Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
53 Sensor Activated Home Hub Curtains
 Anusha Anumakonda
Daniel Chiu
Rachel Fu
 Bonhyun Ku design_document1.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
presentation1.pdf
proposal1.pdf
Daniel Chiu, dschiu2 (ONLINE)
Anusha Anumakonda, aanuma2 (ONCAMPUS)
Rachel Fu, yuhanf22 (ONCAMPUS)

Title: Sensor Activated Home Hub Curtains

Problem: Curtains are a highly underestimated yet cheap and effective method of heating that many ignore. Especially in older homes, windows are the main vector of heat loss in a home and the area with least amount of insulation. Research has shown that simply drawing curtains at dusk can reduce heat loss of 15 percent. However, despite being so effective, curtains and technology for curtains has barely advanced. The most widely available high-tech curtain option on the market currently is a “smart curtain” device that allows curtains to be opened and closed remotely by an app. However, with the constant flux of environmental factors such as time of day, outside lighting, draft from various wind speeds, and temperature of both indoors and outdoors, these smart devices are not making use of the huge amount of data available to further automate curtains for a smart living.

Solution Overview: Create a device that makes use of the wide range of information using sensors to create an automated curtain device that can dynamically make decisions of when to open or close curtains, and even choose from a selection of installed curtains (reflective curtains for sun, heavy curtains for cold, etc). Additionally, the device will act as a sensor device that will feed data to other smart devices in the home (i.e. lighting information to smart bulbs, heating for thermostats, etc).

Solution Components:
Curtain motor: This will be the physical hardware that opens, closes, and switches the curtains when given a signal. This device will consist of motors that can drag heavy curtains, and attach to the curtain hanger rod. It will move laterally, pulling the first ring of the curtains to the other side.

Sensor system: This will be the signal triggers for the automated aspect of the device.
The sensors will take information such as temperature and lighting in order to determine what action to take. The sensors used will be a thermometer and lux sensor for the simple measurements. More advanced sensors to detect drafts from wind and temperature changes from precipitation can be later incorporated.

Power source: The device will require a constant power supply in order to query the server and sensors for data inputs, as well as more intensive power for when the motor needs to be activated. The most reliable source would be a direct connection to A/C power through a wire. Possibilities of battery are also viable.

Network connectivity: This will allow the device to connect to a network in order to receive specific user preferences, such as scheduled actions, temperature preferences, as well as allowing the device to have the potential to talk to not only multiples of the same smart curtain device, but other smart devices in the home as well. The network connection will be based on a wifi system, and as such a wifi chip component will be required.

Central server: This will be where the device communicates for not only sharing the information it gathers, but receiving information on the user. This can be accomplished by creating a simple web hook on a remote (or on site) server.

UI App: In order for users to input their preferences and remotely control the device, a mobile app that sends information to the central server for the device to retrieve will allow users to remotely control the device.

Success Criterion:
Have a curtain device that can open and close through remote control
Have the curtain device open and close based on sensor information
Have the curtain device synchronize with other smart devices by sharing information gathered.

Wireless IntraNetwork

Daniel Gardner, Jeeth Suresh

Wireless IntraNetwork

Featured Project

There is a drastic lack of networking infrastructure in unstable or remote areas, where businesses don’t think they can reliably recoup the large initial cost of construction. Our goal is to bring the internet to these areas. We will use a network of extremely affordable (<$20, made possible by IoT technology) solar-powered nodes that communicate via Wi-Fi with one another and personal devices, donated through organizations such as OLPC, creating an intranet. Each node covers an area approximately 600-800ft in every direction with 4MB/s access and 16GB of cached data, saving valuable bandwidth. Internal communication applications will be provided, minimizing expensive and slow global internet connections. Several solutions exist, but all have failed due to costs of over $200/node or the lack of networking capability.

To connect to the internet at large, a more powerful “server” may be added. This server hooks into the network like other nodes, but contains a cellular connection to connect to the global internet. Any device on the network will be able to access the web via the server’s connection, effectively spreading the cost of a single cellular data plan (which is too expensive for individuals in rural areas). The server also contains a continually-updated several-terabyte cache of educational data and programs, such as Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg. This data gives students and educators high-speed access to resources. Working in harmony, these two components foster economic growth and education, while significantly reducing the costs of adding future infrastructure.