Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Laboratory for Emerging Wireless Technologies (WiTech) have integrated NFC antennae in fabric-based home furniture, claiming that this might lead to the creation of future “smart environments.”
TextileSense is an NFC-enabled technology that tracks the movement of items like a human hand and can activate a function.
A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge has devised a method for wirelessly connecting furniture and carpets to smart gadgets. The researchers believe that such sensors might be used to improve people’s existing connectivity with their smart devices. It has been proposed, for example, that a person may control the level of their television by waving their hand over a section of their sofa, or switch on the bedroom lights by hovering their hand above a pillow.
“Our objective is to incorporate these sensors into our daily lives, which will lead to a smarter environment overall.”
TextileSense is expected to enable new applications in the fields of device tracking and smart textiles.
At the ACM/IEEE Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks, the researchers’ article on the concept received Best Paper and Best Presentation.
