679.NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF AMBIENT CO2 MONITORING SOLUTION

Abstract

Monitoring exhaled CO2 levels in indoor working spaces is crucial for maintaining employees' quality of performance. Hence, preventing excessive levels of exhaled CO2 in any working environment is a key factor relevant for increased cognitive capacity, decreased occurrence of headaches, sleepiness, etc. This paper addresses the need for CO2 monitoring by proposing a novel design of a CO2 monitoring solution, consisting of a device and an appropriate client-oriented data acquisition and presentation software platform. A Needs Assessment is performed to examine the necessity of such a solution on the market. The outcomes of the performed Needs Assessment show that commercial products using WiFi, 4G, standalone with rechargeable battery power supply, and comparable available technologies are missing on the market. Due to the fact that exhaled CO2 concentration acts as an indicator for diseases such as COVID-19, tuberculosis, influenza, SARS, etc., from the perspective of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the novel CO2 monitoring solution can effectively be used for indicative risk prevention of airborne infectious diseases.