Smart homes of the future could adjust to your needs

New York: Researchers in the US, including one of Indian-origin, are working on a technology that could make homes of the future adjust to your activity without the need for invasive cameras.

So when you leave a room, you would not require anyone to tell the that the lights, or the fans needed to be switched off. Sensors hidden in the walls or floors could automatically detect that the room was empty and do the needful.

This system would read not only the vibrations, sounds -- and even the specific gait, or other movements -- associated with people and animals in a building, but also any subtle changes in the existing ambient electrical field. “There is actually a constant 60 Hz electrical field all around us, and because people are somewhat conductive, they short out the field just a little,” said Soumyajit Mandal, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, US.

“So, by measuring the disturbance in that field, we are able to determine their presence, or even their breathing, even when there are no vibrations associated with sound,” he explained. The researchers call the new system the “Internet of Ears.”

“We are trying to make a building that is able to ‘listen’ to the humans inside,” said Ming-chun Huang, Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the same university.

“We are using principles similar to those of the human ear, where vibrations are picked up and our algorithms decipher them to determine your specific movements. That’s why we call it the ‘Internet of Ears.’”