16 December 2024
Can’t Concentrate? Could It Be the Air?
Have you ever felt distracted or sleepy during a large office meeting or a class at school or a juku preparatory school? In reality, you might have been affected by the air surrounding you.
When people breathe, they inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, but when many people inhabit an enclosed space, the amount of carbon dioxide will increase over time, leading to a decrease in the ability for people to concentrate. Conversely, you may be surprised to learn that air components can be deliberately controlled to create conditions that help people concentrate, relax, improve exercise efficiency, and alleviate fatigue. This article highlights the “possibilities of air” and presents the latest efforts to create new value from it.
Effects of Air Components and Conditions on People
Because air is invisible and has no weight, we are often oblivious to the existence of air in our daily lives even though our daily lives can be greatly influenced by it. When there is little moisture in the air, we feel dry, and when there is intense heat in the air, we feel hot.
Have you ever had one of these types of experiences: feeling tired and sidetracked when a large group of people have gathered for a meeting in a small conference room; developing a headache when the atmospheric pressure is low; or noticing how fruits and vegetables change color over time after being cut? These are all phenomena resulting from air components and conditions. When the elements in the air change, the changes affect people in some way.
Controlling the air in our lives until now has largely centered on adjusting temperature and humidity to create comfortable spaces. However, Daikin, a manufacturer that specializes in air conditioning, reports that it has discovered “new possibilities of air” through adjustments in the amount of air pressure, airflow, and carbon dioxide.
Three Examples Showing the Possibilities of Controlling Air
Here three specific examples are introduced to describe how people can benefit from controlling the invisible components and elements of air. Each one of which involves a topic closely related to our daily lives.
- Improving concentration by controlling carbon dioxide, temperature, and fragrance
Did you know that you can improve concentration in a room simply by reducing the amount of indoor carbon dioxide? When children can concentrate on their studies, they can more easily learn new things and solve problems, allowing them to feel a sense of joy that creates a virtuous circle in which learning becomes even more fun. That makes it especially important to always keep the air clean in children’s study rooms by frequently ventilating them.
Temperature and scents are also important factors. Rather than maintaining constant air conditions, having a sharp change in temperature in a room is said to wake up the brain and help room occupants to maintain concentration. Aroma stimulation has also been shown to help activate the brain.
- Increasing exercise efficiency and maintaining health by controlling oxygen level
You probably already know that athletes often train at high altitudes to increase exercise efficiency. The low amounts of oxygen at high altitudes places the body under a strain since oxygen intake is more difficult and causes a decrease in the amount of oxygen in the blood. This deficiency in oxygen forces the body to adapt to the environment, and this helps improve athletic performance by increasing the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin concentration.
Research has recently shown that exercising in a space with low levels of oxygen not only improves exercise efficiency, but it also increases physical strength and helps prevent lifestyle-related diseases. This suggests that controlling the oxygen concentration in a space can help you live a healthier, more fulfilling life.
Based on this principle, Daikin has developed “hypoxic training rooms” that enable businesspeople with busy lives to exercise efficiently during work breaks and has installed these rooms in offices located in urban areas. Having a low-oxygen training room in the office not only allows employees to improve their physical fitness during their free time or after work, but it can also help employees to relieve stress.
- Transporting fruits and vegetables over long distances by controlling the air inside containers
A less widely known fact is that harvested fruits and vegetables, like people, also breathe. As they do, they ripen and age before eventually losing their freshness. When being transported over long distances, their breathing can be suppressed by lowering the temperature inside the containers that carry the vegetables and fruits while extracting and injecting nitrogen from the outdoor air and discharging oxygen.
Avocadoes, including the type bought at any supermarket in Japan, are imported from Mexico using this technology to keep them fresh during the two to three weeks required for transportation to Japan.
For fiscal year 2020, the amount of food waste in Japan equaled 5.22 million tons. The majority of this, roughly 2.75 million tons, was wasted during harvesting, transportation, storage, and other processes. * This is also the result of food deterioration during transportation. Technology that controls the air inside containers not only allows for food ingredients from all around the world to stay fresh and delicious, but it also contributes to solving the problem of food waste.
*Source: Consumer Affairs Agency “Publication of Food Loss Amount (FY2020 Estimated Value)” (announced June 9, 2022)
Daikin Challenges Creating the New Possibilities of Air
In addition to the previously mentioned three examples, the air conditioning specialist Daikin focuses on the “new possibilities of air” and challenges various kinds of research and practical applications. Going beyond the boundaries of conventional air conditioning in controlling temperature and humidity, Daikin pursues the “new possibilities of air” by controlling the components and elements of air to help enrich life by improving lifestyles and living conditions.
The researchers and technology developers at the Technology and Innovation Center (TIC), the core research and product development base for Daikin, work through industry-academia collaborations and co-creation with companies to implement the “new possibilities of air” in providing tangible value to society for daily lives.
So, what social issues exactly will air solve in the future and what degree of happiness will it bring to us? Daikin believes in the possibilities of air and continues to take on new challenges in the pursuit of delivering air that has never existed before to everyone around the world.
Daikin Industries, Ltd.
Publishing Company: TOYO KEIZAI BRAND STUDIO
