A new ‘intelligent home’ that can adapt to its inhabitants’ routines and text them if there’s a problem will today be showcased at the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 in Cairo.
The finals of the annual student technology competition this year run from 3rd to 7th July in the Egyptian capital and feature 400 selected students from the 300,000 from 124 countries who entered the initial stages.
The UK is represented in the Embedded Development category by researchers from the University of Hertfordshire and their innovative InterHome. Their prototype – developed in a doll’s house – incorporates modular custom design units and draws on standard home automation systems that have been adapted so that the house learns and responds to its occupiers’ lifestyles.
InterHome also has an intuitive touch-screen user control panel that allows the house to be monitored and controlled using web browsers or an SMS-capable mobile phone.
Johann Siau, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Electronic, Communication & Electrical Engineering, where the InterHome was developed, said: “InterHome improves on its competitors by being modular, adaptable and able to ‘learn’ our routines. The technology enables the system to learn rapidly when we need the lights on or whether we are at home or at work and how the house needs to be at certain times of the day. If we forget to lock the front door or turn off the lights, it can text us and our response can reprogramme the system.”
This means that home-owners will be alerted if they have left a door unlocked or the house is being burgled, but also that their energy usage will be tailored to their exact requirements, minimising unnecessary waste and cost. The researchers estimate that the system could save occupiers up to £300 a year, and make a substantial difference to carbon emission data when installed in enough homes.
The team has been approached by several companies interested in taking the prototype into commercial production.
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