CIEMAS Visual Systems
The motivation behind many of the monitorable systems in CIEMAS was to help conserve energy and water resources. This goal has been accomplished by equipping the buildings and their supervisors with monitorable systems. In addition to the climate and physical systems discussed on separate pages of the website, the CIEMAS buildings also have two visual systems that contribute to its "living" design. The first visual system contributing to the friendly design of CIEMAS is the automatically controlled lighting systems installed throughout the buildings. Finally, the site of CIEMAS can be monitored at all times through an live, interactive webcam.
Lighting Systems
The
lights in the offices and laboratories throughout the CIEMAS buildings
are controlled by motion sensors similar to the one pictured to the
left. The lights are automatically turned on when the respective sensor
detects a person entering the room. In addition, the lights will automatically
be turned off when the sensor fails to perceive any motion in a room
for a pre-specified length of time. The automatically controlled lights
help to conserve energy by ensuring that lights are not left on accidentally.
For example, the motion sensors would come to the aid of a researcher
who forgot to turn off his lights before leaving for the weekend.
Although the lights in CIEMAS are all controlled by sensors, there is not central networking collecting the information from every room in the building. As a result, the building supervisor cannot log on to a computer terminal and view graphics of which lights are activated on an individual room basis. Currently, the only feedback on power usage available to building supervisors is the energy consumption for the entire site.
Webcam
From the very beginning of the CIEMAS construction project, people have been able to view the progress live on the internet. The interactive webcam provided by the Pratt School of Engineering allows viewers to pan and zoom through live streamed footage of the building site. The CIEMAS webcam can be accessed at the following URL address: http://www.pratt.duke.edu/about/webcam.php?realtime=y