TECHNOLOGY: Remote Control Your Home!

Samir Mukha, a manager in his mid-20s, is on his way for an

important meeting with a client when he realizes he has not switched off the

air-conditioner at home. No sweat, he rings up his house to be greeted by an

interactive voice response (IVR) system, which asks him for a password. After

verifying his password, the telecontroller connects Mukha to his AC and enables

him to turn it off. Straight out of a sci-fi movie? Think again–this

technology is already in place and has been developed by Delhi-based company

Third Eye Solutions.

One-year-old Third Eye was founded by director Sonia

Shrivastava, in mid-2000 to function in the area of home automation and remote

control. The 15-member team of Third Eye includes IIT-Delhi professor Rajendar

Bahl, an expert in the field of signal processing who also holds equity in the

firm.

Shrivastava hit upon the idea of developing this product

while going through some technology journals some years ago. According to her,

"There was a need to find low cost alternatives to the other expensive high

systems. This lead to research and development, which culminated in the new

device".

Telecontrolling your home

The telecontroller is basically a short-range wireless

connectivity solution that makes use of a telephone line to send instructions to

the base unit. The system has the advantages of a user-friendly interface that

uses existing infrastructure, that is the telephone network (landline or

wireless/cellular), a voice response system, and a proprietary wireless

protocol. Prof Bahl adds, "Radio frequency (RF) protocols are still

evolving and there are no fixed standards." The appliances to be controlled

via RF are situated within a radius of 100 metres of the master unit.

The system permits the user to control a variety of devices

through a combination of presettable network address and appliance device

address. The user accesses the master unit through a personal password number

managed through a voice response system. Thereupon, all further access to the

appliances (slave units) is done through voice prompts that have corresponding

RF codes. The system interrogates the designated appliances regarding their

status, reports it to the user, and allows the remote user to control the

appliance operation. Because of the unique address allocation to each unit,

interference with neighbouring units has also been dealt with.

Applications: Home and small office

The main commercial applications of the controller can be in

remote controlling air-conditioners, electrical geysers, and microwave ovens in

the home segment. Office applications could include switching on ACs in a medium

size office complex and even switching on a furnace that needs to be fired a few

hours before the morning shift commences work.

Targeting the global market

Besides filing for patents in India, Third Eye has also

applied for patents in the US and Europe. Discussions are already on with

leading national and multinational white goods manufacturers in the United

States, Korea and China to license the technology. The incremental cost to an

appliance like the air conditioner would be around Rs 200 only, which is easily

affordable by an average middle- class consumer. Shrivastava attributes the

low cost to the use of optimised coded software in place of dedicated hardware

as far as possible and the use of a single microcontroller performing maximum

number of multiple tasks.

Third Eye’s USP is clear: "Cash in upon the existing

infrastructure while providing remote convenience at affordable costs."

AMIT SARKAR in New Delhi