I-Corps: Smart Phone Accessible Low Cost Water Condition Sensor

复杂的水培和含水系统，如鱼缸、游泳池和水疗中心，必须每天监测水的化学成分。目前，美国有超过4800个商业水培农场，767,500个家庭水培花园，1260万个水族箱，1000万个游泳池和21,000个水疗中心。目前，水况监测市场预计将达到2亿美元左右，并以稳定的速度增长。随着消费者采用更健康的饮食方式，对水培农产品的需求不断增加。此外，恶劣的天气条件使粮食种植者从田间作物转向水培农场。在水培农场，水监测系统对确保植物生长和作物产量至关重要。拟议中的技术将使水培作物种植成本更低，并有可能改善粮食短缺问题。作为延伸，该技术还可以应用于基于金属溶液的水情传感技术，用于污染物、核废料和毒素的检测。定期的水质监测是一个繁琐而昂贵的过程，但如果没有监测，水化学的偏差可能会导致植物和鱼类的损害以及经济损失。该团队开发了一种基于智能手机的低成本水情传感器。该产品将测量、记录、通知和指导决策，以保持健康的水系统和优化水培植物和作物的生长。该技术的新颖之处在于仅使用一个电极就可以测量pH值、电导率（EC/营养物浓度）、温度和水位。与当今更常见的多传感器水情监测系统相比，使用单个传感器将大大降低成本和操作复杂性。这种单一的传感器可以感知两种不同金属之间的电化学相互作用（例如电压和电容）的变化，这是由于水条件特征的变化造成的。

Complex hydroponic and contained water systems such as fish aquariums, swimming pools, and spas must monitor water chemistry on a daily basis. Currently there are more than 4,800 commercial hydroponic farms, 767,500 in-home hydroponic gardens, 12.6 million fish aquariums, 10 million swim pools, and 21,000 spas in the U.S. The water condition monitoring market is currently projected to be around $200 million, with steady growth rate. Demand for hydroponic farm products has been increasing as customers adopt more healthy eating patterns. In addition, bad weather conditions are shifting food growers from field crops to hydroponic farms. On hydroponic farms, water monitoring systems are critical for ensuring plant growth and crop yield. The proposed technology will make hydroponics crop growing cheaper and potentially ameliorate food shortage issues. As an extension, this technology can also be applied to metal-solution based water condition sensing technology for pollutant, nuclear waste, and toxin detection.Regular water monitoring is a cumbersome and costly process, but without it, deviations in water chemistry can result in damage to plants and fish as well as financial losses. This team has developed a smart-phone based, low cost, water condition sensor. This product will measure, record, notify and guide decision making for maintaining healthy water systems and optimize growth of hydroponic plants and crops. The novelty of this technology lies in being able to measure the pH, electric conductivity (EC/nutrient concentration), temperature, and water level using only a single electrode. Compared to today's more common multi-sensor water condition monitoring systems, using a single sensor will significantly reduce cost and complexity of operation. This single sensor senses changes in the electro-chemical interaction (e.g. voltage and capacitance) between two different metals as a result of changes in characteristics of the water conditions.