25-08-2017, 09:32 PM
Review: Context Aware Tools for Smart Home Development
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Abstract
Context-aware computing is the concept of leveraging information about the end user to
improve the quality of the interaction. Emerging context-enriched services will use location,
presence, social attributes, and other environmental information to anticipate an end user's
immediate needs, offering more-sophisticated, situation-aware and usable functions. Smart
homes connect all the devices and appliances in your home so they can communicate with
each other and with you. Context-awareness can be applied to Smart Home technology. In
this paper, we review the context-aware tools for Smart Home System Development.
Introduction
Context awareness originated as a term from ubiquitous computing or as so-called
pervasive computing which sought to deal with linking changes in the environment with
computer systems, which are otherwise static. [1] Smart homes or buildings are usually a new
one that is equipped with special structured wiring to enable occupants to remotely control or
program an array of automated home electronic devices by entering a single command.
Context awareness plays a big role in developing and maintaining a Smart Home. On the
following parts of this paper, we discuss Context Awareness, Smart Home, and the Context
aware tools used in Smart Home Development.
Context Awareness
Context awareness refers to the idea that computers can both sense, and react based on
their environment. Devices may have information about the circumstances under which they
are able to operate and based on rules, or an intelligent stimulus, react accordingly. Context
aware devices may also try to make assumptions about the user's current situation. [1]
While the computer science community has initially perceived the context as a matter of
user location, in the last few years this notion has been considered not simply as a state, but
part of a process in which users are involved; thus, sophisticated and general context models
have been proposed, to support context-aware applications which use them to adapt
interfaces, tailor the set of application-relevant data, increase the precision of information
retrieval, discover services, make the user interaction implicit, or build smart environments. A
context aware mobile phone may know that it is currently in the meeting room, and that the
user has sat down. The phone may conclude that the user is currently in a meeting and reject
any unimportant calls. [2]
Context Aware Computing
Context-aware computing refers to a general class of mobile systems that can sense their
physical environment, like their context of use, and adapt their behavior accordingly. Such
systems are a component of a ubiquitous computing or pervasive computing environment.
Three important aspects of context are: where you are; who you are with; and what resources
are nearby.
Although location is a primary capability, location-aware does not necessarily capture
things of interest that are mobile or changing. Context-aware in contrast is used more
generally to include nearby people, devices, lighting, noise level, network availability, and
even the social situation; e.g., whether you are with your family or a friend from school. [3]
Smart Home Systems
A smart home or building is a home or building, usually a new one that is equipped with
special structured wiring to enable occupants to remotely control or program an array of
automated home electronic devices by entering a single command. For example, a
homeowner on vacation can use a Touchtone phone to arm a home security system, control
temperature gauges, switch appliances on or off, control lighting, program a home theater or
entertainment system, and perform many other tasks.
The field of home automation is expanding rapidly as electronic technologies converge.
The home network encompasses communications, entertainment, security, convenience, and
information systems.
Smart Home Software and Technology
Smart home technology was developed in 1975, when a company in Scotland developed
X10. X10 allows compatible products to talk to each other over the already existing electrical
wires of a home. All the appliances and devices are receivers, and the means of controlling
the system, such as remote controls or keypads, are transmitters.
Benefits of Smart Home
Smart homes obviously have the ability to make life easier and more convenient. Home
networking can 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 also 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. One smart homeowner boasted her heating bill was about onethird
less than a same-sized normal home. Some devices can track how much energy each
appliance is using and command it to use less.
An Aware Community
The Aware Community will enable us to move the paradigm of an aware and assistive
home to the development of an aware and assistive community infrastructure by incorporating
devices and methods into a small urban community of homes, recreation facilities, retail and
service providers, on city streets with vehicular traffic and public transportation.[7]
The McKIZ Aware Community is located on a ten acre site in the Third Ward of
McKeesport as shown in the site plan. The Blueroof Smart Cottage/R&D Center, YWCA
Community Center, Salvation Army and two active churches are located in the McKIZ and
will remain. Blueroof will build a number of new structures to include 15-20 single family
houses, a small grocery store and a new building for the Blueroof Tech Center. There are 22
existing HUD houses (five of which are accessible) that have infrastructure in place to
accommodate sensors and other technology.[7]