Human Sensor Network

When attempting to increase energy efficiency in buildings, the single most influential change you can make is to the behavior of the user. This is not about changing behaviors that will cause discomfort or inconvenience, huge gains can be made by simply making people aware of the energy they waste. There is no need to […]

Retail giant Walmart recently filed a patent application mundanely titled “System And Method For A Biometric Feedback Cart Handle.” The technology is essentially a shopping cart handle that can track the heart rate, temperature, stress level and other biological characteristics of shoppers as they grip the handle of their cart when moving around a store. […]

“While sectors such as retail and manufacturing have reinvented themselves, construction seems stuck in a time warp. Global labor-productivity growth in construction has averaged only 1 percent a year over the past two decades, compared with growth of 2.8 percent for the total world economy and 3.6 percent in manufacturing,” states a recent report by […]

Siemens Building Technologies Division has completed another significant deal in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, this time with the acquisition of Comfy (previously known as Building Robotics). The Oakland, CA, based start-up is known for their building controls mobile app. The deal is the third smart building startup acquired during the German engineering conglomerate’s […]

We try to flood buildings with sensors that see, hear, and even smell the indoor environment. The gathered data can then be used to better understand the problems and opportunities a building presents. However, the approach by Boston-based firm CrowdComfort highlights the fact that we already have plenty of sensors in our buildings – the […]