Overview
Just Breathe® set out to create tomorrow’s purest spaces today, and their answer to indoor air quality is not a filter but a garden. Lab-cultivated plants sit in a Naturfiltra biofilter where root microbes break airborne contaminants down, with AirScope sensors reading what comes out.
A nature-inspired IoT device needs an app that makes what it is doing visible, or nobody knows whether it is working.
The Just Breathe® Station is an award winner and is built to sit in a room people care about the look of, regulating humidity and cleaning the air without chemicals or HEPA.
They needed a mobile and web application to go with it: real-time air quality monitoring, control of the device itself, and analytics detailed enough to act on.
The project brought IoT integration, AI and interface design together into something that suits a company whose whole proposition is air you can trust.
Client Requirement
01
Android, iOS and web, all connecting to the same IoT and AI-driven purification hardware.
02
Station settings and operation handled remotely, down to switching a unit on or off.
03
Live readings as they are measured, indoors against ambient, charted over whatever period the user asks for.
04
Air quality data is technical. The app had to be intuitive enough that somebody with no interest in particulate science still knows whether the air is good.
A device that cleans air with living roots produces a lot of data and a lot of maintenance, and both had to become legible.
Reducing genuinely complicated air quality data to something a person can act on without a chemistry degree.
Synchronising the app with the purifier in real time was the first problem, and the connection is the whole product: an air monitor that lags is not an air monitor.
The architecture had to take future devices, growing data volumes and new features without the basic design being torn up each time.
And it holds personal data alongside device access, so protecting both was a first-order requirement rather than a checklist item.
We built the applications and the backend behind them, and put the plant, the sensors and the numbers in one place.
The backend is Java and Firebase, processing device data, managing users and carrying the AI models, on an architecture built so the next device is an integration rather than a rebuild.
Sphinx Solutions delivered the Just Breathe applications across Android, iOS and web: live air quality across eleven measures indoors and out, remote control of every station, the plant maintenance schedule, and AI analytics on top.
“Joining hands with Sphinx Solutions has been a great decision. They built an easy-to-use mobile app that connects perfectly with our IoT and AI-powered air purifiers, and it has simplified managing and tracking air quality for our users. Sphinx understood our needs, and we are thrilled about how this app will keep helping our customers and growing our brand.”
How We Work
Step 1
We went through the device specifications, the data flow and what users needed with the Just Breathe team before designing anything.
Step 2
A scalable structure joining the IoT devices, the cloud services and the applications.
Step 3
An interface that visualises air quality as it is recorded and puts device control beside it.
Step 4
Java and Firebase processing device data, managing users and supporting the AI models.
Step 5
Predictive analytics running on live data, turning readings into advice worth following.
Step 6
Thorough testing of function, performance and the device integration itself before release.
Step 7
Launched, then supported for the first three months of updates and improvements.
Implementation
Keeping the app in step with the purifier as it works was the hardest part of the build. Effective protocols and APIs carry the data reliably in both directions.
Eleven pollutant measures is a lot to look at. Clear graphs, practical advice and readable visualisations turn them into an answer rather than a readout.
A flexible architecture so future hardware, more data and new features integrate rather than force a redesign.
Personal data and device access both had to be protected, so authentication is encrypted and the connection to each station is secured rather than merely working.
Impact
Users get actionable air quality readings as they happen, which is what lets somebody know the air they are breathing is actually clean.
The app monitors and controls the purification station from anywhere, which is most of the difference between owning the device and using it.
Detailed performance data lets users tune settings for efficiency and energy use rather than leaving a station on default forever.
The solution takes future updates and additional devices, so the platform grows with the business.
Tech stack
In closing
Just Breathe is an unusual product to build software for. The purifier is alive, so the app has to report on a garden as well as on the air: water levels, irrigation timings and the person who looks after the plants sit beside the particulate counts, because all of it determines whether the station is working.
We delivered that across Android, iOS and web, with real-time monitoring, remote control and AI analytics on a backend built to take whatever they build next.
What people usually ask about Just Breathe and about building something like it.
Over IoT protocols, securely, using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for real-time data exchange and remote control of the station.
Yes. The architecture is cloud-based and modular, so future updates and additional devices integrate rather than requiring the design to be reworked.
We build custom applications with IoT and AI expertise in the same team, and 16 years of doing it end to end, from the device integration through to the analytics on top.
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