Buildings · Frontier
AirPath: Vent-Flutter Airflow Verification
Checks that conditioned air is actually blowing out of each vent.
Plausible physics, early work — shown honestly as an experiment.
How it works
Air itself is invisible to WiFi, but the air flow makes light things flutter — diffuser vanes and duct skins tremble faster and harder as flow increases. That tiny flutter flickers the WiFi reflections in time with it. If a damper sticks closed, the flutter simply disappears from that vent.
In the physics: Air itself is RF-transparent, but airflow makes lightweight fixtures oscillate: diffuser blades and duct membranes flutter at flow-dependent frequencies and amplitudes (roughly 5-40Hz, sub-mm displacement), phase-modulating reflected paths — a micro-Doppler line whose frequency/energy tracks volumetric flow. Damper stuck closed = flutter line disappears.
See it work
This is real pipeline output for Buildings, replayed. The exact reading depends on your room.
Go deeper
How the field becomes an answer
How we prove it
Own-hardware only: bench rig with a variable-speed fan, standard diffuser and anemometer ground truth — establish flutter-frequency/energy vs CFM curve, then a live ceiling with commanded VAV sweeps via the BMS.
Who it is for
For the commissioning agent / HVAC service contractor: 'Continuous commissioning from the WiFi — every diffuser self-reports whether air is actually coming out, forever, with zero duct instrumentation.'
runtime Runs today in LatentField 2.0 as machine_vibration
The matching solution
Complete first-room estimateFloor Utilization Node3 nodes · ~$130 parts · 90 min Request kit, subscribe, or set up →Compatible DIY hardware options
120 min · advanced
240 min · installer