A new proposal for my master thesis.

1. Context Awareness in a
Smart Home
Robin De Croon
(@robindecroon & robindecroon.wordpress.com)
Advisor dr. Sten Govaerts
Supervisor prof. Erik Duval

2. Current situation
• Smart homes already exist!
o Most of the time  pressing buttons
• A lot of information!
o Difficult to use
o No real use for this information
o Avoid pressing buttons
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3. Awareness  Data
• Location
• Temperature
• Light
• Gestures
• Who uses what when and where?
• Some data is easy to gather  already lots of sensors
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4. Self-Reflection  Questions
• Visualize all the data in an easy way
• New possibilities?
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5. Sense-making  Answers
• Reject calls when inappropriate (meeting, sleeping, …)
• Heat home, rooms (bath room) at usual time
• Light path to toilet, when night
• Phones only ring in rooms where the addressee is actually present, preventing other people being
disturbed by useless ringing
• allow family members to speak to each other as if they were in the same room, even when they are in
different rooms
• Alarm when unauthorized persons in the home
• The right music in the right room
• Help searching keys, phone, …
• Block dangerous locations when there is no parent around
• Recognize sleep patterns,
• Lights, chairs and tables automatically adjust as
• soon as the family gathers in the living room to watch TV.
• In assisted living complexes, context-aware systems monitor the state of the elderly occupants
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6. Impact  Change behavior
• Apply suggested setting
• Change living behavior
• Reduce energy bill
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7. Quote
• (Internet Home Alliance 2002) show that the most appealing aspect of
the connected home is the time-saving associated with the ability to control
a variety of devices in the house. The least appealing aspect is the
presumption that the technology will be too complicated.
• What if…
The house could learn all that complicated stuff by itself?
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