The Seat Seeker

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  User interface of Seat Seeker Beta

Inspiration

On University campuses, the practice of space heating accounts for 28% of total energy use. Furthermore, while examining the lived experience of university students it appears that a opportunity for engineering design manifests in the communication of available seating. This intersection of objectives has lead to the design of the seat seeker.

Many modern smart thermostat systems are designed for use in low occupancy areas such as the home. Such designs utilize a motion sensor which, in a setting with more individuals, does not provide much value.

This design materializes in three parts, first as IoT modules situated near chairs containing a temperature sensor and a button. The if the button is depressed then it indicates that something is on the chair. Given this, the temperature sensor can determine if the cause for depression is human or an object (such as a backpack). This is then used to determine which seats are available within particular seating area. This information is then communicated to prospective students within the Seat Seeker application. Finally, the number of occupied seats can be used as a metric for occupancy within a room. This metric can then be used to adjust the space heating. Based on large occupancy, heating can be reduced (the space is heated by human body heat), based on moderate occupancy the heating can be left on. Finally based on low occupancy for a prolonged period, the heating can be reduced.

Typical space management systems involve data collection on the large scale (per hour blocks, signing out spaces for days)

What it does

The Seat Seeker is a space management device which is intended to be used by large organizations (such as a university) to collect data on occupancy information within their facilities. The Occupancy of a room is determined by two metrics, the presence of something or someone on a seat and a temperature reading on the seat.

How we built it

Using the TELUS LTE-M IoT Starter Kit we send data to an IBM-watson service where it is then processed. The processed data informs the space managers of which areas are in high use. This device can then be used for real-time availability communication, forecasting of space management requirements (such as heating) and better space management organization.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge we ran into was understanding and working with the IoT kit.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The creation of the app in such a short period of time, the idea and steps leading to it, and the integration of IoT to a administrative problem.

What we learned

IoT is complex, but powerful.

What's next for The Seat Seeker

The Seat Seeker has promise in space management for industry such as restaurants, transit and corporations involved in design. The incentive for this application is potential savings for renting of space.

Built With

• ibm-watson
• telus-lte-m-iot-starter-kit