UK-based technology company Spotta has earned an Honorable Mention in the Fast Company 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards – AI and Data category. The annual awards honour the businesses, policies, projects and concepts that are actively engaged in helping solve global challenges including the climate crisis, health and social wellbeing or economic inequality.
Designed to aid the hospitality and leisure industry in tackling the increasing challenge of bed bug infestations, Spotta’s Bed Pod was developed after years of research and development in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, low-power technologies, sensors and entomology.
“This recognition reinforces our company’s mission which is to help the pest control industry and accommodation providers use technology to be proactive in tackling bed bugs,” says Robert Fryers, co-founder and CEO of Spotta. “We designed the Bed Pod to help hoteliers tackle one of the costliest pests and protect their guests, reducing the need for staff to conduct manual checks for bed bugs.”
“Each pod is low power, running for at least a year on a single battery, with two layers of processing to identify bed bugs at all stages of their lifecycle,” continued co-founder and CTO Neil D’Souza-Mathew. “We also utilise LoRa technology instead of less-reliable Wifi, fitting the Pods with a reliable, long-range wireless communication system which, once a bed bug is identified, alerts hotel staff to the presence of pests allowing them to act quickly to prevent an infestation.”
Now in its fourth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase finalists from a range of categories, with Health and Wellness, Corporate Social Responsibility and AI and Data among the most popular. A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 3,000 global entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology and more.
“There seems no better time to recognise organisations that are using their ingenuity, resources and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems,” says Stephanie Mehtra, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”
About Spotta
Our Bed Pod system is a totally revolutionary new way to pre-empt and minimise the damage bed bugs can cause to guests, reputation and earnings for hotels and other lodging providers. You simply put a Pod in each room and then forget about them – right up to the point where you get an automated email warning you of an unwanted arrival, complete with room number, date and even a photo. You can then resolve the problem before the occupant of the room even knows it is there.
Find out more about Spotta and their Bed Pod at www.spotta.co
