IITM-Kerala ’s Swatchpani to help test water quality

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) with help from IBM has developed Swatchpaani, a real-time water quality management system. The device based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology is faster, cheaper and more accessible than conventional methods of testing water samples.
The solution could potentially save time and costs of water quality management, said Asharaf, principal investigator, IITM-K’s Swatchpaani Project.
"The conventional method of testing water quality is often inaccessible and time consuming. Swatchpaani offers a convenient, mobile, quick and cost effective solution for the pre-screening of water samples. The extensive lab tests may be mandated only when the pre-screening signals a potential threat," he said.
Powered by IBM Watson IoT technology, Swatchpaani can continuously monitor water quality and measure temperature, PH value and the presence of various metal or non-metal substances in the water.
It supports data analysis in real-time and trigger alerts if there are anomalies in the water samples. The project also incorporates a pre-screening mechanism to test the water quality of mobile water distribution systems.
"The platform is an easy-to-use, secure and scalable solution which provides seamless integration with various IoT devices to build specialized, integrated solutions to solve industry and business challenges. Swachpaani demonstrates the impact technology can bring to the life of an individual. IBM India continues to work with academia to create useful and meaningful innovation based on Watson technologies,” said Devkant Aggarwal, Manager, University Relations, IBM India.
Swatchpaani includes Libelium wireless sensor network, signal conditioning boards and sensors and Raspberry Pi for connecting these to IBM Bluemix Cloud services and Watson IoT platform for device and sensor data management, analysis and visualization.