Bluetooth gas alert tipped for explosive success

A rainy walk is responsible for a winning design by Canterbury University research engineer Dr Nicholas Pau. His idea for a bluetooth device to alert customers of low LPG bottle levels was a finalist in the annual global Bluetooth Innovation World Cup 2010.

The proposed device, called Refill Alert, was one of 270 innovations submitted from around the world. It was announced winner of the home automation category in December last year. The overall winner, to be announced in Munich next month, will receive prizes valued at USD$50,000.

Dr Pau said the idea came from a former workplace requiring inconveniently regular gas bottle-monitoring. “We were supposed to check it every week but that involved walking right around the building.”

The devicewould alert people to refill bottles or about potential leaks by sending a message via Bluetooth to other devices such as cellphones and laptops. Bluetooth’s limitations would limit the message sending distance to within the house. However, Dr Pau said a message centre in a smart-home could send an text or email to an external device, or even direct to the gas supplier. “You might not know [it had been replaced] until you got the bill in the mail.”

Due to gas’ highly combustible nature, the monitor design would be innovative because it needs to operate safely in the bottle’s proximity. High power signal transmission would not be possible.

Dr Pau is a research engineer at the Canterbury University-based Wireless Research Centre. The centre is a multi-year, multi-million dollar association between the university and ICT exporters Tait Electronics.

Centre director Fred Samandari said the finalist placing was a wonderful success. “As one of the three finalists from each of the three competition categories, our concept was presented in November in Germany at electronica 2010, the world’s largest trade fair for components, systems and applications. According to the statistics, 2595 companies participated at that event and approximately 70,000 participants had an opportunity to get introduced to our proposal.”

Dr Pau has already been in contact with the research and innovation team at Canterbury University to explore ways to promote and commercialise the product.