Tag Archives: Smart Home

Why Smart Home Tech Adoptions Need Switches

Most modern homes now use connected devices for entertainment, access control, and several other daily tasks. Their rapid increase can be gauged from the growth of the US market for smart homes, which has reached 29 million and is still rising.

The amazing features and efficiencies products related to smart homes offer to households naturally mesmerize consumers. However, this also necessitates engineers keep in mind the physical interfaces. While customer satisfaction is a long-standing effect, the immediate look and feel of the device dictates its price. This implies details are an important aspect, where the choice of every component matters and that includes switches and buttons.

Most people tend to ignore switches and buttons, forgetting they are responsible for driving the technical movement known as smart homes. However, a few important reasons establish engineers designing home products must give them a serious thought.

The connected devices in a smart home depend critically on their hardware designs. These include switches, sensors, screens and other components used on smart televisions, smart thermostat controls, connected door locks, and more. Most importantly, a user’s overall satisfaction comes from the way a product feels or the tactile sensation it generates.

Most of the time, a customer’s first interaction with the control of a product comes from its on/off switch, which a user physically touches. Unless the switch creates a delightful experience, the customer is likely to search for another product that offers a better feeling.

Cameras working on the Internet Protocol are now commonly available in smart homes. The reason for this is easy to figure out, as according to the statistics provided by iControl Networks, there is a burglary happening every 14.1 seconds in the US. With an IP camera installed, a person can monitor the activity at home from a remote location on their smartphones, laptops, or any other smart device. The very presence of IP cameras act as a deterrent to crime, apart from helping the police apprehend criminals, while simply providing a piece of mind to a homeowner.

However, smart cameras need the right switch to power and protect them. Usually, this is a miniature tactile switch, suitable for meeting the shrinking form factors of the device. Often smaller than the small lens display used by these cameras, the switch must be robust enough to prevent intruders from breaking it and rendering the camera useless.

While IP cameras capture images of unwelcome intruders whom people are not suspecting of entering their homes, access controls offer an additional level of security to the majority of consumers concerned with privacy and security in their smart homes. Access controls are usually equipped with internet doorbells with built-in cameras, and smart door locks.

While the camera shows an image of the person at the door, the smart lock allows unlocking the door remotely. This arrangement can be handy if the door has to be opened for the baby sitter or for the teenager who has misplaced his keys. Usually, the smart lock has a miniature switch to set or reset it. This switch has to be small but long lasting, and able to withstand harsh conditions such as humidity and rain.

Nanoparticles Toggle a Window between Clear and Reflective

By applying a coating on a clear window, it has been possible to convert the window into a one-way reflective mirror. If applied correctly, the coating allows people from inside the room to see outside, but for those outside the room, the windowpanes act like mirrors, preventing them from looking in. To revert to the clear glass, it is necessary to peel off the coating. Clearly, this is not a reversible process.

A research team from the Imperial College London has now developed a process by which window panes can instantly turn reflective, or clear, as the user wishes. The material for the coating they use is made of an array of gold nanoparticles. This is different from the earlier chemical process, which, although based on nanoscopic systems that did alter the optical properties of the glass pane, was not reversible.

Using gold nanoparticles that are thousands of times smaller than the width of a single human hair, the researchers placed them in an array between two liquids that normally do not mix. On application of voltage, the nanoparticles assembled themselves into a new configuration of close dense formation. This made the surface reflective. Removal of voltage allowed the nanoparticles to drift apart, and the surface reverted to its transparent nature. The applied voltage modulated the density of the nanoparticle layer to allow or disallow light passing through the liquid layers.

According to Professor Joshua Edel, coauthor of the study, the team had achieved a really fine balance. For a long time, the applied voltage only served to form a clump of the nanoparticles as they assembled, rather than allowing them to space out evenly and accurately. The team had to build several models and conduct innumerable experiments to reach the point where they had a really tunable layer of nanoparticles.

Anthony Kucernak, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, explains the phenomenon. The application of a specific voltage drives the nanoparticles, and they travel to an interface. The nanoparticles congregate here to form a mirror, reflecting the incident light, and not allowing it to pass through. Switching to a different voltage or removing the voltage allows the nanoparticles to move away from the interface, making the mirror transparent again.

Scientists have already been working with smart windows with the ability to adjust to sunlight falling on them. Such windows self-shade, allowing only a part of the sunlight falling on them to pass through. This helps in regulating the temperature of a building, and saving on expenditure on heating and cooling. Other developments turn windows into solar power generators, augmenting the power supply, and turning skyscrapers into potential solar farms.

The new window/mirror innovation will further advance the temperature control ability for windowpanes. However, this is not the only application for this technology. According to the research team, they can use this technology to create tunable optical filters for telescopes. This will not only help in astronomy, it will also make chemical sensors more sensitive. However, the team from Imperial College first wants to increase the response time of the nanoparticles.