SMART

Zarkon Group Real Estate Builders & Developers > Blog > SMART

Tag: SMART

Samsung’s flagship New York store offers immersive smart home experience
CategoriesSustainable News

Samsung’s flagship New York store offers immersive smart home experience

By Zarkon Group,

Samsung’s flagship experience store in New York City, which has been captured in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen, has been designed to enable visitors to envision living in a smart home.

Located in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, the Samsung 837 store is described by the brand as an “interactive playground” and allows visitors to interact with Samsung’s latest connected home devices.

Located on the second floor, the SmartThings Home section allows visitors to test its connected products in a simulated smart home environment.

The section features a connected kitchen where products, such as Samsung’s Bespoke Refrigerator, are on display, allowing users to test its touchscreen capabilities.

The SmartThings Home section in Samsung's flagship New York store
The SmartThings Home on the second floor allows visitors to test Samsung’s latest smart products

The store also features a gaming lounge in which visitors can use consoles to play games in real-time.

Additionally, the SmartThings Home section includes a children’s bedroom, which features a projector where visitors can experience watching movies in bed.

Samsung children's bedroom
The children’s concept bedroom features a projector to watch films

Samsung customers can download its SmartThings app to connect and monitor all of their smart home devices in one place. Users can monitor their energy consumption in a bid to reduce their energy bills using the SmartThings Energy activation within the app.

Also exhibited in the space is Samsung’s Bespoke service, which allows visitors to customise Samsung products to suit their individual style, including custom colour combinations and finishes.

Samsung bespoke refrigerators
Samsung’s bespoke refrigerators can be customised to fit a user’s individual style

Samsung uses the flagship experience store to host a variety of talks and events throughout the year. Recently, Dezeen partnered with Samsung to host a live panel discussion in the flagship store, exploring the topics of technology and sustainability.

The talk was moderated by Dezeen’s US editor Ben Dreith and featured a panel including Barent Roth, Matthew Spencer and Claudia Santos, who discussed how connected homes can enable more sustainable lifestyles.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Samsung as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.



Reference

Smart windows control the sunlight and heat entering a home 
CategoriesSustainable News

Smart windows control the sunlight and heat entering a home 

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Windows have remained functionally the same since their invention; providing natural light and perhaps a level of aesthetic beauty to a home. However, this has meant that while the home has undergone technological smart advancements with heating, storage, electricity, and other things, windows have fallen behind.

Windows account for about 30 per cent of heat loss in a home, and during hot periods, they often let in too much solar heat, which is often compensated for with energy-intensive cooling systems. And even with the right window insulation, it’s rare that lighting is “just right” for the occupant’s comfort when dealing with shifting natural light sources.

This is where Tynt comes in. The concept is simple: windows that can regulate the amount of light that is let in based on what’s available and also the desire of the operator. This is accomplished by using patented Reversible Metal Electrodeposition (RME). 

The technology uses a small electric current to influence the properties of a metal film that rests in between the windowpanes – affecting how opaque the window appears and how much energy it absorbs. By either regulating the current up or down, the opacity of the window will range from completely transparent to truly blacked out. With this system the heat regulation of the house is also far more efficient – requiring just 1 volt to function, according to the company. 

Tynt is not in the commercial phase just yet, but you can sign up to be alerted when the first product becomes available, which the company predicts will be in 2024. 

Windows are a central part of all modern buildings, but if they’re poorly designed, they can rapidly increase the heat losses and greenhouse gas emissions of a property. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted shade screens that provide renewable sources of energy as well as this company that can retrofit entire buildings with net-zero glass to reduce heating costs.

Written By: Archie Cox

Reference

Smart, green advertising in the sky
CategoriesSustainable News

Smart, green advertising in the sky

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Though targeted online ads can be highly effective, 54 per cent of people also find them intrusive. In addition, the sheer volume of online advertising makes it hard for companies to stand out, with internet users often scrolling straight past any ad out of habit. Helping brands to stand out in the sea of online ads is Miami-based Sustainable Skylines, an aerial advertising company that is bringing the traditional practice of sky marketing into the 21st century – using drones. 

Sustainable Skylines guides brands from start to finish – assisting with the creative design of a banner, planning the flight path, and analysing the campaign’s success once completed. Benefitting from its exclusive partnership with aviation company Velary and its Vertical Take-Off and Landing technology (VTOL), the company is able to fly slower and closer to the ground than the planes that are traditionally used. 

And crucially, the process is also greener, only using three gallons of unleaded fuel for a four-hour flight of its hybrid-electric drones, compared with the 30 gallons of leaded aviation fuel needed by a single-engine plane for the same journey. Because of this, the company believes its method cuts 90 per cent of aerial advertising’s carbon footprint. 

Instead of a campaign’s success being measured anecdotally, Sustainable Skylines provides an intelligent web-based analytics platform so that brands can monitor the impact of a banner. With the help of AI and computer vision, the company processes live footage of a journey to understand the reach of an ad and how many people were likely to have seen it. Using third-party cellular and geospatial datasets, the company can see exactly how many people on the ground below visited a website following a drone’s flight. With the first- and third-party data combined, Sustainable Skylines gets an accurate picture of a campaign’s success, allowing it to be further optimised in future. 

