TechGeeks_AirMate

Due to scenarios like: vehicular pollution, open smoking, open trash, construction sites, the city dwellers suffer from great deal of respiratory problems ranging from asthma to even lung cancer! Regular masks only purify the air from dusts and are unable to purify air from virus, bacteria and allergens. To solve the problem, we are building a wearable air purifying device that will suck in bad air and purify it for the user. The device continuously checks for the air quality around the user and notifies them through an app. It uses true HEPA 14 grade filtration technology along with an electronic filtration system to filter air from virus, bacteria and allergens. This device will save millions of people from respiratory problem and also will create awareness among them. To promote healthy environment the device is designed at a reasonable price to make it affordable for everyone.

Due to scenarios like: vehicular pollution, open smoking, open trash, construction sites, the city dwellers suffer from great deal of respiratory problems ranging from asthma to even lung cancer! Regular masks only purify the air from dusts and are unable to purify air from virus, bacteria and allergens. To solve the problem, we are building a wearable air purifying device that will suck in bad air and purify it for the user. The device continuously checks for the air quality around the user and notifies them through an app. It uses true HEPA 14 grade filtration technology along with an electronic filtration system to filter air from virus, bacteria and allergens. This device will save millions of people from respiratory problem and also will create awareness among them. To promote healthy environment the device is designed at a reasonable price to make it affordable for everyone.

We have done a robust social experiment on 250
city dwellers to before coming up with the design of AirMate. Based on
the user's feedback we have brought changes to the design and features
of the device. Most of the city dwellers do not prefer masks around the
face. They think that it makes them feel suffocated specially those with
respiratory problems. 80% of them suggested that the price for the
device should not exceed 1500 BDT, 95% of the young populations
suggested to make the device look like a gadget.

Keeping the social experiment as a base, we designed the device in a way that it does not cover the entire face rather it just sits on the collar and
constantly flow purified air to the nose. Alo to motivate the young
generation to adopt air purifiers for their good health, AirMate has been designed to look trendy gadget (headphone) which costs lower than 1500 BDT thus meeting the affordable range by most of the people in the country.

According to an article of The ASCO Post, over 48.3% men in the country are smokers and over 77.3% people in the country has some sort of breathing problem. All kind of dust, smoke, allergens and pollen are tremendously harmful for the people with respiratory problem. AirMate is a lightweight gadget that practically keeps them safe from all harmful elements in the air. It can be used both indoor and outdoors as an effective air purifying device.

AirMate has a mechanism to electrnically suck in polluted air using motors. Then the air is purified internally using 3 layer filters made of HEPA 13 grade system, carbon fibre and an electronic filtration system. The filtered air is blown to the nose of the user at a gentle speed. The device has a sensor that sense the air status around the user and warns or aware user over Bluetooth through a mobile app through visualizing air status data using pi-chart and emoticons.

There are similar air masks available which purify the air in similar ways and are wearable. However, AirMate is unique because of the design, price point and the architecture. Regular electronic air purifier that uses true HEPA 13 filters are over 10,000 BDT whereas AirMate is designed to cost around 1500 BDT. Unlike other device, AirMate looks like a headphone to suit the needs of the young generation who are inclined to use a device that looks monotonous no matter whatever is the  benefit of it is. On top that, during our social experiment we found that people do not tend to believe that a device actually works until they see some kind of proof. AirMate senses the environment around the users and sends the data back to the user to an app using Bluetooth. The data is represented through emoticons and pi-charts to the user. This creates satisfaction and awareness at the same time for the user.

Moreover, taking user's permission, the collected air status data will be hosted to a portal which will be available for public research and usage. This will help the Govt. of Bangladesh to understand the range of pollution and the areas where the industries/construction sites are not maintaining proper air-pollution safety  measures.

According to an article of The ASCO Post, over 48.3% men in the country are smokers and over 77.3% people in the country has some sort of breathing problem. All kind of dust, smoke, allergens and pollen are tremendously harmful for the people with respiratory problem. AirMate is a lightweight gadget that practically keeps them safe from  all harmful elements in the air. It can be used both indoor and outdoors as an effective air purifying device.

The city dwellers live in the increased risk of lung cancer due to secondary pollution from open smoking, vehicular pollution and pollution from construction sites, open trash etc. It has been seen that over 80% people in the cities use earphone and our target is to replace earphones with AirMate. Thus city dwellers will have heightened safety from air pollution.

Over 90% of the hospitals do have air purifiers installed hence people who visit the hospitals remain at higher risk of getting infected with virus from a patient with contagious diseases. AirMate can help doctors, patients, staffs and visitors in the hospitals to keep themselves safe from hazardous air pollution.

The worker at the garments and manufacturing industries can use AirMate to save themselves from poisonous air.

The people in the refugee camp can save themselves from the spread of contagious diseases by using AirMate.

