# Industrial-Grade Edge Computing Device for Smart Furniture Products
## 3 Existing Product and Future Product Requirements/Criteria  
An ideal electrical or electronic device can be connected to an external power source all the time and is not affected by the climate and mechanical restrictions of the place it is installed in. A real device needs to be thoughtfully conceived, designed, and constructed to meet all restrictions imposed by the design and other elements. As presented in [15], a need for design changes and possible standardization for the acceptance of information communication technology (ICT) components into furniture units has been brought to researchers' attention. This standardization will be one of the key points in this paper, as it enables manufacturers to rely on a single mechanical design. In papers [13; 21], the authors propose adapting a product from an existing furniture manufacturer to include information technology (IT) elements, making the furniture smart in the way that it uses numerous functionalities to reduce human effort and increase quality of life by offering new IT and convenient functionalities. The foundation for this smart furniture is contextually connected to the smart home, smart device, and smart environment concepts. The authors of [14; 21] identified some of the key characteristics for smart furniture to be accepted as a new product. Some of these characteristics correspond to the restrictions stipulated in the introduction and can help steer future designers in creating a more refined product. These characteristics were functionality, design, safety in \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c|c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & Year & & & & & \\  & 2010 & 2011 & 2012 & 2013 & 2014 & 2015 & 2016 & 2017 & 2018 & 2019 & 2020 \\ \hline Jan & 55 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 27 & 42 & 45 & 29 & 41 & 81 \\ Feb & 0 & 0 & 18 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 46 & 27 & 64 & 84 & 70 \\ Mar & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 17 & 26 & 15 & 85 & 76 & 71 \\ Apr & 54 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 75 & 89 & 56 & 68 \\ May & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 17 & 41 & 81 & 79 & 50 & 59 \\ Jun & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 15 & 50 & 44 & 25 & 44 \\ Jul & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 33 & 0 & 65 & 66 & 62 & 52 \\ Aug & 0 & 24 & 0 & 0 & 27 & 15 & 0 & 55 & 26 & 53 & 79 \\ Sep & 0 & 0 & 27 & 0 & 29 & 11 & 40 & 57 & 67 & 43 & 50 \\ Oct & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 13 & 40 & 79 & 87 & 75 & 52 \\ Nov & 0 & 0 & 49 & 0 & 24 & 33 & 25 & 47 & 100 & 55 & 56 \\ Dec & 0 & 22 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 26 & 39 & 70 & 66 & 45 & 45 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Heatmap presenting values of Google Trends’ “Home IoT” keyword usage in period 2010–2020. use, customization, and structural design. The proposed products were various systems on a chip with elaborated communication modules to assure affordable connectivity solutions and integration with personal mobile devices. The key requirements were simplicity and a product at a proof-of-concept level. The ESP32 platform was chosen for initial prototyping due its following qualities:  
- Versatile Connectivity Options:  
ESP32 is equipped with integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth/Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) capabilities, making it ideal for seamless communication between furniture components and external devices. This hybrid connectivity allows ESP32 to act as a standalone system or as a secondary device interfacing with other systems via SPI, SDIO, I2C, or UART interfaces [22]. - Cost-Effectiveness:  
The affordability of ESP32 makes it an attractive choice for proof-of-concept development. Ready-to-use ESP32 development boards are available at approximately USD 6 per unit, significantly cheaper than alternatives like Nordic Semiconductor's nRF52840 (USD 20) or STM32 microcontrollers (USD 5-USD 30) [23] as shown in Table 4.  
- Energy Efficiency:  
ESP32 is engineered for ultra-low power consumption, making it suitable for battery-operated smart furniture designs. It features fine-grained clock gating, dynamic power scaling, and multiple sleep modes (light sleep, deep sleep, hibernation) [D].