2002
Knocking on the Front Door of the Future
School of Engineering Joins Venture with AOL
to Research Potential Technologies in the Home
By Greg Licamele
It’s 6 am and you are pouring Cheerios into a
bowl. You realize the box is almost empty as cereal dust streams out
of the package. So you throw away the box.
With the research being conducted at America Online’s
Home of the 21st Century Lab at GW’s Virginia Campus, your pantry
will be automatically replenished by the combination of seamless online
technology and radio frequency (RF) tags.
Such technology projects are among many being conducted
jointly by AOL employees and GW’s School of Engineering and Applied
Science (SEAS) students and faculty, with partial funding from Virginia’s
Center for Innovative Technology (VCIT).
“The purpose of the lab is to explore some of
the opportunities that are going to exist a few years down the road
when folks bring connected infrastructure into the home,” says
Dave Corboy, AOL’s Director of Technology Strategy Group. “We’ll
begin to see things like home automation and monitoring.”
Thirteen projects, developed by three SEAS departments
and AOL, include investigating wireless remote monitoring, ultrasonic
ID and location, floor sensors, indoor radio positioning system, and
home information management. Twelve graduate students, funded by fellowships
from AOL and VCIT, work with 13 other students and nine professors,
says SEAS Dean Timothy Tong.
“From the research, we are addressing how one
would manage vast amounts of information, whether it’s for entertainment
purposes, delivering health care to the home, security, or energy management,”
Tong says.
One project looks at home energy optimization. Researchers
are developing a remote-controlled system to manage a home owner’s
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
As GW looks to provide its academic perspective, AOL’s
goal is to conduct research to make its services even more valuable
for 32 million and growing members, who are online nearly 70 minutes
a day.
“What we’re trying to do is get beyond the
70 minutes a day,” says Ray Oglethorpe, president of America Online.
“There is still almost another 23 hours in a day where our members
— and their friends and family — want to stay connected to
each other. The lab will allow us to research creative and innovative
ways to seamlessly integrate technology into the everyday activities
of our members — making what we offer even more valuable for their
everyday lives.”
Corboy says the projects conducted at the lab represent
research, not products that will be available to consumers immediately.
“The lab is really a place to explore different
potential ideas and concepts,” Corboy says. “Out of these
explorations, however, we might expect to find a few really good ideas
that could bring significant value to our members.”
Can Korman, associate professor of engineering and
applied science, describes a potential way technology can bring healthcare
options to the home. Korman says the basic technology for monitoring
people’s safety, wellness, and health at home is already in place.
That knowledge can then be transferred to appropriate relatives who
are caring for their elderly family members. Sensors in the home can
keep track of what a person does — from opening the front door
to checking the medicine cabinet.
“These types of activities indicate a person
is functioning,” Korman says. “That information is collected
by a server. Over an Internet connection, loved ones can access this
information.” However, Korman emphasizes some of the major
issues not yet resolved are how to be non-intrusive and to protect the
privacy of the person.
When it comes to the details of food inventory in
the kitchen, researchers at the lab will also explore the possibilities
of having a computer take care of the weekly grocery list.
According to Ken Loewenthal, vice president of AOL’s
Innovation Center, RF tags are already used today in the railroad industry
and in smart tag technologies on toll roads. The high cost of the tags
and subsequent antennas prevent the devices from being more accessible
today. However, companies are tinkering with manufacturing techniques
to lower the overall cost from dollars to pennies, making a substantial
difference in how the technology is deployed.
“The RF tag industry sees an opportunity to replace
the standard bar codes on commodities such as cereal boxes with postage
stamp-size RF tags,” Loewenthal explains. “Instead of going
through the process of having the grocery clerk scan in each of your
purchases, the tags would allow shoppers to walk up to the checkout
counter and a remote antenna system would read the entire grocery cart
in a matter of seconds.”
If RF tags indeed replace bar codes, purchases could
be automatically processed via the Internet — and pantries and
refrigerators could be automatically replenished, especially in conjunction
with grocery delivery services.
Postage stamp-size RF tags on food products is just
one idea. Other uses for the tags could include strategically placing
them on cell phones, wallets, and key chains so that when important
personal items are misplaced, anyone can simply go online to a personal
inventory list that will let the searcher know immediately where their
items are located.
“AOL has a ‘Buddy List’ that lets you
know when your friends and family are online so that you can find them
quickly and easily when you want to reach them,” Loewenthal says.
“Why not an ‘Object List’ so you can find your important
personal belongings quickly and easily, also?”
Shahrokh Ahmadi, assistant professor of electrical
and computer engineering, says this collaboration meets the goals of
the school and gives industrial exposure to students and GW.
“Not only do the students get to meet the professionals
in the industry, they get hands-on experience, which, later on when
they enter the job market, becomes very valuable,” Ahmadi says.
“This is a place where we can start to ask a
lot of questions,” Loewenthal says. “AOL has a solid understanding
of consumers. And, at GW, you have professors and students who are really
well-versed in technology. Together, we can ask ourselves: What technologies
already exist and what technologies need to be created?”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
