Students and faculty in the Georgia Tech Aware Home are working with design and manufacturing company Flextronics to explore connected home technologies.
Students and faculty in the Georgia Tech Aware Home are working with design and manufacturing company Flextronics to explore connected home technologies.
Flextronics built a hub that incorporates wireless communication technologies and allows integration of off-the-shelf devices currently available. The company wanted to test the hub in a realistic environment, so they approached Georgia Tech about using the Aware Home. The 4-floor home provided the perfect space to install over 130 nodes from different vendors including: automated blinds, light switches and IP light bulbs, plus a thermostat, window air conditioning unit, and even a connected piggy bank.
(WATCH: Connected home technology in the Georgia Tech Aware Home)
“The infrastructure of the home has been of real value,” said Kenji Takeuchi, Vice President of Product Management at Flextronics. “But also the access to the students and faculty that have a lot of knowledge and experience. It’s been a good extension of the resources we had available; it really helped us - and is helping us - in our product and technology roadmaps and product development.”
Over the next semester, Flextronics and Georgia Tech students and faculty will research how a smart home system can better support the needs of older adults and people with disabilities.