As well as partnering with Velary, Sustainable Skylines has also joined forces with Mitsubishi Electric, Auvsi, and the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA).

In the archive, Springwise has spotted other innovations working to make advertising greener, including resources to help marketers decarbonise and a tool to calculate and offset advertising emissions.

Written By: Matilda Cox

Reference

Smart parking solutions – Springwise
CategoriesSustainable News

Smart parking solutions – Springwise

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: By 2050, the proportion of the global population living in urban areas is expected to reach 68 per cent, creating a further 2.5 billion city-dwellers compared to today’s number.  

To accommodate this growing population, while also improving sustainability and quality of life, there is growing interest in the concept of smart cities. One company that is improving urban life today is Eleven-X, which has created eXactpark, a smart parking solution.  

Using a specially designed wireless sensor, eXactpark collects real-time data on parking space occupancy in indoor or outdoor structures and tracks when spaces are filled or vacated. This information can then be used in a variety of ways. For example, drivers can use the Space Guidance app to find available parking.  

The data can also be integrated into back-office parking management applications to enable better decisions, including dynamic pricing and optimisation of infrastructure planning. The platform can deliver a customised dashboard that monitors factors such as turnover, zone counts, demand over time, pinch points, average parking duration, and other indicators.  

Eleven-X’s sensors are wireless, cost-effective, and designed to last more than 10 years. They also require almost zero maintenance. This means that the total cost of ownership for the sensors is low compared to other solutions. 

The startup is a graduate of Canada’s Accelerator Centre and has completed a pre-seed financing round.

Making cities more efficient is crucial for minimising their carbon footprint and improving the lives of inhabitants. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted a smart urban planning platform and the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve traffic flow.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

A smart shower reduces behavioural water waste in hotels
CategoriesSustainable News

A smart shower reduces behavioural water waste in hotels

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Globally, water scarcity is a growing problem. According to some estimates, demand for water could exceed supply by 40 per cent as soon as the year 2030. At the same time, a typical 300-room hotel will use nearly 200 gallons per room a day, with the bulk of that coming from the bathroom.

To encourage hotel guests to use less water, startup Shower Stream has developed a device that attaches easily to the shower head and connects to Wi-Fi for collecting water usage, temperature, and pressure data in real time. Guests turn on the shower as usual and, when the water has reached a desired temperature, the device will pause water flow and restart it at the same temperature once the motion sensors detect the guest has entered the shower.

Not only does the device lower water costs for the hotel, but it also provides monthly reporting of energy and water data that helps hotel operators identify potential maintenance issues before they become expensive. The data collected also helps hotels apply for local rebates and incentives that act as additional revenue streams.

According to Shower Stream, the device averages water and energy savings of around $30,000 (around €28,000) per hotel. The technology is also low-cost, at around $5 (around €4.67) per unit and $10 (around €9.34) per month for the advanced analytics. This device is attracting the attention of a number of hotel chains and investors, with Shower Stream already installed in properties belonging to Hyatt Hotels, Global Hotel Group, Extended Stay America, and more.

Hotels are not the only ones concerned with water savings. Springwise has recently spotted a number of innovations aimed at reducing water use. These include a water-recycling shower and sustainable laundry service.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Smart insoles prevent workplace accidents
CategoriesSustainable News

Smart insoles prevent workplace accidents

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Slips, trips, and falls (STFs) are the top causes of major injuries in the workplace, according to the International Labour Organization. A new first-of-its-kind smart insole created by a team from the National University of Singapore can detect a person’s balance, which will allow companies to identify where an incident happened and highlight risk areas. 

The insole has sensors that track foot pressure and changes in motion to determine when an STF has happened. It records and measures this input in real-time to assess different users’ balance. The insoles can also be custom fit to workers’ feet, using foot scanning and 3D printing. 

Employers can access the information gathered by the smart insole through an app, rather than waiting for employees to file reports manually – which will allow them to act faster when needed.  

The researchers were awarded funding from the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore to develop the prototype, and are collaborating with the Workplace Safety and Health Institute and Association of Singapore Maritime Industries to tweak the smart insole for the maritime sector. The team also wants to incorporate the insole into other industries in the future.

Other innovations are helping to mitigate the impact of accidents. Springwise has spotted shoes that notify the emergency services in the event of a fall, and a wearable musculoskeletal monitor that alerts a user to any dangerous movements.

Written By: Jessica Bradley

Reference

Diagnosing glaucoma with smart contact lenses
CategoriesSustainable News

Diagnosing glaucoma with smart contact lenses

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Glaucoma is a common condition where the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain, becomes damaged. This is often caused by fluid building up in the front part of the eye, which increases the pressure inside. It affects more than 80 million people worldwide. While it’s not possible to reverse any loss of vision that occurs before diagnosis, treatment can prevent further degeneration. And now, startup BVS Sight Inc. hopes to speed up diagnosis with a smart contact lens.

