” Eliyasov said. “Currently, most of them are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
Karaoke, which means “empty orchestra” in Japanese, was developed in the Land of the Rising Sun in the 1970s and quickly spread around the world as a popular form of entertainment. In Japan, it has long been a favorite outing for groups of friends and families.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many karaoke bars in the country have reduced operations or shut down entirely as the industry struggles to stay alive. Karaoke nights generally take place in small crowded rooms, an ideal setting for spreading the novel coronavirus.
Aura Air’s device monitors air quality 24/7 and constantly purifies it, Eliyasov said.
“Basically, we found out that we’re capable of reducing the coronavirus by 99.99%, which gives a lot of confidence to clients and those who would come and sing in the karaoke rooms,” he explained.
Aura Air uses a combination of four filters to completely change the air in a standard-sized room every 2.5 hours. It has a pre-filter to catch large particles and dust, a patented multilayered HEPA filter that includes a carbon-infused fabric, UVC LED lighting to neutralize bacteria and viruses, and a Sterionizer device that produces positive and negative ions to purify air.
According to Aviad Shnaiderman, co-founder and CEO of Aura Air, the system is already in use in more than 50 countries, in their hospitals, clinics, educational institutions and public transportation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to accelerate Aura Air’s sales worldwide.
“The coronavirus helped us to educate and raise awareness of indoor air quality,” he said. “It did a fast-forward for everything that we believe in and that we claim.”
What distinguishes the company’s system from others on the market, Shnaiderman added, is that it provides a measurement of pollutants in real-time and that it uses a unique process to filter and disinfect the air.
“It’s an IoT (internet of things) product for smart homes and smart buildings,” he said, explaining: “It connects to the internet, mobile phones and other smart devices and applications.”
The startup’s recent entry into the Japanese market also has a personal story behind it.
“I was traveling in Japan two years ago and had a girlfriend there, which led me to learn Japanese so that I could communicate with her parents,” Eliyasov said. “This led to me falling in love with the culture, people and language over there.”
While the relationship did not last, it did lead Eliyasov to joining Aura Air as a business developer for Japan, which the company hopes will become one of its major markets.
400 UK, Ireland buses COVID-free
Aura Air startup has finished outfitting 400 tourist buses, newly repurposed to carry frontline workers in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with its unique data-driven air purification system.
The technology uses three methods to kill coronavirus and informs passengers on the state of seven air quality indexes in their vehicle.
Originally tested at Sheba Medical Center, where it is still in use today, the system was found to be more than 99.9% effective in disinfecting indoor air from bacteria, viruses, fungi, and molds and catching particles that can cause sickness.
The air purification system obliterates coronavirus using two patented methods: a Sterionizer and a copper laced high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. In addition, it cleans the air using ultraviolet C (UVC) light.
The Sterionizer is an updated ionizer, as the older models can cause serious health problems such as lung damage. An ionizer works by distributing positive and negative ions into the air, which starts a process that destroys the sickness-causing protein constructions of viruses, such as the coronavirus and influenza.
Copper HEPA filters distinguish themselves by trapping and killing the virus, whereas the normal HEPA filters only capture the virus. Copper is well known for eliminating bacteria and viruses by weakening their protein structure in addition to inhibiting their ability to reproduce.
UVC light purifies, among other things, air and water.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration: “UVC radiation has been shown to destroy the outer protein coating of the SARS-Coronavirus, which is a different virus from the current SARS-CoV-2 virus. … UVC radiation may also be effective in inactivating the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the virus that causes the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).”
Technology is used not only for shielding against coronavirus but for passengers to monitor the air around them.
Passengers can view air quality indexes for carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (such as perfumes), humidity, temperature and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). According to Paul Kasler, CEO of Aura Air UK Ltd, the UK distributor of Aura Air, the latter two measures are the most important for COVID-19 monitoring.
“These are the particles that are emitted when you breathe, cough, sneeze, talk, which are known to carry the virus and float in the air for 15 to 30 minutes,” he told The Media Line, explaining that PM2.5 particles are between 1.5 microns and 2.5 microns in size, and PM10 particles are 2.5 to 10 microns in size.
A micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter.
All of the air monitoring can be done through an app.
“We give operators a sticker to put on the coach and on the corner of the picture is the QR [Quick Response] code. Passengers scan that QR code in and then they can download the app and sit on the coach and look at the readings,” Kasler said. “It will show you if you’ve gone above a threshold level.”
“The passengers are the first target audience that can use the data and see it. Besides them, the data can also be screened to the coach operators, the managers of the buses or trains,” Roei Friedberg, CEO of Aura Air North America, told The Media Line.
Kasler himself works with private operators, which use “everything from a Mercedes Tourismo, which is a 51-seater coach, right down to 10- to 12-seater minivans.”
He has seen a burgeoning business from school bus companies.
“A lot of these private operators are supplying the schools. Of the 111 that we’ve installed in the last week, I would say 30 to 40% of those are for school travel,” Kasler said.
The technology for the air purification system is also used for analytics and can be employed to help policymakers.
“If needed, we can export the data and share it with governments: with the Ministry of Health or other authorities managing the COVID situation in those countries,” Friedberg said, adding that the future of this kind of technology lies in information analysis.
“Aura Air is now investing a lot of time and efforts on data analytics, … different air indexes for viruses or to predict high-risk scenarios,” he added.
Friedberg says the technology is now in buses in the Netherlands and Croatia and will soon be utilized in the US.
Aura Air works mainly with tourist operators, but Friedberg notes that the company is “now in negotiations with three big operators to also implement them in buses [for] public transportation.”
Aura Air system is crucial for industries such as transportation where people are especially anxious about catching the novel coronavirus, Friedberg said.
“We saw that from coach companies, buses, public transportation … people are afraid to use them,” he said. “Our technology is a one-stop-shop solution to purifying the air to provide a safe and healthy environment, [in addition to] show[ing] you the real-time data and giving you the confidence that the area is clean and secure.”
“We will have a COVID-free environment on the bus; one thing for sure is that it will eliminate the fear of being 30 to 40 people on the bus,” he added.
The technology gives people additional assurance by relying on science, which arms them personally with information, Smadja said.
“It’s not enough if I tell them the air is good or the driver left the windows open; he’ll [the customer will] be able to check the air level on the bus by himself,” he said. “He does not have to trust me or my driver, but rather technology.
“I want to give customers something [to feel confident about their safety] which is beyond the masks,” Smadja continued. “If you see an airplane, everyone has masks, but you still have doubts about the quality of the air on the plane.”