Hacking the Natural Habitat: An In-the-Wild Study of Smart Homes, Their Development, and the People Who Live in Them

Commercial home automation systems are becoming increasingly common, affording the opportunity to study technology-augmented homes in real world contexts. In order to understand how these technologies are being integrated into homes and their effects on inhabitants, we conducted a qualitative study involving smart home professionals who provide such technology, people currently in the process of planning or building smart homes, and people currently living in smart homes. We identified motivations for bringing smart technology into homes, and the phases involved in making a home smart. We also explored the varied roles of the smart home inhabitants that emerged during these phases, and several of the challenges and benefits that arise while living in a smart home. Based on these findings we propose open areas and new directions for smart home research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31205-2_10 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-65488 Accepted Version Originally published at: Mennicken, Sarah; Huang, Elaine May (2012). Hacking the Natural Habitat: An in-the-wild study of smart homes, their development, and the people who live in them. In: Pervasive 2012, Newcastle, UK, 19 June 2012 22 June 2012, 143-160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31205-2_10 Hacking the Natural Habitat: An in-the-wild study of smart homes, their development, and the people who live in them Sarah Mennicken, Elaine M. Huang Zurich People and Computing Lab, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland {mennicken, huang}@ifi.uzh.ch Abstract. Commercial home automation systems are becoming increasingly common, affording the opportunity to study technology-augmented homes in real world contexts. In order to understand how these technologies are being integrated into homes and their effects on inhabitants, we conducted a qualitative study involving smart home professionals who provide such technology, people currently in the process of planning or building smart homes, and people currently living in smart homes. We identified motivations for bringing smart technology into homes, and the phases involved in making a home smart. We also explored the varied roles of the smart home inhabitants that emerged during these phases, and several of the challenges and benefits that arise while living in a smart home. Based on these findings we propose open areas and new directions for smart home research. Commercial home automation systems are becoming increasingly common, affording the opportunity to study technology-augmented homes in real world contexts. In order to understand how these technologies are being integrated into homes and their effects on inhabitants, we conducted a qualitative study involving smart home professionals who provide such technology, people currently in the process of planning or building smart homes, and people currently living in smart homes. We identified motivations for bringing smart technology into homes, and the phases involved in making a home smart. We also explored the varied roles of the smart home inhabitants that emerged during these phases, and several of the challenges and benefits that arise while living in a smart home. Based on these findings we propose open areas and new directions for smart home research.