BVS was established to take advantage of technology developed by a Purdue research team. The team was led by Chi Hwan Lee, an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and created smart contact lenses that can continuously monitor intraocular pressure (IOP) in the eye. This is the only known modifiable risk factor for glaucoma.

Previous wearable tonometers, which are devices that measure the pressure inside the eyes, use an integrated circuit chip. This makes the lens thicker and stiffer, and more uncomfortable, than typical soft lenses. Lee’s team gets around this by building on commercial brands of soft contact lenses to allow continuous 24-hour IOP monitoring, even when the wearer is asleep.

Health technology is rapidly advancing. Springwise has also spotted ultrasound stickers that monitor organ function, and self-powering wireless “skin” that can monitor various stimuli.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

Smart sockets reduce building energy consumption
CategoriesSustainable News

Smart sockets reduce building energy consumption

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Small power refers to unfixed electrical equipment, products, and appliances, commonly plugged into the electricity network. In an office environment, there may be thousands of these devices left turned on 24/7, and they can account for up to 40 per cent of energy usage. Yet, it is not practical to go around turning these devices on and off all the time.

To lower the energy usage of small power, startup measurable.energy has developed a smart socket designed specifically for commercial use that incorporates machine learning to automatically measure and eliminate small power waste. The sockets work like a normal socket but contain software that can automatically identify devices plugged into the sockets, monitor their energy use, report granular real-time data, and automatically turn devices on or off to avoid wasted energy.

The sockets can measure the exact usage of small power energy per socket, showing when and where energy is in use or wasted. Organisations can then use this data to decide the best way to cut back on energy usage.

On its website, measurable.energy emphasises that its hardware and software is designed to help individuals and businesses adjust their behaviour to use more renewable energy. The company writes that their solution, “pays back within two years and allows businesses to reduce electricity bills by at least 20 per cent.”

Nowadays, it seems like just about every appliance and device has smart capabilities. When used correctly, many of these can help people save energy and money. Some recent smart devices Springwise has spotted include a smart cooking pot that helps users save energy, and a self-powered smart pillow that monitors sleep.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

A smart trading platform for waste EV batteries
CategoriesSustainable News

A smart trading platform for waste EV batteries

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: According to the IEA, the number of electric cars on the world’s roads by the end of 2021 was about 16.5 million, triple the amount in 2018. While this may seem like great news for the environment, it is not all positive. That is because the current recycling rate for electric vehicle (EV) batteries is extremely low, with some estimates putting it at just five per cent. For electric mobility to represent a truly sustainable solution, this needs to change, and Stockholm-based Cling Systems is one of the organisations working on a solution.

Currently, when EV batteries reach the end of their life, they often end up in a fragmented system of car dismantlers, workshops, and wreckers. But connecting these to the businesses who want to use or recycle old batteries is difficult. In fact, according to Cling, logistics can account for almost 50 per cent of recycling costs. In response, the startup has developed an intelligent collection and trading platform that connects vehicle manufacturers and buyers of end-of-life batteries to vehicle scrap yards and dismantlers.

Cling’s platform aims to solve the logistics issues that prevent end-of-life batteries from being reused. It does this by aggregating data to allow recyclers and dismantlers to connect with buyers of end-of-life batteries. Through efficient matching of supply and demand, Cling enables the development of a circular battery recycling system while also maintaining a competitive market for the batteries.

While Cling’s marketplace is initially aimed at the Nordic region and Europe, the company hopes to expand to other areas. According to the company, “Our presence in the industry has already generated some exciting early conversations from key players. We have potential customers and partners from both Europe, North America, and Asia. Our vision is to make the electrical transformation truly sustainable.”

As battery technology becomes more vital to a sustainable future, we are also seeing a big uptick in innovations designed to deal with battery waste. Some of those we have recently covered include a riverboat powered by old EV batteries and repurposed EV batteries being used for energy storage.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference

A self-powered smart pillow for sleep monitoring
CategoriesSustainable News

A self-powered smart pillow for sleep monitoring

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted:  A good night’s sleep is essential for maintaining health and wellbeing. But for many, it can be hard to get much-needed shut-eye. In fact, sleep disorders affect up to 70 million Americans every year. 

While there are a variety of sleep-tracking devices on the market, most of them either lack accuracy or are too intrusive to be used on a regular basis. However, scientists in China have developed a smart pillow that strikes a balance between these two extremes.

The pillow is equipped with a series of sensors that track head movements to accurately monitor the quality of sleep. Crucially, the pillow is designed to be comfortable and unobtrusive, making it an ideal solution for those who want to track their sleep without disturbing their rest.

The pillow, which is outfitted with a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and sets of flexible, porous polymer triboelectric layers, is self-powered, generating electricity from the sleeper’s head movements.

While the pillow is primarily designed to track sleep quality, the scientists imagine that it could find other uses, such as monitoring patients with neck conditions or acting as an early warning system for people with sleep apnea.

Other sleep innovations spotted by Springwise include an app that uses neurofeedback for better sleep, sleepwear that protects from insect bites, and a smart mattress that encourages a better night’s sleep.

Written By: Katrina Lane

9th June 2022

Email: zhong.wang@mse.gatech.edu

Website: pubs.acs.org

Reference