After hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock for the second time, a somewhat stern voice tells you its time to get up. No, it's not your wife cajoling you to get out of bed. The sound is emanating from a tiny audio transmitter located in your nightstand. Still wishing to savor a few more minutes of sleep, you initially ignore the warning. Realizing that's probably not a good idea, you quickly hop out of bed. You know all too well that any further delay in arising means a slightly uncomfortable electrical jolt from your wearable biometric device.
This scenario is not that futuristic because sometime this year people will be living in an actual apartment that's designed to study how humans interact with their homes. According to a recent article in the MIT Technology Review, a residential condominium is being constructed as a research facility that will enable scientists to study human/home interactions and conduct experiments to learn how people respond to new technologies. Dubbed PlaceLab, the one-bedroom apartment located on the ground floor of a condominium building in Cambridge, MA, is owned by Tiax, an innovation, product, and technology development company, and operated cooperatively with MIT.
To facilitate the scientific research, 15 cabinets stuffed with a myriad of sensing elements along with a microcontroller will be placed in various locations around the apartment. Looking like a bookcase, the upper section of each cabinet contains two speakers; the microcontroller; and light, motion, humidity, smoke, CO2, and barometric-pressure sensors. In the middle are four IR transmitters and two microphones. Network connections and power are in the lower section of the cabinet.
Scientists hope to discover what influences the behavior of people in their homes, if technology and architectural design enhance longevity, how people handle new home environments, and how new technologies might affect our lives. During the program, researchers will monitor the daily activities and perform experiments on selected families who may stay in the apartment from several hours to many months.
A key aspect of the program depends on how well people accept biometric monitoring. Subjects will be outfitted with wearable medical devices that measure EKG, pulse rate, blood pressure, weight, and blood sugar levels among others. Data from these devices will be transmitted to the cabinets for analysis by the scientists.
As baby boomers hasten toward their retirement years, the need to follow healthy lifestyles becomes paramount. Even forgetting to take certain medications at the prescribed times can cause life-threatening situations. Maintaining a proper diet and exercising regularly can be monitored and controlled. When we including our homes are equipped with some of these new devices, our quality of life could be enhanced significantly. Notwithstanding the inevitable privacy issues arising with the incorporation of this technology in our lives and some personal inconveniences, the benefits hopefully should prevail over the disadvantages. Paul MiloEditor
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