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SmartHome Tap

The SmartTap allows for touchless temperature and pressure control, of any fitted water faucet. It also implements water monitoring for more environmentally and financially savvy living. In addition to this, the SmartTap caters to the needs of elderly and disabled persons and supports the initiative allowing and encouraging Australia’s aging population to live in their homes for longer.

Touchless Design:
The SmartTap uses four active, reflectance, infrared (IR) sensors to sense reflected IR energy (from a central LED) to convert physical motion information to digital information. The recognised gestures are as follows - Up, Down, Right, Left and Near/Far. These gestures result in an executed command sent to the respective electromechanical valves (shown in the table below). This allows for easy, non-exertive touchless control of both pressure and temperature.

Gesture

Up

Down

Right

Left

Near/Far

Command

Increase Pressure

Decrease Pressure

Increase Temperature

Decrease Temperature

Turn tap on/off

Water Monitoring:
The SmartTap also monitors the user’s water usage. This information is sent to the SmartHome SmartHome Server and WebApp (optional). This allows the user to track their water usage and compare their usage to other SmartHome SmartTap users.

Catering to the elderly:
According to Dr Susan Levy (Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, Yale School of Medicine), some common ailments of older individuals are:

This touchless design caters to the elderly in the following ways:

SmartHome Tap
Easy hands free operation of faucet.

This project is being undertaken by UQ ITEE student Nicole Weston under the supervision of Dr Alex Pudmenzky.

UQ SmartCampus