A pocket sized Wind Meter

Vaavud, a start-up by three Danish Engineering students that distributes tiny wind meter supported on mobile phones. The Vaavud wind meter enables you to take precise and reliable measurements of the wind anywhere, using your iOS or Android phone. The handheld wind meter connected with the mobile device gives real-time wind speed graph on the gadget screen. The product is electronic free hardware, but wireless combined with the mobile application. The wind meter shape is an analogy of cup anemometers, but with two cups instead of three which makes the product pocket-friendly. The comparatively low-cost Vaavud wind meter works with iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S, Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, HTC One, Google Nexus 5 and iPads from 2 and onwards. Furthermore, it enables online sharing of recorded wind velocity by the customers across the world on a live map.

 As the product is electronics-free, it makes use of magnetic flux lines and its interference to identify and further measure the wind speed. The product consists of two tiny wind cups arranged in opposite to each other, connected by a middle stump attached with two small magnets. The middle stump connecting two cups consists of a rotor molded with low friction Teflon bearing. The magnetic field sensor in the phone can detect when they rotate, and by using algorithms normally used for sound processing, the rotations can be converted to wind speed. The product then communicates with the mobile app by means of sound waves and works on the basis of magnetic flux lines interruption. The sound waves are then converted to wind meter measurement.

 The on-screen viewing option provides an overview of average, actual and maximum wind speed and a real-time graph. The user can scroll and pinch-zoom on the graph if want to take a closer look at something. The wind velocity can be measured in different units and the available units: m/s, Km/h, mph, Kts and Bft. The live map gives users access to measurements and its details made by other Vaavud users globally. The Vaavud wind meter has a wind range of 2 to 20 m/s(Up to 24 m/s for iPhone 5S and up to 48 m/s on some Android phones). Precision is the least of +/- 4% or 0.2 m/s. Moreover, the cup-anemometer design ensures accurate measurement as the precision of the Vaavud wind meter is not affected by changes in wind direction.

 The Danish company raised Seed funding from a group of angel investors. The hobbyist as the primary audience, a product now targets at sailors, seawater adventurers, skydivers or to build out more services that appeal to business and enterprise. Its quite strange, but the audience list to the product consists of corporate clients from the agriculture industry. The company agreed a joint project with the Swedish agricultural coop Lantmännen Maskin AB  will to build a custom solution for measuring wind speed.

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