Country: Italy

Category: Water

Name: Waterview

Project aim: to develop a cheap, easy and fast way to collect large amounts of rainfall data in real time and with the high accuracy.

How did you come up with the idea? 

Real-time information about spatial and temporal patterns of rainfall are fundamental in many fields, such as, civil protection, precision farming, transport safety or outdoor sports. Traditional rain gauging networks, however, are usually too sparse to gather robust and precise information about rain. This is why we thought about developing the cheapest, easiest and fastest way to collect large amount of rainfall data in real time and with the same accuracy of traditional rain gauges. Its name is IR2.

What is IR2 and how does it work?

IR2 stands for Instant Rain Rate; it is the technology behind the rainvolution. IR2 is a patented image-processing algorithm, which gauges rain intensity in real time from pictures and videos shot during rain events. IR2 lies on a simple assumption: since a photograph actually conveys 3D information, it is possible to count rain drops within a sampled volume, thus estimating rain intensity.

WaterView introduces IR2 technology, a brand new technique for measuring at-ground rain intensity from photos shot in rainy conditions. IR2 stands for Instant Rain Rate, and is the technology behind the rainvolution. IR2 is a patented image processing algorithm, which gauges rain intensity in real time from pictures and videos shot during rain events*. IR2 lies on a simple assumption: since a photograph actually conveys 3D information, it is possible to count rain drops within a sampled volume, thus estimating rain intensity.

“Join the rainvolution” is our claim! Because… we will measure rain intensity from your simple photographs!

How would you take SEUA contest? 

It will increase our business opportunities and international visibility, since it represents an effective way to get in touch with the entire European startup ecosystem.