Categories
A tiny electronic device that could be used to power smart home devices, smart lights, smart cameras and smart refrigerators is on course to reach market within a few years.
The German startup FUSE has just launched a crowdfunding campaign to build the first FUSE-based smart thermostat and has already raised $6 million from over 100,000 people.
The company, which describes itself as “a small team of scientists and engineers from the FUSE Institute”, has already secured funding from Germany’s Ministry of Industry and Innovation.FUSE has developed the Fuse-P, which is based on an open-source design that allows the FUS-T2 to be embedded in a standard thermostatic circuit.
The chip could be made to work with standard thermoset refrigerators and other appliances that use an open circuit, or it could also be used in an electric vehicle that uses an open power supply.
The chip’s power consumption is less than the power consumed by an average light bulb, the researchers claim.FUS-P is designed to work on a variety of different applications, such as energy conservation and lighting, and can be configured to either automatically turn on or off based on a user’s schedule.
The FUSE team says the Fusarium-P has an efficiency of up to 60% and a lifespan of up the life of the device.
It has a built-in timer that can be programmed to turn on when it senses a temperature rise and off when the temperature falls.
The researchers have also created a custom firmware that can control the Fuses-P’s temperature, and it can also be controlled remotely.
Fusarium’s founder Markus Bühler told Engadge that the project aims to create an open source chip that can operate in a range of different scenarios.
He added that FUSE’s FUS team is currently in the process of building an additional version of the FUs-P that can communicate with an external sensor.
According to the FOS website, FUS’s research team is also currently working on a thermostator that can change its temperature remotely using a smartphone app.
Bühler said that while it’s too early to know what the Fussarium-p’s capabilities will be, he believes that the chip could make it into a range-of-use device that can save energy for users.
“It could also become an appliance, where we can control it via smartphone apps, which could save energy,” he said.
“If the Fsarium-Ps thermostats are able to make use of the open circuit it can be used with existing appliances and they can control them remotely, they could save more energy.”
