{"id":340678,"date":"2017-05-11T22:03:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T14:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1488324"},"modified":"2017-05-11T22:03:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T14:03:52","slug":"google-funded-super-sensor-project-brings-iot-powers-to-dumb-appliances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/google-funded-super-sensor-project-brings-iot-powers-to-dumb-appliances\/","title":{"rendered":"Google-funded \u2018super sensor\u2019 project brings IoT powers to dumb appliances"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The so-called \u2018smart home\u2019 often comes across looking incredibly dumb. Either you have to shell out lots\u00a0of money to replace perfectly functional appliances for their Internet-connected equivalents \u2014 which might then be vulnerable to hacking or whose functionality could\u00a0be bricked at manufacturer whim.<\/p>\n

Or you go around manually affixing\u00a0sensors to each\u00a0appliance and moveable\u00a0fixture in your home \u2014 and end up with the equivalent of interior pebble-dashing comprised\u00a0of stick-on\u00a0gadgetry; a\u00a0motion sensor and\/or ugly-looking Dash-style button<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0everything.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s before you even consider how, in inviting this bevy of connected device makers into your home, you\u2019re typically letting out a flow of\u00a0what can be\u00a0highly\u00a0sensitive personal\u00a0data to be sucked into the cloud for profit-seeking entities to pore over.<\/p>\n

Researchers at CMU\u2019s Future Interfaces Group<\/a>\u00a0are taking a different approach to enable the sensing of\u00a0indoor environments, and reckon there\u2019s a quicker, less expensive and less cumbersome way to create what\u2019s at least a smarter<\/em>\u00a0interior. And one that might have some privacy benefits too, depending on the deploying entity.<\/p>\n

What they\u2019ve built so far does not\u00a0offer as many\u00a0remote control options as a\u00a0fully fledged, IoT-enabled appliance scenario could. But if it\u2019s mostly signals\u00a0intelligence on what\u2019s going on indoors that you want \u2014 plus the ability to leverage that accrued real-time intel to support\u00a0contextually aware apps for the lived environment \u2014 their\u00a0approach looks very promising.<\/p>\n

The team is presenting\u00a0their research<\/a> at the\u00a0ACM CHI Conference in Denver this week. They\u2019ve also produced the below demo video showing their test system in action.<\/p>\n