A team of scientists has developed an application for cell phones that would help save power by showing the energy consumption of individual devices in the household. The application was recently unveiled at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT) in Sankt Augustin, Germany.
 
The basis for this programme is the “Hydra” middleware developed by the institute which is extended by an energy protocol.

A middleware reduces the workload of programmers. In Hydra’s case, it is reduced by administering the communication between devices. Each device is given a power plogg, which is a small adapter located between the power plug and the power outlet.

It reports the power consumption at any given time to a PC via a radio signal. People can tell which device is guzzling the most energy by taking a look at the computer monitor. But, the FIT experts have also provided a far more convenient way to access the information.

“Using a cell phone as the display and control unit allows people to check the energy consumed by their devices or appliances,” explained Dr. Markus Eisenhauer, who developed the system.

“For example, it can be used to display the consumption by room, switch devices on and off, and dim lights,” he…