Location

MIT Media Lab, Room TBA

Description

Occupants of future homes and offices won't necessarily be able to flip a switch to control building utilities. There may well be too many devices to easily control with direct "switches," and instead they will need to be driven by inferred intention or simple, intuitive, collective control. More crucially, energy conservation concerns will pull our hand off the dial as environments will regulate themselves in order to attain occupants' objectives and best tend to their comfort while minimizing utility use. In this session, we'll introduce current and evolving work such as an automated system for controlling HVAC systems based on information from wireless, wearable sensors that monitor integrated motion, temperature, and humidity; and a smart lighting system that will automatically adapt to a user's illumination needs. These systems aim at minimizing expended energy while maximizing user utility.