Columbus State University associate professor of computer science Lydia Ray presented a prototype of a self-locking mailbox that could someday flag down delivery drones and intelligently screen driveways for intruders during an October session at the annual IEEE Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics, and Mobile Communication Conference in New York City.

Called the ADDSMART project, Ray’s prototype aims to achieve two goals: clearly marking addresses for delivery vehicles, and reducing the energy and data storage costs of home surveillance systems. An early prototype mailbox attachment suggests that the trick, in both cases, may be radio-frequency identification.

“I have always been fascinated by the tremendous potential of sensors and RFID technology for creating different types of products that can provide a wide variety of services,” said Ray. “I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to implement one of my ideas and have a dedicated student like Jonathan (Tew) whose hard work made this project successful.”

Jonathan Ross Tew (M.S. ’16), a former graduate student in CSU’s TSYS School of Computer Science, worked closely with Ray on the project.

Watch a demo of the ADDSMART project on YouTube at https://youtu.be/cijpQXyFr1M.