Everyone knows there’s a water crisis. But few know that it’s bad enough for the World Economic Forum to rank it with the greatest impact of all worldwide issues. Ad campaigns and word-of-mouth have reduced usage a bit, but don’t provide the constant feedback that guides real behavioural change.
That’s what the creators of the Ôasys hope to solve. Ôasys can tell people how much water they’ve used so far in a given week, compare it to last week, show standings next to similar households, and set goals and challenges tailored to recent use.
Ôasys helps households save water by providing meaningful information on their daily consumption, displayed on a friendly touch-screen console mounted anywhere in the home. Ôasys is now live on Kickstarter.
How Does It Work
Ôasys was designed to look sleek and simplistic to match virtually any household decor. LED lights surrounding its white outer disk display a soft, ambient glow in any colour of the user’s choice.
In place of beeps, the coloured ring lets Ôasys use subtle changes in colour to notify users. This includes new information updates or in the event of a water leak, which causes Ôasys to flash red when it detects an unusually long period of use. In case nobody’s home to solve it, Ôasys can forward the alert to any mobile phone.
Ôasys was born last year out of the Imagine Creativity Center in Silicon Valley, where 12 inventors from around the world were invited to solve the world’s problems. To three of them, it was apparent from the building in drought-stricken California that the global water shortage was one of the most important issues they could address. And so came to be the first Ôasys prototype.
To finish development, the team launched a Kickstarter campaign on September 23 with a goal of €50,000 (about $55,000). This money will be used to add additional features, put on the finishing touches and bring Ôasys into production.
But the team hopes the campaign can bring more than just funds. According to Daniel, working with a crowdfunding platform lets the team build a community around the common goal of ending the water shortage—one necessary if it is ever to be achieved.
For more information, visit the Ôasys website, find Ôasys on Facebook and follow @oasysio on Twitter.
Image Credit: Oasys
