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Bringing smart home a step further to reality
(New Straits Times Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) EVER wished that you can control and monitor your home appliances wirelessly through your mobile phone in real-time? Well, apparently you can.
Local start-up Xirien Technologies has developed a fully wireless system that allows users to control almost anything in their homes or office from the palm of their hands.
Utilising a highly intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) on a compatible mobile phone or mobile device, users can view the current status of any connected appliance in specified locations and control it in real time.
According to Xirien Technologies' chief executive officer Khoo Han Wei, the system was designed to really bring the dream of a smart home to reality or at least a step towards that direction.
"The main objective of that product was to make life a lot easier and fun for people. With this product, you are not only able to control almost anything in your home or office, but also view streaming video from your home or office directly to your device. Get informed, too, when something happens, and track and respond to the event," he said.
Khoo said the solution comprises software in the mobile device, which is Java-based, a server and wireless end devices.
"The solution works in two general situations: one, where you control remote appliances and the second, where you are informed or alerted of any security breaches or a break-in to premises," he said.
The mobile Java client communicates with the server over wireless Internet like general packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced data rates for global evolution (EDGE) or third-generation (3G).
The server then communicates with the end devices over ZigBee Wireless Protocol. ZigBee is the set of specifications built around the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 wireless protocol.
To illustrate further, Khoo said imagine if a user is on a business trip and begins to feel worried about his or her house.
"Take out your mobile device, turn it on, and there you go, view your house, no matter where you are. Then if you noticed you forgot to turn on the porch light, click on the porch light, and it's on!" Another example is if there is a break-in at a user's home and he or she happen to be in the house with the thief just downstairs.
"The system will inform you of the break-in and the whereabouts of the thief in real-time through a myriad of sensors to your mobile device. You can then switch on the video cameras and see exactly what is going on. Then turn on the lights in the hope that you scare the thief away. Of course, you should have called the police already or programmed the system to call the police," Khoo elaborated.
"The end devices like sensors and switches are all wireless, running on the latest ZigBee Wireless Protocol, giving you extremely large wireless mesh networks with high security," he added. ..TX: A LITTLE HISTORY. Asked to elaborate on the research and development (R&D) process and the people involved in producing the solution, Khoo said the project started as a one-man show during his second last year at Multimedia University (MMU) in Cyberjaya.
"Towards the end of my university life, the project grew to a four- person team, adding upon the solution more features and capabilities. Xirien Technologies was then started up in May 2004 through MMU's commercialisation department, a few months before I graduated from my degree. Development then continued up until now, although our focus has changed." To date, the product has won the Asia-Pacific ICT Awards (Apicta) in Hong Kong, the MSC-Apicta awards in Malaysia, the IEEE (UK) Annual Innovative Project Award for the best ICT product, besides two awards from National Semiconductor which is MMU's yearly project awards.
"I have also received a grant from Malaysia Venture Capital (Mavcap) through their Cradle Investment Programme to further develop the product. MMU has also supported this company financially by providing offices and hardware," said Khoo.
He said the solution was a demonstration of what the technology he developed was capable of doing.
"The market is still too young to accept such a technology on a wide scale but breaking it up into various components, I have implemented it in quite some diverse areas which turned out to be in markets totally unrelated to what I started with." Xirien is now focused on ZigBee Wireless development, said Khoo.
"Our new products are still in research and will be launched when they are ready. The software side of the system is now being developed under a separate company, a spin-off of Xirien called Forwen Sdn Bhd." Forwen is the result of a joint venture with another company Xirien met at CommunicAsia in Singapore last year, a trip that was sponsored by Maxis.
"Forwen now uses technology I have developed for Xirien like mobile programs and content streaming to develop its own products which are focused on enterprise level systems that are mobile related. In fact, we at Forwen will be launching a new product very soon in collaboration with a few radio stations besides our other products," said Khoo.
Copyright 2006 The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad. Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Intelligence Wire.
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