Tatsuya Yamazaki discusses the goals of smart home technologies and universal cities. Past home automation efforts in the 1970s failed due to high costs and inflexibility. Current approaches focus on interface technologies that can detect human intentions, feelings, and situations, rather than full automation. This allows for services tailored to users across networks. The ubiquitous home test bed implements context-aware services using sensors and tags. The ultimate goal is a universal city extending such technologies beyond individual homes and into communities.