Comment by dist-epoch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dist-epoch | Hacker News Reader

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They have some tech specs: https://www.bosch-sensortec.com/media/boschsensortec/downloa...

> Laser light is emitted from the sensor and focused by the sensor lens at approximately 5 mm from the top of the sensor’s lens surface.

> Particles traveling in free space due to the natural ambient airflow are detected when passing through the laser focal (sensitive) region.

> Due to the interaction between particles and light, the light scatters in different directions; a fraction is back-scattered towards the sensor, where the integrated photo-detectors detect it.

> The back-scattered signal is processed by unique algorithms (based on particle counts, particle relative velocity, probed air volume during measurement) to derive the particulate matter mass concentration.

That's pretty much how all laser particle counters work... except the good ones use a fan and a chamber. Guess we'll have to wait and see how this compares to the reference sensors.

Yep, I suspect this is all marketing fluff and no substance. I see a lot of superlatives but no substantial technical breakthrough here.

I’m pretty pretty sure it is just marketing

I think there is at least some plausible interpretation of this that points to more than marketing fluff.

You want to count particles per volume of air, so conventional sensors use a fan to have a constant volumetric flow and then count particles per second to infer particles per volume.

The way I interpret the above marketing language is that they use the optical sensor not only to count particles but also to measure the particle movement and infer airflow. So as long as there is some natural movement in the air, they can measure both particle count and volumetric flow, and thus infer particles per volume.

This is Bosch and not some random startup. It’s for sure a substantial technical breakthrough of integration, miniaturization, and if coming from Bosch, certainly enterprise and clinical-grade ready.

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