A paper titled "At the Flick of a Switch: Detecting and ClassifyingUnique Electrical Events on the Residential Power Line," written byCollege of Computing Graduate Students Shwetak N. Patel and Julie A.Kientz, along with Research Scientist Thomas Robertson, Senior ResearchScientist Matthew Reynolds and Professor Gregory Abowd, has won theBest Paper Award at the 9th International Conference on UbiquitousComputing (Ubicomp 2007), held in Innsbruck, Austria, on September16-19, 2007.

Shwetak N. Patel also received the Best Presentation Award at Ubicomp 2007 for his presentation of the paper.

"In the last 10 years, there has been a growing community ofresearchers who try to detect activities based on simpler sensing[methods] than a camera. The problem with most of these approaches isthat you have to attach sensors to lots of people, places and things,"said Adowd. Such a problem is solved by a solution presented in thepaper.

The approach developed by the group uses a single plug-in sensor todetect events such as turning on or off a particular light switch, atelevision set, or an electric stove. According to the paper'sabstract, activity-sensing in the home has applications for research inareas including healthcare, entertainment, home automation, and homeenergy monitoring.

According to the Ubicomp 2007 website, the conference series"provides the premier forum in which to present research results in allareas relating to the design, implementation, application andevaluation of ubiquitous computing technologies, bringing togetherleading researchers from a variety of disciplines and geographicalareas who are exploring the frontiers of computing as it moves beyondthe desktop and becomes increasingly interwoven into the fabrics of ourlives."