The product is in the prototype stage yet. We have an estimated sell of 20,000 units within the first year of launching. Since AirMate can be used both for indoor and outdoor pollution hence for 20,000 sell of the device will have direct and indirect impact on over 100,000 people.  The more the spread of the device, the more cleaner the environment will be gradually. Over the span of five years it is estimated that 300,000 units will be sold which will have direct and indirect impact on total of 450,000 people altogether.

WHO estimates that around 7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted airthat lead to diseases such as stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections, including pneumonia. In Bangladesh, air pollution killed 123,000 people in 2017 (according to a report by Dhaka Tribune). The scenario is already scarily bad and even gets worse when considered in terms of how many more are getting sick readily due indoor and outdoor air pollution. When it comes to the topic of air pollution, both urban and rural people are on the same level of risk. For the first three years our only goal is to start out and proceed with a wearable air purifier design specially suited for urban people and the person with respiratory problems. However, gradually we plan to come up with multiple designs to suit the needs and affordability of people of different regions. AirMate will also have designs for industrial purposes in the future.TechGeeks Limited aims to distribute the purifying devices to every corner of the country thus serving 164.7 million in Bangladesh people directly or indirectly.

Following are the impediments that are being faced:

1. Unavailability of high quality designer and plastic casing manufacturing firms in Bangladesh

2. Lack of proper research center in Bangladesh from where the device and relevant innovations could be regularly verified and tested.

3. Lack of connectivity/network with international organization to validate the product.

4. Mentor-ship and  Financial inability/lack of bank support to go into production

5. Lack of resources to create distribution channels

6. Lack of Legal framework to scale rapidly

7. Lack of reach to do international patent of the designs and the architecture

Here is how we are planning to overcome the barriers:

1. We hired designers from other countries through UpWork who has good experience in product designing

2. We are in communication with Chinese vendors who have factory setup for plastic casing manufacturing

3. We prototype and build the circuitry and associated program using our own resources from Bangladesh

4. Bring the casing from outside and assemble the product here here

5. Communicating with NGOs, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and gadget chains to use their distribution channels.

6. Using MILT Solve platform to get mentor-ship and financial support to scale the production and market penetration.

7. Utilizing MIT Solve platform to get legal insights and international patent procedure.

4 people are working full time on this project

Full Time: 2

Part Time :2

Contractor :1

We have 2 Electrical and electronics engineer who have extensive
industry experience in prototyping and product manufacturing. Our
founder has experience in robotics and embedded system based product
development. He has experiences in product development and managing
complete production cycle as a part of the organization he worked for.
This is a valuable aspect in terms of technology product manufacturing.
Also, the other team member is a Computer Science graduate who has over 3
years of experience in digital marketing sector. She contributes both
in software development and marketing. This team has a diverse set of
skills which puts us in a better position in term of  testing out,
prototyping and manufacturing using the least n number of resources.

IQ AirVisual

(We have a primary discussion going on with them in terms of setting up a Air study lab in Bangladesh)

Each device will be sold at  $30

profit per device $12.14

profit from 10,000 device $121,400. We estimate to reach break even point just by selling 10,000- device.Moreover, the app will have features like health monitoring and exercise plans specially crafted using air data and environment. This app will have a subscription option. App subscription $3

for first 2000 subscription, $15,000

Thus reaching into a scalable position within a year.

Since the device has an integrated headphone, the financial sustainability will mostly come from competing in the market of both air purifiers and headphone with bringing in new features and designs with the growing market. Also we are planning to integrate other health monitoring sensors to make the device unique with multiple value propositions for making it sustainable along with the changing market.

The prize money of USD $2 million will help us to directly go into manufacturing. Current we have test prototypes but due to bootstrapped funding which is very limited, we are unable to try out different designs and even create an MVP for the idea.

Due to small team size its getting harder to look into all matters at a time and we feel the need to have a mentor on board who can guide us through successful implementation of the plan .

Tiger IT Foundation will be providing selected winners of the Tiger Challenge with strategic and operational support from a network of seasoned professionals and entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, including mentor-ship, office space, support with IP efforts, and more which is what we need the most at this moment to grow.

USAID: We can partner up with USAID's current operatuion on Air pollution. We can sell our devices to the NGOs working with USAID funds so that they can monitor air quality and provide the the purifiers to their target population.

Pharmaceutical Companies (SQUARE, BEXIMCO): We look forward to partner up with pharmaceutical companies to use their channel to distribute AirMate through them in a profit sharing mode.

Gadget chain (Walton Bangladesh Limited): We are also planning to partner up with Walton Bangladesh Limited to user their gadget chain distribution channel to distribute the device on a profit sharing model.

E-commerce (Daraz, Pickaboo, Ajker deal): We are planning to partner up and open a market place at the e commerce platform to make the devices available for sell in online stores.

Hospitals: Currently there are no large purifiers installed in the hospitals and it is a health risk for everyone from hospital staffs to doctors or even visitors to roam around the hospital without wearing a purifier. We will communicate with the hospitals to make AirMate mandatory in the hospital areas.