Summer 2004

New Technology That Hits Home

Researchers, product developers and implementers gathered at GW’s Virginia Campus May 20, for “Research to Reality,” a symposium on pervasive computing in the smart home. The symposium featured presentations and panel discussions about technologies in various stages of development that are meant to make homes safer, easier to manage and more personalized.

Featured speakers included Sanjay Sarma, associate professor of mechanical engineering at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and chair of research at MIT’s Auto-ID Center; Gregory Abowd, associate professor in the College of Computing at The Georgia Institute of Technology and associate director of the Georgia Tech Broadband Institute; Daniel Weitzner, technology and security domain leader of the World Wide Web Consortium; and Christian Schiller, of IBM’s Pervasive/Wireless Emerging Business Opportunities.

In his keynote address Sarma discussed radio frequency identification (RFID) tags — tiny chips which can be placed on items to wirelessly track those items by way of antennas. Sarma founded the Auto-ID Center at MIT in 1999 to explore the uses of RFID tags. Currently, RFID is used more in business, but the technology has many applications around the home, including allowing a homeowner to track lost items and automatically lock cabinets with dangerous items when a child enters the room.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu