SMART HOMES 1.

0 INTRODUCTION Information and communication technology (ICT) has recently been relocated from an external entity brought into the home, to an internal feature of the domestic environment extending the range of the home beyond the bricks and mortar (Dewsbury and Edge 2001). Electronic Smart Homes Technology makes Home life easier, more comfortable and saves energy. Discover Smart Home Control idea's and tips from an expert Home Control Design and installation company. Home is more than just a shelter. Its where we plant gardens and put down roots. Entertain friends and celebrate family. Where we take off our coats and stay a long, long while. The design and specification of our properties utilizes traditional materials and workmanship combined with the latest developments in modern technology and styling. The concept of smart homes places the technology within the residence in order to increase functionality, security and quality of life. A smart home enables monitoring of residents with different levels of sophistication of the technology, ranging from stand-alone intelligent devices to wired homes that adapt to or even proactively address residents needs. Here are some pictures shows the structured of designed smart homes. The photos below are of a Universal Designed home designed by Mr. Schwab. It was built in Bristol CT. and completed in 2008.
The front Entry foyer is open to the family room, notice the wood none slip floors.

This UD/Accessible home was recently completed in CT.

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The kitchen is fully accessible for the 3 kids that use wheelchairs. Notice the various counter heights and serving bar at a lower height for seated users.

The Dining room has an abundance of natural light, even on this snowy winters day. Decorating is still in progress.

This report will focus on two parts. The first part is to discover in-depth analysis of the technologys benefits and also the drawbacks. The second part, we will find people whose will get benefits of the application of smart homes in society. In this part also, we will go through the issues and problems of the smart homes application. Finally, based on our gain in the process of providing this report, we will make a conclusion.

SMART HOMES 2.0 IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE TECHNOLOGY Smart homes technology is still new in the current market. In this first part, we will make a research to discover the benefits and also the drawbacks of smart homes technology. 2.1 SMART HOME BENEFITS There are a lot of benefits and advantages we could get from smart homes technology. This is supported by Mr. Schwab (2003) which describes smart homes as homes that are adaptable to your family's changing needs over generations and provide independent living, energy savings and peace of mind. Similarly, as stated by Edmonds (March 2008), smart home obviously have the ability to make life easier, more convenient and also provide peace of mind. Whether you're at work or on vacation, the smart home will alert you to what's going on, and security systems can be built to provide an immense amount of help in an emergency. For example, not only would a resident be woken with notification of a fire alarm, the smart home would also unlock doors, dial the fire department and light the path to safety.... Smart homes provide some energy efficiency savings. Because systems like Z-Wave and ZigBee put some devices at a reduced level of functionality, they can go to "sleep" and wake up when commands are given. Electric bills go down when lights are automatically turned off when a person leaves the room, and rooms can be heated or cooled based on who's there at any given moment. Kassim said, one smart home owner boasted her heating bill was about one-third less than a same-sized normal home. Some devices can track how much energy each appliance is using and command it to use less. (Edmonds, 2008) Smart homes can be useful in enhancing the quality of life for people whose life is limited by their domestic environment. The design process is something that requires needs to be considered within a framework of barrier free design. However, technology for technologys sake like inappropriate design can be debilitating and disempowering. It also considers that the design of smart homes for people with disabilities requires the designer to undertake a number of key decisions to remedy the mismatch between need and technology. (Dewsbury, Taylor & Edge 2001) Edmonds, (2008) said that smart homes technology promises tremendous benefits for an elderly person living alone. Smart homes could notify the resident when it was time to take medicine, alert the hospital if the resident fell and track how much the resident was eating. If the elderly person was a little forgetful, the smart home would perform tasks such as shutting off the water before a tub overflowed or turning off the oven if the cook had wandered away. A source by Venkatesh stated that one builder estimates that this system could cost $20,000, 3

SMART HOMES which is less expensive than a full-time nursing home. It also allows adult children who might live elsewhere to participate in the care of their aging parent. Easy-to-control automated systems would provide similar benefits to those with disabilities or a limited range of movement.

This picture is come from Edmonds (2008) in her article entitled How Smart Homes Work shows that with smart home security, parents can calm down from worrying about their babies safety because they can check on their little one from anywhere. Nevertheless, Edmonds (2008) also added that pets can benefit from smart home technology as well. Here's a sample of automated products for man's best friend:

Devices that stop a dogs barking by emitting ultrasonic tones. Feeders that give your pet a preset amount of food at three selected times per day. Pet carriers that automatically heat or cool your pet as the temperature changes.

