A WORLD WITH TOO MUCH PLASTIC AND NOT ENOUGH PUBLIC WATER TAPS FOR REFILLING

Public awareness that too much plastic is being used and that CO2 emissions are too high is growing steadily through media, private, and political initiatives. In addition, people are now traveling longer distances to work, business trips, and even holidays. The increased awareness about the importance of sufficient water intake means that drinking bottles are now also perceived as a lifestyle product. A drinking bottle symbolizes a mindful approach to one's own health. This is one of the reasons why the market for drinking bottles is growing so rapidly. 

When out and about, the only option is often to use disposable plastic drinking bottles. Many people are therefore switching to taking their personal drinking bottle with them on the road. The only problem is that there are not yet enough options for refilling these bottles. However, this is a problem, especially for people who like to drink sparkling water or who do not want to fill up their drinking bottle at public taps that are not protected or regularly cleaned for hygiene reasons. On the road, the possibility of being able to fill the bottles with high-quality water conveniently has been lacking until now. This is also due to the fact that at the moment the water dispenser market heavily favors B2B. Fjord wanted to change all this by offering a convenient, easy-to-use, clean water dispensing system built with modern IoT technology.

ALL-IN-ONE WATER DISPENSING PLATFORM

The Fjord platform solution addresses the above problems. Fjord offers a complete solution by combining a reusable bottle with digital components and a drinking station. Thus, all components needed for drinking on the go are provided by Fjord. By working with experienced experts with expertise in water treatment, the highest hygiene and quality requirements for the water dispensed can be met. The Fjord drinking station registers the RFID-equipped smart drinking bottle and thus recognizes the user. The user can store their favorite water (sparkling, chilled, still, medium) and personal details in a supplementary app. If the drinking station recognizes the bottle, it automatically dispenses the user's favorite water. The user can then view and track their daily consumption in the app. The vision is to create a Germany-wide network of Fjord stations that will give users the opportunity to refill their water bottles regularly and sustainably, even when they are on the move. 

Accordingly, Fjord combines various megatrends in one solution. This platform model is aimed primarily at users who travel a lot, and for whom sustainability and their own health are important. The megatrends »health«, »high mobility or urbanization«, and »neo-ecology« are thus served. These trends are expected to have a lasting impact on the future of our society in the coming years.

The tailor-made use of AWS (serverless) technologies such as IoT Core, API Gateway, Lambda, and DynamoDB made it possible to build a cloud architecture with unbeatable advantages in terms of efficiency and costs for the customer. For these reasons, AWS was the preferred cloud service provider right from the start of the project. In addition, AWS delivers integrated logging and monitoring tools on demand, which can be seamlessly integrated into the architecture target picture developed by Zoi. With the help of the toolset available at AWS, the project goal in the form of an easily scalable, highly available and low-maintenance cloud platform could be optimally achieved.

INTRODUCTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL FJORD PRODUCTS

FJORD WATER DISPENSER & BOTTLE

The Fjord station is an intelligent, networked water dispenser that dispenses filtered and treated drinking water (e.g. still and carbonated, chilled and unchilled). An existing water dispenser belonging to a partner with expertise in water treatment was adapted externally for the purposes of the new business model. The water dispenser was equipped with a large, attractive touchscreen, which the customer interacts with. An embedded PC was also added, which controls the water dispenser. The PC holds the digital building blocks of the platform, as depicted in the figure below, and serves as the central processing unit to synchronize the control of the water dispenser with the information from the bottle RFID tags, the user's input through the display, and the information about the user in the AWS Cloud.

FJORD APP

The Fjord App from the figure down below offers the possibility to store the preferred water type and quantity, as well as to get statistics about drinking behavior. In addition to the amount of water consumed, the statistics also include information about the number of disposable bottles and the CO2 consumption saved by using the reusable Fjord bottle. An overview map showing the location of the nearest Fjord station is also provided in the app.

The stored favorites and quantity can be saved per bottle and are automatically recognized by the Fjord station and suggested as a default setting. This reduces the required communication with the user to a minimum and allows easy and fast use of the Fjord stations.

For the current expansion stage of the Fjord system, the highest priority was given to barrier-free access to all core functions. To ensure this, a unique »Fjord Key« has been defined in conjunction with the RFID chip serial number as a unique identifier. This is registered in the app and is used for identification from then on. This is supplemented by the selection of a security question and indication of the corresponding answer so that Fjord Support can also identify the user.

At a later expansion stage, the user experience will be further improved when Amazon Cognito can be used to create a personal and Fjord Key-spanning user account.

FJORD CUSTOMER DASHBOARD

The Fjord Customer Dashboard, shown in the figure below, is based on the AWS Service QuickSight and offers customers a statistical overview of their Fjord stations.

The following information and statistics are displayed:

• Number of newly generated users
• Number of uses
• Water consumption, total and per station
• Locations of the stations
• Status of the device
  

FJORD BACKEND

The backend is based on a serverless architecture with API Gateway for communication with the mobile app, and IoT Core with IoT Rules for communication with the Fjord stations, among others. Processing of requests is done with Lambda Functions throughout, while persistent data is stored and managed in DynamoDB Tables. Monitoring of all services is done by CloudWatch to provide reliable and centralized logging and alerting.

This combination of services allows for automatic and rapid scaling based on demand, as well as event-based integration of additional services. In addition, user and device data is stored centrally, enabling comprehensive analysis.

The following data points are recorded:

• Users
• User history
• Fjord stations
• Fjord station history
• Fjord station Errors
• Fjord station error types
• Fjord Keys (RFID EPC)
• Fjord Key History
• Dispensed liters
  

ABOUT FJORD

Fjord was a startup aiming to find a convenient water refilling solution for people who are on the go but carrying their own water bottles. Zoi helped explore the potential of the business model and develop the IT system, including smart water dispenser connectivity, cloud components, and the mobile app. Due to a strategic shift at Fjord, the project wasn't pursued further toward market maturity.

The PC holds digital building blocks of the Fjord platform.

Users can monitor their water consumption with the Fjord App.

The Fjord Customer Dashboard gives a statistical overview of the Fjord stations.