TerMITes are a wireless environmental sensor platform that enables designers and researchers with the necessary tools to capture environmental data.
TerMITes are a wireless environmental sensor platform that enables designers and researchers with the necessary tools to capture environmental data.
In turn, this helps communities explore the questions that matter most to them. TerMITes directly log on to the Internet via low-power Wi-Fi for ease of connection and automatically upload to a centralized database. The sensor data is time-stamped and place-tagged but otherwise hardware agnostic.
TerMITes bridge existing qualitative inquiry methods about our experiences in various planes to a quantitative recording based on sensor input.
Recent Examples:
2021 Andorra CO2
2022 SEI ZeroG Flights: Flight 1 Data + Flight 2 Data
TerMITes support multi-modal sensor attachments using standard protocols. They can be attached to objects in the home, such as doors, windows, drawers, cabinets, tables, and chairs, to register object usage. TerMITes are capable of gathering the following data:
Some sensing technologies are more costly than others and are therefor added only when needed.... For example:
2020 - 2021
The intention of the most recent deployment of TerMITes, above and beyond measuring air quality in the built environment, is to "help" and "empower" custodians of space with the information they need to make better informed decisions. To make opaque the intangible impacts on health and wellbeing that arise from a dynamic between spatial configurations and the use of space.
It is well documented that high levels of carbon dioxide in poorly ventilated spaces such as classrooms are associated with low concentration levels and fatigue. There is also evidence to suggest that indicates poorly ventilated environments contribute to an increase in viral cases where the virus is airborne.
Technology should be available for all to use. One of the primary goals of this platform is to make sensing intuitive and easy for all to use. The intention is to provide a complete platform from hardware to software and everything in between. This includes, firmware, backend servers, UX/UI etc.
Data collection and verification is made available through an online mobile interface.
The TerMITes can also be programmed over USB. This can be essential for advanced users, or those wanting to access real-time data from the TerMITes for debugging purposes.
This desktop software runs on Mac and Windows only. More information can be found by clicking the button below:
The hardware design makes use of many technologies found in mobile devices such as cell phones. The advantage being these components are readily available, low-cost, and low-power. Low-power components allow the TerMITes to run off portable power banks for short term deployments.
TerMITes are a continuation of a legacy project known as the MITes (MIT Environmental Sensors). Today the ubiquity of modern wireless networks allows for the deployment of sensors without the need of additional infrastructure. As a lab or urbanists and architects we believe sensing the analog world to be an integral part of design and that is why we maintain this platform.
The TerMITes continue to evolve incorporating new technologies that help give designers new insights into their environments.
The TerMITes are a reboot of a legacy project called the MITes. The MITes were used in various living lab projects such as the 'PlaceLab'. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/mites-portable-wireless-sensors-for-studying-behavior-in-natural-settings/overview/