Our hardware implementation includes wireless
switches and wireless power outlets. As far
as wireless outlets are concerned, there was similar
research done, for example, in [6, 7], and
there are commercial products; some can be
purchased online. However, current products
work fine with static bindings; that is, a remote
control (switch or hand-held terminal) is designated
to govern a fixed set of outlets or sockets
for powering appliances. While the products are
considered convenient, our implementation
allows flexible binding adjustment and would
thus serve users better. Furthermore, an elaborate
design was realized in our wireless outlets
that sense the load current of each socket, learning
whether the plugged-in appliance is left on
standby. If so, the socket shuts off electricity
provision. Note that Han et al. [4] devised a useful
type of a remote-controllable outlet for automatic
standby power cutoff. Han et al.’s wireless
outlets operate under command of the user or
coordinator without generating reverse feedbacks.
In comparison, our wireless outlet is bidirectional;
our outlet is capable of reporting
electricity usage statistics to a console periodically
for smart metering. Besides, in our architecture
the threshold standby power consumption is
learned in a self-reliant manner, as opposed to
being done semi-automatically as in [4].