Trinity Students Showcase Smart Home Technology of the Future

Earlier this week, third year Engineering with Management students from Trinity College Dublin unveiled innovative prototypes of next generation smart-home technology at a special event held in the Science Gallery, Dublin. The event which, took place between 3-5pm, was attended by 80+ people including students, faculty, as well as representatives from industry, recruitment companies and governmental organisations.

The showcase was the conclusion of eight months’ work, where teams, comprising of 3-4 students, were tasked with developing product concepts in response to a real-world design prompt. This year, the prompt was to “develop a smart technology for the home that addresses a problem”. In developing concepts, teams were required to first conduct product benchmarking as well as detailed patent and standard reviews. After drafting a product design specification, which identified a specific problem to be addressed, target demographic and product criteria (size, cost, weight, etc.), teams then formulated several product concepts. These concepts were subjected to a systematic evaluation process, where a final concept was chosen. With the final concept chosen, a proof of concept prototype was developed, followed by a higher resolution prototype which was ultimately demonstrated at the project showcase.

Pill-O-Clock (Instagram: pilloclock)

Students (left to right: Siun Markey, Stephen Gaffney, Philip Murphy). Photo shows student team posing at stand with prototype (left), students interacting with prototype at the stand.

Pill-O-Clock developed an automated pill dispenser that can help people better manage their medication schedules. It is expected that this innovation would be especially useful for older adults with memory problems, or those required to manage often complex medication schedules. The device comprises thee (or more) chambers where tablets can be stored securely. The device is able to provide notifications to users, through audio or by via smart phone/watch alert. Using face recognition algorithms, the team integrated an AI functionality so the machine would only dispense medications to the right user.

DeafBell (Instagram: deafbell)

Students (Aerton Griffin, Neasa Mulkerrin, Hannah McMullin, Jaime Castellanos). Photo shows student team posing at stand with prototype (left), students interacting with prototype at the stand.

Deafbell is an innovative invention that enables alerts and notifications to be communicated reliably and discretely to people with hearing impairments. The team showcased a prototype wristband, that could wirelessly connect to a range of smarthome applications, including existing doorbell technology. Using a flashing led and vibrating motor inside the bracelet, the device could alert the user when the doorbell was pressed and could be configured for a range of other applications with relative ease.

Senseable  (Instagram: senseable)

Students (Darragh Browne, Oriane Breul, David Moloney, Abdul Abshir). Photo shows student team posing at stand with prototype (left), students interacting with prototype at the stand.

Senseable created an object detecting belt that can help people with vision impairments navigate more efficiently, possibly without the need for a cane. This innovation presents a signicant performance improvement, and offers a more discreet way for visually impaired people to navigate. The device comprises a wearable belt, equipped with eight ultrasonic sensors that can pickup nearby objects. When objects are detected, their relative location is communicated to the user through a vibrating motor, which can be easily detected by the user. Despite it’s complexity, it’s design should make it highly affordable to users.

Guardian Angels (Instagram: guardianangels)

Students (Sean McLaughlin, Daniel Danev, Shane Nugent). Photo shows student team posing at stand with prototype (left), students interacting with prototype at the stand.

Guardian Angles created a smart speaker system that can detect users in the vicinity, and selectively provide alerts or notifications. With several speakers installed throughout a house, it would be possible to household appliances to communicate with users, even when they are not in the same room. For example, if a user forgot to turn off the cooker, a sensor in the cooker could alert the speaker system which could locate the user, and communicate the message. The prototype unveiled by the team comprised a module containing a wirelessly operated speaker connected, a PIR sensor, and a person detecting vision system that could identify humans in an image. The vision system achieved high performance, using an algorithm developed using deep learning.

Forget Key Not (Instagram: forgetkeynot)

Students (Ciara Yvon, David Kelly, Declan Gardiner). Photo shows student team posing at stand with prototype (left), students interacting with prototype at the stand.

Forget Key Not is an innovative new product that can make it easier for people to locate items in the home, and help reduce the likelihood of forgetting items when they leave the house. The team demonstrated a system where users place important items like phones, wallets, keys, etc. in on one of several small baskets located throughout the home. Each basket can detect its contents, using RFID technology, and can alert the user to the location of the item when requested. The system also comprises a notification system, which triggers an audio alert to the users when they open the front door whether they may have forgotten something important.

According to Prof. Conor McGinn, the lecturer of the module, “the overall goal of the course is to empower students to apply their creativity and technical skills to create products that address real problems and have the potential to make real impact.” Commenting on the hard work of the students, McGinn says, “this is an especially talented and driven group of students, and given the opportunities, I think they will go to apply their skills in very positive ways for the betterment of the society.”.