For most students, the time when Central Campus apartments will automatically recognize and turn on residents' favorite tunes with one swipe of the DukecCard seems a long way away.
But-as Tom Rose, head of Duke SmartHouse project team, will explain at the Optics East 2006 convention in two weeks-the future could be closer than those students think.
The SmartHouse is a 4,500-sq. ft. live-in research laboratory, designed by a number of Pratt School of Engineering students, that will eventually serve as a dormitory for 10 undergraduates, Rose said.
Some of the Smart House's most interesting medical technologies will be presented by Rose at the Optics East 2006 convention Oct. 4 to Oct. 6 in Boston.
Rose said he will focus on specific aspects of the SmartHouse and emphasized the technology's affordability and accessibility to the public.
Optics East 2006 is a convention in which researchers and scientists come together and share various breakthroughs in fields such as nanotechnology, telecommunications and environmental science.
The Optics East 2006 convention specifically focuses on photonics-the study and use of light for the transmission of information. But Rose said the conference "has become more of a renaissance convention" that brings together people working in all different areas of technology.
Rose said he intends to highlight the medical benefits of the house.
"Healthcare is quickly entering the home," he said. "This joins healthcare with the way people live in their day-to-day lives."
One example Rose gave of SmartHouse healthcare technology in the home was a wireless electrocardiogram, or ECG.
Senior Ara Kardashian, a member of the SmartHouse group working on wireless ECG technology, said the ECG measures a person's heart rate.
Kardashian said the ECG is hooked up to a person's body and then the signal is wirelessly transmitted to a computer, which displays the information.
The wireless ECG would allow people to monitor their heart rates without leaving home, he added.
The ECG, however, is not the only SmartHouse project being presented at the convention.
Rose said the SmartHouse team is also working on finger-vein recognition technology, which allows a scanner to examine the unique vein pattern in a person's finger in order to identify that person.
Sophomore Mark Gu, student president of the SmartHouse project, said the health technology being presented at the convention is not the main focus of the SmartHouse.
"Most of our projects deal with identification and security systems," he said.
Gu added that a project called the "Wisdom Doorway" will be able to identify a person and meet their specific needs-it could even automatically turn on their favorite music.
Rose said he foresees a number of benefits coming out of Optics East 2006.
"It is an opportunity for everybody who is working in this field to share their ideas in one place and at one time," he said.
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