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REMOTELY CONTROLLING THE HOME
The Star, In.Tech, Aug 25, 2005
AT this year’s CommunicAsia, Xirien Technologies showcased a prototype application that holds a lot of promise.
The application allows you to control devices in your home, office or building via your mobile phone. Everything goes through a wireless network like 3G (third-generation), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution).
You can also view your security status. For example, if there’s a break-in, the system will inform you through your handphone where in the house the break-in has occurred, what time it happened and what kind of break-in it is. You can log into the system, and if you have motion sensors, you can even track where the intruder is.
This will give users more information to deal with and being able to view the house through streaming video is definitely better than going all the way back home to check, more so if it is only a cat and not a human intruder.
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Khoo Han Wei: 'Any Java-enabled phone will be able to run our video streaming program.' |
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Khoo Han Wei, chief executive officer of Xirien, says users can also stream video to the phone so that they can see exactly what’s happening at any time.
Before getting home, users can also turn on the air-conditioning or lights. Or they can even check the security situation before reaching home. While away, users can also check on their maid to see if she’s doing anything improper with the kids.
“The video server part of our system is phone-independent. That means any Java-enabled phone will be able to run our video streaming program.
“Right now if you’re talking about video streaming to the phone, you usually need a video-capable phone. These video phones are very expensive because they would have a videocamera on the phone. Not many people own these kinds of phones,” says Khoo.
In comparison, Java phones are common and definitely cheaper. “Right now, all of Nokia’s phones have Java on them, all the way down to the RM300 phone.
“So to stream video from our system, you can actually just use a RM300 phone. You don’t have to get a RM1,000-over phone which supports video streaming,” says Khoo.
The company uses a protocol called Zigbee to do all the controlling as it’s wireless and it’s in the freeband 2.4GHz.
ZigBee is a home-area network designed specifically to replace the proliferation of individual remote controls. ZigBee was created to satisfy the market’s need for a cost-effective, standards-based wireless network that supports low data rates, low power consumption, security, and reliability.
It is capable of connecting 255 devices per network. The specification supports data transmission rates of up to 250 kilobits per second (Kbps) at a range of up to 30m. ZigBee’s technology is slower than 802.11b (11 megabits per second or Mbps) and Bluetooth (1Mbps) but it consumes significantly less power.
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| Control the home remotely from your handphone. |
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Khoo explains that to use his company’s surveillance and remote control app, all the user needs is a J2ME-enabled phone and a server or CPU which has Xirien’s server software.
The interface is easy to navigate – the user can call up a map of the house on their phone.
Hence the user does not have to memorise the codes for the rooms or the electrical appliances. And if the phone gets stolen, users can just log in using the web interface to change the password for the system.
Xirien hopes to launch the app in the next four or five months. He started working on this app during his final year in university. He just graduated last year with a degree in electronics engineering and is currently doing his Masters.
Xirien is one of Mavcap’s (Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd) Cradle recipients. The company is currently waiting for another grant from Mavcap.
Xirien won a number of awards last year including the Hong Kong APICTA (Asia Pacific ICT Awards) 2004 best tertiary project award, MSC APICTA 2004 best tertiary project award and first place in the IEE (UK) Intervarsity Project Awards.
Copyright Star Publications (M) Bhd
• See also:
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SMS in Tamil
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