The tough part of this project is that it lacked an actual sensor - but this might be changing soon.

Check out the June 2015 news here: http://www.seacoastscience.com and keep your fingers crossed!

Do I think we'll get a $5 IC sensor out of this? Probably not - at least at first. But I could see something like an inexpensive I2C based device one day. The key is that it has to be inexpensive enough to get into Makers hands, and to get a LOT of them out there.

With IoT dev boards integrating wireless and support for the Arduino IDE & Libraries it seems like this could boil down to something as simple as an Autonomo, battery, solar panel, and some wiring :)