You may be out but a smart plug on a wall socket at home will keep you updated on the amount of energy consumed by the air-conditioner you left on via a mobile app.
Developed by local SME Intraix and the Institute for Infocomm Research at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), the smart plug, to be commercialised by the end of this year, could help users save electricity.
The three-pin gadget acts as a "middleman" between the wall socket and the appliance, said Dr Henry Wong, head of the Smart Energy and Environment Department at the institute.
Users insert the smart plug into the wall socket before connecting an electrical device to it. The plug then allows users to monitor the device's electricity consumption via a mobile app, and even switch the device off remotely.
It took six months to develop and is now being fine-tuned. Intraix co- founder Darrell Zhang said the smart plug is about 20 to 30 per cent cheaper than similar devices costing about $50 to $80. He said: "Other smart plugs are very expensive. That's why we thought, why not work with the Institute for Infocomm Research to come up with a cost-effective product of high quality?"
In the partnership, Dr Wong and the team provided expertise in areas such as the selection of electronic parts for the plug, and gave advice on product development.
He said: "Many SMEs are looking for ways in which they can differentiate their services and products from competitors' but, more often than not, they lack the research and development capabilities to do so."
Apart from being cost-effective, the smart plug can be customised to work with different wireless communication networks.
Professor Tan Sze Wee, executive director of the Science and Engineering Research Council at A*Star, said the possibilities are immense in the Internet of Things (IoT) - the network of devices which are linked to the Internet or to one another.
"IoT technologies allow us to make sense of the world around us digitally and in a non-intrusive manner as they tend to work silently in the background," he added.
