DOxy: Dissolved Oxygen Monitoring

Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in water is the enabler of all marine life. As low oxygen levels are the first sign of contamination and distress in bodies of water, measuring its levels are the first step in discovery and preservation efforts. Furthermore, fish farms, aquariums, and other aquaculture are in need of continued dissolved oxygen monitoring and spend a lot of money on purchasing and maintaining their sensors or on ensuring that manual readings are taken on a daily or even more often basis. Current systems and meters are either expensive, inefficient, or manual. Hence a cost-effective and sustainable automated system is necessary and long over due. DOxy, is such a system under research and development at Santa Clara University’s Ethical, Pragmatic, and Intelligent Computing (EPIC) Laboratory which aims to utilize cost-effective, accessible, and sustainable Sensing Units (SUs) for measuring the dissolved oxygen levels present in bodies of water. DOxy’s SUs are equipped with a High-sensitivity Pulse Oximeter meant for measuring dissolved oxygen levels in human blood and not water. Hence through a number of parallel readings with a standard dissolved oxygen meter, a conversion formula was created for DOxy which enables accurate results.