The Vaavud wind meter arrives on Kickstarter, take accurate wind speed measurements with your iPhone

The Vaavud wind meter has arrived on Kickstarter and it looks to provide those that need to know the exact wind speed around them. You may think that it?s not that important to know such information but if you are a kite flyer, wind surfer, paraglider or model aircraft enthusiast then this information can be critical.

The Vaavud wind meter uses your iPhone to measure precise wind speeds anywhere that you are by simply using a small rotor type accessory. The accessory clips onto your iPhone; although it doesn't need any physical connection at all. It uses magnets that the iPhone can sense using its magnetic field sensor and using a clever algorithm can translate that into an exact wind speed calculation.

Yes, you read it correctly :-) The secret is two small magnets in the rotor. The magnetic field sensor in the phone can detect when they rotate, and by using algorithms normally used for sound processing, the rotations can be converted to wind speed. Complicated engineering, made user friendly and simple. In fact, nobody has utilized the smartphone magnetometer in this way before.

The device has been very thoroughly tested and it has been calibrated in a wind tunnel at The Technical University of Denmark. It will be manufactured with keen attention to detail, so it will great looking, durable, and easy to use.

If this sort of wind meter floats your boat, you can become an earlier adopter by pledging at least ?30 ($45), there were cheaper starting points but this has proved extremely popular and they are all gone. The Kickstarter project needs to hit ?20,000 ($30k) to become a reality; it already has pledges of over ?17,500 ($26k) with 24 days still to run so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

You can see the video of the Vaavud wind meter in action over on its Kickstarter page. When you have seen it, head back here and let us know what you think!

Source: Kickstarter

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Z7N7u0NJM10/story01.htm

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