IoT Heroes: Kinestral develops OpenThread smart windows to save energy

Latest update time：2021-08-31 12:37

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Our latest IoT Heroes interviews Craig Henricksen, VP of Marketing at Kinestral Technologies, a natural light application and management company based in Hayward, California. Kinestral perfected the smart window experience after designing electrochromic glass technology, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and the OpenThread wireless protocol to continuously adjust natural light within buildings and homes. Based on the Silicon Labs Wireless Gecko wireless SoC solution, this smart window can help reduce the overall energy consumption of buildings by 20%, which is an amazing achievement for any type of product. Below, Craig will share how his company got started, how the smart window technology works, and potential future applications.

Craig Henricksen, Vice President of Marketing, Kinestral Technologies

How did the idea for smart windows come about ?

Craig: In 2010, our two founders, both successful at other materials companies, had each created disruptive technologies. Howard Turner, now Kinestral’s CTO, who has a PhD in chemistry, and Sam Bergh, our COO, who has a PhD in engineering, saw that their combined expertise was a good fit for a class of products called electrochromic technology. This process creates a smart window by applying voltage or electrical pulses to a material to create a chemical reaction and control the light passing through a substrate. At the time, the technology had been around for more than 20 years, but several drawbacks limited its market adoption.

Of course, price is an issue, but the main reason has to do with performance. Previous smart window technologies tended to be yellow and/or honey-colored in their transparent state, and then when they were tinted, the glass turned blue and/or purple. The tinting process was also slow, typically taking 30-40 minutes. When I started working at the company five years ago, I realized that the founders had spent the first five years of the company perfecting the material. When I joined, they showed me a piece of glass that looked like regular glass in its transparent state, but it quickly turned to a cool gray. Since then, we have focused on commercializing this technology.

What is the current market application status of smart window products ?

Craig: Halio is a smart tinted glass based on advanced electrochromic technology that is controlled through building automation systems, home automation systems, smartphone apps, or our Halio dashboard. We built a cloud infrastructure system to further control the building and glass environment through artificial intelligence. The window looks like natural glass, but when the sun is a little too hot or too bright, it takes on a cool gray shade. We have been shipping Halio products from our pilot plant in Hayward for 4 years. We have a new large-scale production facility that can produce 5 million square feet of glass per year, which has been in production for the past year and a half.

How do you differentiate your products from your competitors ?

Craig: Halio offers aesthetic differentiation, such as how we remove a lot of unwanted color in both clear and tinted states. We have 60 patents and the glass is tinted 10 times faster than the competition and more uniformly because we invested in a production process that allows color to be distributed across any size panel. Being cloud-based reduces the need for built-in infrastructure. Another major differentiator is our high-volume production process.

Who are the main customers of smart window products ?

Craig: Our products are currently sold in over 30 countries and we have many commercial and residential customers. One of our largest customers is a real estate investment trust in Southern California. We also have a strategic partnership with AGC Corporation, the world’s largest glass manufacturer.

What are the main drivers for customers to purchase smart window products ?

Craig: When I first started at Kinestral, I thought it was all about energy efficiency. But for the early movers in energy-efficient buildings, they were already using LEED building standards to improve energy use. Interestingly, the biggest driver we saw among customers was the comfort of natural light—the connection to the outdoors and the people inside. This building experience was the primary reason for adoption. The energy benefits certainly made the product more appealing, but energy savings were not the primary reason for initial consumer purchases.

How do smart windows actually work ?

Craig: Rather than being blinded by the light when it rises, Halio AI can predict when the sun will rise based on building location, time of day, sun angle, and other factors. People inside don’t have to do anything to adjust the light and can still enjoy the sunlight coming through the windows, but at a comfortable level of tint — regardless of whether it’s hot or glaring. Throughout the day, as the light outside changes, the window shades automatically adjust to keep people comfortable inside.

Aside from the color, dynamic glass is no different than traditional glass, but it is a little harder to see inside. Many customers also use this glass for indoor glass conference rooms, which can be hand-tinted based on privacy needs.

How do Silicon Labs ' wireless solutions fit into your products ?

Craig: In our Halio product, we use the Silicon Labs Wireless Gecko wireless SoC series solution. Our design team has a deeper understanding of Silicon Labs after working in other companies.

Initially, our product was based on the Thread wireless protocol, but we have now moved to OpenThread. The design resources that Silicon Labs provides and the ability to support the protocol are important to us. All of our units must communicate with each other wirelessly, and Silicon Labs provides the underlying mesh network to make it all happen. Our system has many nodes, and when you put the infrastructure into a building, you need to be confident that you will not run into connectivity or debugging issues.

Did you encounter any design challenges while designing the product ?

Craig: The two big issues are low power and robustness of the mesh network itself. We move most of the heavy lifting to the cloud, but we push instructions down to the individual nodes, which must be smart enough to follow instructions (and have enough processing power). At the same time, the nodes must be low power and have a strong wireless connection. We provide these key features with Silicon Labs' Wireless Gecko.

Do you expect climate change to affect your future development ?

Craig: As we dug deeper into the product, we realized we could make a big impact on the living environment. What other building product can save 10-15% energy simply by installing glass? Not only do we offer a great product, but we contribute to sustainability. Smart glass is a better way to design buildings, and anyone who has been in a naturally lit building can attest that you can feel the difference immediately, contributing to a better place to live and work.

The commercial market is ripe for the taking and it's easier for us because competitors have educated the market before we get in. But we're seeing a lot of excitement in the residential market - people see glass and want it in their kitchens and homes. Another market that's coming up is transportation, like cars, planes and trains.

What do you think the future holds for IoT in the next 5-8 years ?

Craig: You often hear about the trend of using technology to build personalized applications. I have been in marketing for 15 years. Humans need personalization, but we have all had this experience, sitting next to someone who has a different temperature distribution than us, that person may feel too hot or too cold, or the room may be too bright or too dark, and then we can solve the problem of personalization through IoT technology, making the cost demand for personalized space utilization lower.

So I think we will see more personalized space technology being proposed in the future to create applications that make everyone feel comfortable. This technology exists now, but there are still some integration challenges.

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