Title: Smart homes: technologies, applications and challenges

Authors: Mahmoud A. Al-Qutayri, Jeedella S. Jeedella

Addresses: College of Engineering, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, Sharjah Campus, P.O. Box 573, Sharjah, UAE. ' College of Engineering, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, Sharjah Campus, P.O. Box 573, Sharjah, UAE

Abstract: Smart homes are intelligent environments that interact with their occupants in ways that improve their lives. This paper presents the ubiquitous pervasive technologies that will need to be integrated to realise the future vision of smart homes that have the intelligence to anticipate, predict and take decisions in a virtually autonomous manner. It also presents some of the major application areas that will benefit from the realisation of smart homes. It then discusses some of the challenges that need to be overcome in order for smart homes to become a reality and find acceptance from people across all sectors of the society.

Keywords: smart homes; intelligent technologies; wireless communications; sensors; ubiquitous computing; pervasive computing; context-aware systems; applications; challenges; intelligent environments; seamless connectivity; human-computer interaction; monitoring; control; security; safety; telehealth care; remote healthcare; energy saving; environmental control; information access.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2010.030541

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2010 Vol.2 No.2/3, pp.125 - 144

Published online: 21 Dec 2009 *

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