The potential for pressure sensitive mats to provide a means for ambient well-being sensing and assessment when placed within beds or chairs has been widely studied although many mats have limitations in capability and cost. This paper presents the results for a novel pressure sensitive mat that combines an Infrared (IR) based emitter/detector proximity sensor device with a flexible gel material (Hexyoo Scientific Inc. Opus Gel). The performance results for a bench prototype sensor that combines layers of gel that have differing colour and structure properties with the sensors is shown. Specifically, the step response of the prototype is analyzed for step-up and step-down loads representing a pressure range typical for human body pressures. The results show that the frequency response for the two cases are both low-pass in nature and that the frequency response for the step-down response is a loss of 10dB at 6Hz while the step-up response is narrower with a 10dB loss at 2Hz. This bandwidth is sufficient to allow assessment of human motions with the sensor, while also using significantly simpler and lower cost technology compared to previously reported fibre optic mats.

Energy storage is a novel technology with perceived performance and lifecycle risks. In addition, there are many different business/regulatory paradigms for investors in storage resources based on existing business models for electric power assets today. At the heart of designing storage applications for best cost-benefit results and for evaluating storage economics of particular applications is the way different business models realize direct monetized benefits and indirect avoided costs from energy storage. This paper unpacks the complexities of deploying and operating energy storage and identifies any potential barriers to participation in storage. It lays out some of the existing and hypothetical business models for the investment in and operation of electric storage, and explores the complexities and possibilities of these business models when storage is bucketed” as a generation, transmission, distribution, or customer asset. It also identifies possible policy recommendations and areas for further analysis, including some alternative models that consider storage as a unique asset class that offers services offered by other assets today.