2.2 SMART HOMES DRAWBACKS 4

SMART HOMES We have go through some benefits of smart homes technology which have make us impressed with the abilities, but at the same times, we cant denied that there are exist some drawbacks of this technology. Dewsbury et al., 2001 stated that there are two different smart home technology systems, the EIB (European Installation Bus) field bus and X10. Allen and Dillon (1997) compares a number of differing bus line technologies and concludes that there are significant differences between EIB and X10 in terms of suitability for use with people with disabilities. They stated that there are different benefits we could get from each system. However, they said that there are also drawbacks will come forward. They described one major drawback of the EIB bus is that the technology has so far only been applied in great measure to the twisted pair medium. This implies that if an existing home is to receive an EIB bus a certain amount of re-wiring will need to take place. While, X10 has the following major drawbacks:-Technology is propriety and unavailable to third parties -Limited On/Off type protocol with no possibilities for improvement. (Dewsbury et al., 2001, p.138) Bierhoff et al. agreed that wireless technologies have clear drawbacks when applied to the smart home environment. Among the drawbacks, clearly safety and security cant reach the levels which can be obtained with wired networks, deterministic response times are not possible and RF emissions might cause some user concern. They also stated that a recent research had been conducted by Fellbaum on 1999, van Berlo on 1999 and Flikkema on 1997 to investigate spread spectrum techniques in the 2.4 GHz range which allow a protected transmission to solve the security problem. They are robust against sinus- and noise-like disturbance sources and wall reflections and they avoid crosstalk effects between the different RF channels. There is only a serious problem if a microwave oven is used. This device produces a wide band disturbance signal which can easily blot out the control and communication signals, even if the oven is carefully shielded.

In the other hand, Littlewood stated that some may feel that the drawbacks of systems that measure heat loss or gain when opening or closing a door or window could be that inhabitants might begin to exhibit "prisoner behavior" by restricting their trips outdoors. And 5

SMART HOMES some old-fashioned folks may really miss such household chores as washing dishes, vacuuming and ironing.

3.0 APPLICATION IN SOCIETY

SMART HOMES Based on the benefits that we could see at part 2.1, we can say that there are a lot of benefits of smart homes technology. Then, in this part we will discover who actually will get much benefit from smart homes application in the society. Besides, we also will try to understand issues and problems that will come out in the future by applying this technology to the societys daily life. 3.1 WHO BENEFITTS? According to Home Toys Inc. (2008), the smart home is not ideal for everyone. Also, if you live with other people, it is a good idea to consider them too before you start altering their home. In the article, Home Toys Inc. also added that there are some types of people who will hardly appreciate the smart home: Technophobes those intimidated by new technologies Those who find it hard to adjust to changes or to learn new things Those who dont care too much about their earthly surroundings (the more

spiritual

people) On the other hand, Dewsbury et al. (2001) condemn that whilst other European countries such as Germany and Sweden have embraced the technology for its environmental and functional properties, the UK has been slow to adopt smart home technology except as a toy for the rich and famous. Part of the reason for the lack of adoption is that the technology has not been entirely marketed the domestic sectors, as higher profits exist within the large commercial contracts. Correspondingly, the cost of the technology has tended to reflect its use in large-scale commercial projects, where profit levels can be much higher than in mass housing markets. Clear evidence suggests that smart home technology has a role within the household where its usage can extend beyond the plaything of the rich into the area of enabling and empowering people how have disabilities or older people.

