OBJECTIVES A "smart home" is a residence wired with technology features that monitor the well-being and activities of their residents to improve overall quality of life, increase independence and prevent emergencies. This type of informatics applications targeting older adults, people with disabilities or the general population is increasingly becoming the focus of research worldwide. The aim o...

Urbanization grows steadily, i.e. more humans live at one place and rural areas are more unpopular. Urbanization faces challenges for city planning and development. Cities have to deal with large crowds, high energy consumption, large quantities of garbage etc. Thus, smart cities have to meet many requirements of different areas. Hence, realizing smart cities can be supported by linking differe...

This paper introduces a novel way to allow non-expert users to create smart surroundings. Non-smart everyday objects such as furniture and appliances found in homes and offices can be converted to smart ones by attaching computers, sensors, and devices. In this way, non-smart components that form non-smart objects are made smart in advance. For our first prototype, we have developed u-Texture, ...

With the advent of the smart energy grid – an energy transportation and distribution network being combined with an IT network for its monitoring and control – information security has gained tremendous importance for energy distribution and energy automation systems. Integrated security functionality is crucial to ensure a reliable and continuous operation of the smart energy grid. Further sec...

A significant amount of research has been conducted in order to make home appliances more efficient in terms of energy usage. Various techniques have been designed and implemented in order to control the power demand and supply. This paper encompasses reviews of different research works on a wide range of energy management techniques for smart homes aimed at reducing energy consumption and mini...

This paper offers a historical and conceptual analysis of the potential role of speech-based interaction in smart home settings. By examining current experiences in smart homes and by drawing analogies between human-machine interaction and master-servant interaction historically, the paper will contend that some of the bolder claims attending to speech as a mode of interaction distract from som...

Several studies have reported on interaction challenges users face when confronted with proactive contextaware technologies that take actions on their behalf. To address these challenges, techniques have been proposed to improve intelligibility (understanding) of and control over context-aware systems for end-users. Proactive context-aware systems have not only been featured in several smart ho...

This article addresses the design and implementation of user interaction concepts for smart caring homes. Elderly suffering from age related frailty or chronic diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mild dementia are the targeted primary users. Their informal and formal caregivers are regarded as secondary users. The current smart home approach to user interaction is either...