A ubiquitous power management system based on environment perception

Energy conservation is an important measure to protect the environment and conserve resources. To reduce power consumption of appliances, automatic and remote controllable smart meter has become one of the most advantageous means for power energy management. By integrating several internet-of-things (IoT) technologies, this paper proposes a ubiquitous power management system, which comprises a monitoring, ubiquitous controlling, and power management modules. In the monitoring module, multiple sensors are integrated to detect ambient information, such as temperature, humidity, and foreground moving objects. For real-time video surveillance, we develop a fast foreground segmentation algorithm using parallel computation. In the ubiquitous-controlling module, the sensed datasets as decision making basis are reported to smart meters via a wireless network. Based on both environment perception and remote controlling signals, the power management module utilizes the smart meter to operate appliances automatically by specifying operation parameters or switching power supply. The proposed system was tested in a building and reduced around 35.7% power consumption, which show a significant portability and effectiveness in IoT. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.