SHASPA is a technology that combines wireless sensors, virtual worlds, social networking and data visualization to engage and empower individuals to save energy. It monitors energy usage through sensors and presents the data through rich media formats and 3D visualizations. This allows users to analyze and control devices from anywhere. SHASPA also connects users to share best practices for energy management and compete or collaborate through social networking platforms to collectively reduce energy usage.

1. SHASPA – EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY FOR ENERGY
SAVING
The same technologies which brought us “Guitar Hero”, “World of Warcraft” ,
Myspace and Facebook could soon be harnessed to empower a whole generation of
citizens to save energy and improve the environment. David Wortley, Director of the
Serious Games Institute (SGI) at Coventry University describes how a collaboration
between the SGI, a Swiss entrepreneur and a digital signage company has developed
next generation smart metering technology that could transform energy usage in homes
and businesses.
Virtual Visitors to the SHASPA Grid
SHASPA – Intelligent Shared Spaces
SHASPA is cocktail of emerging technologies which combines wireless sensors, virtual
worlds, social networking and data visualisation to engage, inform, empower and
motivate individuals to make significant improvements in their energy usage. It uses
low cost sensor technologies to monitor environmental factors such as temperature,
humidity etc and energy usage at appliance level. This data is then processed by the
SHASPA bridge to be presented in rich media formats, including 3D visualisation of the
home or business environment, on a desktop PC, laptop or mobile phone with tools to
analyse and control individual devices anytime, anywhere from the internet.

2. Crucially, SHASPA also connects to intelligent databases on a Grid network to help
users to individually or collectively share best practices on energy management using
the latest ideas for social networking.
SHASPA Home Energy Kit
Video Games and Virtual Worlds
One of the greatest challenges in tackling environmental issues is citizen engagement.
The apathy of the individual to crucial societal issues which, unless he or she is directly
affected, limits the effectiveness of publicity or national/international initiatives is a
great barrier to major improvements in environmental management.
Video games and virtual worlds enjoy massive commercial success which, in the case
of video games, eclipses even the movie and music industries. Virtual worlds such as
Second Life and World of Warcraft have millions of subscribers willing to spend hours
engaged in these immersive environments because of rich experiences they bring.
Increasingly, these “immersive technologies” are being applied for serious purposes to
bring benefits to the individual and society. This is why the Serious Games Institute at
Coventry University was set up in 2007 as an international centre of excellence to
explore and disseminate best practices for the serious use of immersive technologies.
Games like WiiFit from Nintendo are making physical exercise accessible and fun for
whole generations of people who would not otherwise see the inside of a gymnasium.
Online games such as Floodsim from Playgen have engaged tens of thousands of
citizens to play the role of the UK’s “Flood Tzar” and examine the impact of
environmental policy decisions on flood prevention.
These examples illustrate the power of interactive digital media not only to engage users
but also to develop their understanding, involvement in and potential contribution to
global social issues such as health and fitness and the environment. This engagement of
the individual citizen is vital to the substantial environmental changes needed over the

3. coming years and immersive environments such as video games and virtual worlds are
proving to be successful in not only attracting users but influencing their understanding,
attitudes and behaviours in important societal areas.
The main reasons why I believe this trend is likely to continue and accelerate are that :-
1. These immersive environments have increasingly impressive realism and
fidelity which makes users “believe” they are the character they are controlling
2. The constant improvements in personalisation and profiling create a game or
virtual world that is truly personal to the individual, giving a sense of genuine
identity and ownership.
The most advanced versions of SHASPA have a virtual world embedded in the
SHASPA bridge controller which could provide a 3D visualisation of the user’s home
or business.
Social Networking Applications
The other technology phenomenon which SHASPA is tapping into is the power of
social networks such as Myspace and Facebook which act as hubs to communities of
individuals who can collectively influence societal change across the globe. These
technologies, combined with mobile phones and instant messaging can be powerful
vehicles for influencing social, economic and political change.
SHASPA Social Energy Meter
One of SHASPA’s innovations is the concept of the social energy meter attached to the
SHASPA controller. This device can be manufactured to be an attractive household
lamp which has two halves. Each half of the lamp can be linked to separate data sources
to provide an easy visual comparison between the 2 sets of data. In SHASPA’s Home
Energy solution this could compare today’s energy consumption with either the average

4. daily consumption or a target consumption figure and this kind of simple, instant visual
prompting can act as a constant prompt to influence behaviour.
The Social Energy Meter could also be linked into popular social networking tools such
as Facebook, Xing or Twitter to act as a form of competition or collaboration between
groups of users who want to collectively make a difference to their energy usage. The
applications for this device are only limited by the imagination of the users.
3D Data Visualisation
Lack of energy consumption and other environmental information at a granular level
also limits both the ability and involvement of the individual to make substantial
improvements in their own environment. Quarterly energy bills do not help individuals
to understand or manage energy usage in the home or office. This is evidenced by the
impact of simple smart meters which compare usage day by day, week by week and
month by month and can typically improve energy consumption by around 10%, simply
because these are tools which quickly show the impact of any behavioural changes.
Existing smart meters are somewhat limited because they typically only show the
energy consumption for a whole property and do not provide sufficient granular detail
to know where the biggest savings can be made at appliance level.
Daden’s Datascape Control Room
Another important factor in the SHASPA solution is the ability to visualise live data
from multiple sources in 3 dimensions. An excellent example of this application in an
environmental context is the Datascape control room developed by Birmingham
consultancy Daden Ltd. The virtual control room was developed in Second Life to show
many sample applications including sea temperatures and environmental data feeds over
the web.

5. SHASPA is already being used to visualise energy consumption and load balancing of
mainframe server farms where a number of geographically separated mainframes can be
visually aggregated in a single virtual room, providing a far richer and more easily
managed control environment than previous solutions.
The SHASPA Grid
The SHASPA home energy solution has a spectrum of options from a simple smart
metering solutions that provides energy consumption data monitoring to a virtual world
controller linked to an intelligent grid network.
The SHASPA Grid
The SHASPA Home Energy solution (www.shaspa.com) is the first application of this
cocktail of emerging technologies to target energy consumption but the technology
architecture and the way it is being developed has almost unlimited environmental
applications because it can process and aggregate environmental sensor data of any kind
to allow it to be visualised, analysed, monitored and controlled through the power of
collective intelligence and tools which genuinely involve and engage the individual
citizen.
David Wortley is Director of the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University
(www.seriousgamesinstitute.co.uk).