Intriguing EU-funded R&D projects were described at the European Nanoelectronics Forum 2010 in Madrid this week.
Romano Hoffman from NXP described the Pasteur project which has developed sensors for determining and monitoring the shelf-life of products.
The sensors monitor temperature, humidity, pH, O2, CO2 and ethylene.
Pasteur aims to develop a disposable sensor tag which measures all these, and incorporates a thin film battery, a microprocessor and a read-out via RFID
A witty development by Infineon was described by Werner Weber. Apparently 25% of domestic electricity consumption could be saved if TVs were turned off when no one was looking at them.
So Infineon has developed a product which can sense if there’s anyone in the room and switch the TV off if there isn’t. By adding a camera, even if there’s someone in the room, it is possible to tell if he/she has their eyes closed. If the eyes are closed the TV switches itself off.