Quality of life context influence factors improvement using houseplants and Internet of Things

Abstract

© 2016 IEEE. Modern research directions in smart environment include analysis of factors that influence overall human Quality of Life (QoL). Context influence factors (CIF) are unavoidable within smart environment research. In this paper, we address indoor air quality (IAQ) as one of the main CIF. The major contaminants of indoor air are CO2 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There are still no satisfactory methods for air pollutants monitoring and removal. The ability of plants to detoxify these compounds makes biological systems the promising technologies for this purpose. Although precise mechanisms how plants remove VOC are unknown and current knowledge is based on experiments conducted under controlled conditions, it does not prevent us not to use biological air purifiers. Our measurements under uncontrolled conditions in environments where people live, showed that houseplants' ability to reduce VOC differs from one to another environment. Instead of attempt to design the unique botanical system for air purification, we proposed internet of things (IoT) based methodology for continuous monitoring and objective assessment of IAQ aiming to improve the designing and adaptation of botanical purifiers to specific environment, user's health, living habits and requirements.