Motes make trash cans smarter
You've got robots cleaning your floors, and your fridge can surf the Internet. But what has your trash can done for you lately?
OK, you don't need a Web cam to tell you when your kitchen trash is full. But in parks and on street corners, many cans routinely overflow. (Try taking a walk along the Riverway some time and you'll see what I mean.)
Those inefficiencies may cost cities millions of dollars each year, said computer systems engineer Yaniv Ophir, who received his undergraduate degree from Boston University this spring. He's part of a BU team that has designed a wireless network of trash cans with smart lids that alert public works managers when the cans are full. Ophir and teammates Vyas Venkataraman, Joseph D'Errico, and Andrew Hagedorn expect their system, called SmarTrash, will be well received by US cities with tightening public works budgets.
Trash pickup, the low-tech way, is an expensive business. St. Paul estimates that it spends $5.33 each time a worker checks a trash can in its public spaces, according to a survey by the SmarTrash team. ``And that's whether or not the can needs emptying," said Ophir. ``It costs the same."
A public works manager will be able to use SmarTrash to monitor a vast network of cans simultaneously on a map, from a single PC. Each SmarTrash lid has a radio relay device, called a mote, and an array of infrared sensors to gauge trash levels.
Some of the IR sensors in the SmarTrash lid form an invisible plane that is broken when the can's contents reach a certain level. One IR sensor also points down into the barrel to measure the level of trash. The mote and sensors in the SmarTrash lid are solar-powered, with battery backup.
The motes not only emit ``full" and ``almost full" signals from their sensors, they also relay messages from other motes to the manager's PC in what is known as a mesh network.
The prototype SmarTrash lid cost $212 to produce, but in mass production the price could come down to $100, Ophir estimates.
The SmarTrash project is among 10 finalists competing for the $20,000 first prize in the Computer Society International Design Competition in Washington next month.
Personal wind power
Personal wind power
Why wait for a wind farm when you can harness coastal and mountain breezes right at home?
Both Cape Wind and Jay Cashman's new Buzzards Bay wind farm proposal are being resisted by wealthy landowners and local residents. Wind farm proposals nationwide face similar challenges.
But if you are lucky enough to have an acre or two -- and a friendly zoning board -- you may be able set up your own ``micro-wind" turbine and get off the grid.
Some parts of the Berkshires, the White Mountains, and the North Atlantic Coast have winds steady and strong enough to make turbines and towers worth looking into, at least as an adjunct to solar panels.
Flagstaff, Ariz.-based Southwest Windpower (www.windenergy.com) is one well-known maker of micro-wind systems. It says its ``small wind" Whisper turbines install quickly, and can generate 100 to 500 kwh per month, depending on the model you buy.
Government tax exemptions and credits can substantially defray the cost of the Whisper systems, which are priced at $7,000 to $15,000, installed.
Leisure
Hot tubbin' with surround sound
Your hot tub's got the bubbles, the warm jets, the champagne, the sexy company. Yet something is still missing: the low end of Barry White's crooning on your hi-fi.
Cal Spas (www.calspas.com), based in Pomona, Calif. (where else?), recently introduced the Splash Transducer Stereo System to some of its custom hot tub models. Splash turns an entire hot tub shell into a 200-watt surround sound system, so you can hear your music under and above the water.
The Splash system's internally mounted design overcomes the drone of water jets, something that is hard to do with speakers mounted above the water, according to Cal Spas.
On certain Cal Spas systems, home entertainment freaks can get the Splash speakers along with a marine-grade auto-rising television (which has a built-in CD/DVD player).