3.2 THE SMART HOMES ISSUES BY APPLYING IN SOCIETY 7

SMART HOMES There are a lot of issues we could get from the application smart homes in society. There are: 3.2.0 PRIVACY According to Edmond (March 2008),the smart home can become a weapon for existing conflicts in the house. He stated that parents may choose to install web cameras around the house and they can see whats going on when they are away from their children. This situation can make their privacy at home will be denied. So where they can get their privacy except from their homes. It also can make the relationship between parents and their daughter can be bad because their daughter do not have any privacy in social live. This situation will happen because at their homes it have video cameras, door sensors (which when recorded can tell parents when their kids came back last night) stated from Edmonds (March 2008). 3.2.1 EFFECTS ON THE FAMILY According to Mostoller, Corbin, Gilbert, Sichol, Cope & Robinson (1996), they stated that, how the family interaction will be affected by this change in environment. They stated that with the technology from smart home it will affected the communication and relationship between families will decrease. It happens because every management at the smart home does not managed by them but from robotics. According to them, they stated that, an example the Home TEAM web site (General Overview 1996) provided a scenario in which a parent and a friend chose to watch a movie, and while doing so, the child appeared on the screen asking for permission to spend the night with a playmate. 3.2.2 DIFFICULTY FOR SOME PEOPLE TO OPERATE According to Edmonds (March 2008),smart homes is very difficult to operate but may be easier to start with a very basic home network and expand as enhancements are needed or desired. However, there's some concern that with the market so new, technologies are developing all the time, sometimes leaving old versions of products useless. Edmonds (March 2008) added that smart homes come with some security concerns means that who access the network will have the ability to turn off alarm systems and lights, leaving the home vulnerable to a break-in, or the theft could be more electronic. If music is saved on a hard drive so that it can be played around the house, make sure that sensitive information, such as passwords or identifying numbers, are saved else where. So, people who want to use this technology must have good attitude and must know how to handle this application.

SMART HOMES 3.2.3 WILL MAKE SOCIETY SO LAZY Edmonds (March 2008) also stated that this technology will make people in society will have a bad attitude like lazy. This situation happened because every works in the home not doing by people but it is doing automatically by the system and robot in smart home.

3.3 THE SMART HOMES PROBLEMS BY APPLYING IN SOCIETY

SMART HOMES According to Tiresias.Org (2008), there are many problems by applying smart homes in society especially to children, elderly people and who do not know anything about the smart home or technology. There are: 3.3.0 VISUALLY IMPAIRED It means people who have problem to see clearly will be unable to receive graphical information and use a touch screen and read text on a screen or read printed matter. They also are difficult to use switches and controls and also to handle manuals because they have difficulty to handle it. So to provide this problem they must using numeric keypads to make their work easier. 3.3.1 HEARING IMPAIRED It means people who have problems to hear the instruction clearly. They will be unable to receive audio information, understand speech and use speech as an input method. This information is very important to help them to locate equipment. 3.3.2 PHYSICALLY IMPAIRED It means people especially children and elderly have a problems to use the tools of smart home such they have difficulty to use switches and controls it and also to touch screen and handle the manuals. 3.3.3 COGNITIVELY IMPAIRED It means people with be unable to handle pointing devices and understand speech.So,when they try to locate and access equipment, use switches, numeric keypads ,touch screens and also try to handle manuals and read printed matter, it is so difficult to them. They also have problems to read text on a screen, use speech as an input method and receive graphical and audio information.

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SMART HOMES 3.3.4 ELDERLY For elderly people, as we know to do the instruction and to understand what the instruction want maybe so difficult to them to do like that. It s because they have limited problems using switches and controls, numeric keypads, touch screens and speech as an input method. They will also have limited problems with accessing equipment, reading text on a screen, receiving graphical information and handling manuals. So, to use the smart home by elderly people is not suitable.

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4.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION We present our view in this article which relates to the fact that much more need and can be performed in terms of equipping smart home systems with advanced reasoning capabilities. Increasing the functionality of the available hardware with computational intelligence techniques will have the resultant effect of increasing the complexity o contexts to be understood, increasing the capabilities of the system to identify interesting situations. When technology is incorporated within the home, the people who live with the technology on a day-to-day basis have tended to be overlook (Tweed & Quigly 2000). Any attempt to produce definitive guidelines for the design of smart homes is likely to be deficient in some aspects. The process of design is complex and involves a number of extraneous factors that cannot be covered within the scope of the paper such as this. Instead, this paper has attempted to outline the main considerations and problems the designer has to take into account in the process of designing smart homes. The nature of he home is evolving and undergoing constant change in definition and such is required to become responsive to the needs of people throughout their whole lifetime and in most circumstances. Finally, based on our findings, we have made an overall conclusion. Firstly, smart homes could give a lot of benefits to the users. This is agreed by Mr. Schwab (2003) which describes smart homes as homes that are adaptable to your family's changing needs over generations and provide independent living, energy savings and peace of mind. Secondly, smart homes could make a dream come true if we can overcome the drawbacks of the technology by making more improvement in the systems. Then, we have identified who actually will get a lot of benefits of smart homes application in the society. We agreed with Home Toys Inc. (2008), where they stated that the smart home is not ideal for everyone. Also, if you live with other people, it is a good idea to consider them too before you start altering their home. If not, there will increasing much more problems and issues of the application in the future.

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