This book introduces the concept of the wise home. Whilst smart homes focus on automation technologies, forcing users to deal with complex and incomprehensible control and programming procedures, the wise home is different. By going beyond intelligence (or smartness) the wise home puts technology in the background and supports explicit (enhanced user-experience) as well as implicit (artificial intelligence) interaction adequate to the end-user’s needs. The theoretical basis of the wise home is explored and examples for its application for future living are presented based on empirical studies and field work carried out by the author. Principles of HCI and the meaning of the home from differing scientific perspective are discussed and a research model (based on the concept of user experience (UX)) and iterations is introduced. This has resulted in field deployment guides being produced through a systematic development process. The Future Home is Wise, not Smart will be essential reading to home system developers, designers and researchers, responsible for smart home deployment or Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) who will get insights on how to follow a novel approach in developing and adapting smart home systems to their users’ needs. Students with an interest in software design for pervasive systems will benefit by receiving information on how to develop and customise systems for the specific needs of living environments.

This book describes an innovative approach to the interaction between humans and a smart environment; an attempt to get a smart home to understand intuitive, multi-modal, human-centred communication. State of the art smart homes, like other “smart” technology, tend to demand that the human user must adapt herself to the needs of the system. The hunt for a truly user-centred, truly intuitive system has long proven to be beyond the grasp of current technology. When humans speak with one another, we are multimodal. Our speech is supplemented with gestures, which serve as a parallel stream of information, reinforcing the meaning of our words. Drawing on well-established protocols in engineering and psychology, and with no small amount of inspiration from a particular nonsense poem, we have successfully concluded that hunt. This book describes the efforts, undertaken over several years, to design, implement, and test a model of interaction that allows untrained individuals to intuitively control a complex series of networked and embedded systems. The theoretical concepts are supported by a series of experimental studies, showing the advantages of the novel approach, and pointing towards future work that would facilitate the deployment of this concept in the real world.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Smart Homes and Health Telematics, ICOST 2016, held in Wuhan, China, in May 2016. The 39 regular papers, 5 short papers and 1 poster paper included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 83 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: smart homes, smart urban spaces and new assistive living space concepts in the smart city; e-health for future smart cities; context awareness and autonomous computing; home networks and residential gateways; middleware support for smart homes and health telematic services; e-health and chronic disease management; e-health technology assessment and impact analysis; tele-assistance and tele-rehabilitation; modeling of physical and conceptual information in intelligent environments; medical big data collection, processing and analysis; human machine interfaces; wearable sensors and continuous health monitoring; social, privacy and security issues; mobile health services; and smart rehabilitation technologies.

We have always built tools to improve our productivity and help us lead better lives; however we find ourselves constantly battling against our new computerized tools, making us less productive and putting our health and our lives at risk. This book looks at Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from a truly human-centred perspective; focusing on human physiology and psychology rather than the motley series of brilliant innovations, glorified mistakes, and cross-generational habits that comprise the computer-centred HCI that we practice today. This three-part guide argues that human interest and calm technology need to be at the heart of HCI. It begins by exposing the inherent dangers in past and present HCI. Using his past experiences within Anthropology, Linguistics, Education, Ergonomics, Human Factors, and Computer Science the author introduces and explores the theory of ‘Anthropology-Based Computing’ (ABC) as well as a new ideas like Dynamic Environmental Focus (DEF), a new model of General Human Interaction (GHI), and a new triune model of the brain: Brown’s Representation of Anthropogenic Interaction in Natural Settings (BRAINS). Detailed illustrations show how HCI can be improved by considering how human bodies and brains actually work. The final part is a series of simple illustrated experiments, each applying an aspect of ABC to improve the way our computers and computerized devices treat us. Anthropology-Based Computing is written for those who work with computers, not just those who work on them. Students and researchers in Design and Psychology, and Computer Scientists as well, will benefit from seeing what is missing from the devices that are already in place, why that is, and how to make the practical changes that will immediately improve the physiological and psychological experience of using phones, on-board navigation systems, and the countless other computers we use at work and at home today and will continue to use in the future.

This book explores how lighting systems based on LED sources have the ability to positively influence the human circadian system, with benefits for health and well-being. The opening chapters examine the functioning of the human circadian system, its response to artificial lighting, potential health impacts of different types of light exposure, and current researches in circadian photometry. A first case study analyzes the natural lighting available in an urban interior, concluding that it is unable to activate the human circadian system over the entire year. Important original research is then described in which systems suitable for artificial circadian lighting in residential interiors and offices were developed after testing of new design paradigms based on LED sources. Readers will also find a detailed analysis of the LED products available or under development globally that may contribute to optimal artificial circadian lighting, as well as the environmental sensors, control interfaces, and monitoring systems suitable for integration with new LED lighting systems. Finally, guidelines for circadian lighting design are proposed, with identification of key requirements.

This book explores the single components that commonly constitute luminaires for interiors, describing their operating principles, families, strengths and weaknesses. It opens with the product classification and main standard requirements. The following chapters describe the different components: light sources, power supplies, thermal dissipation techniques, control technologies, optical systems. The description focuses on the most recent technologies to allow the reader to consider a product design capable of confronting future lighting scenarios. The book provides a simple path addressed to all those who want to try their hand at designing luminaires for interiors, even without a specific engineering background.

For 50 years, Star Trek has been an inspiration to its fans around the world, helping them to dream of a better future. This inspiration has entered our culture and helped to shape much of the technology of the early 21st Century. The contributors to this volume are researchers and teachers in a wide variety of disciplines; from Astrophysics to Ethnology, from English and History to Medicine and Video Games, and from American Studies to the study of Collective Computing Systems. What the authors have in common is that some version of Star Trek has inspired them, not only in their dreams of what may be, but in the ways in which they work - and teach others to work - here in the real world. Introduced with references to Star Trek films and television shows, and illustrated with original cartoons, each of the 15 chapters included in this volume provides insights into research and teaching in this range of academic fields.

This book presents a selection of papers from the industrial track of ISMIS 2020. The selection emphasizes broad applicability of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in various industrial fields. The aim of the book is to fertilize preliminary ideas of readers on the application of AI by means of already successfully implemented application examples. Furthermore, the development of new ideas and concepts shall be motivated by the variety of different application examples. The spectrum of the presented contributions ranges from education and training, industrial applications in production and logistics to the development of new approaches in basic research, which will further expand the possibilities of future applications of AI in industrial settings. This broad spectrum gives readers working in the industrial as well as the academic field a good overview of the state of the art in the field of methodologies for intelligent systems.

Designed to explain posthumanism to those outside of academia, this brief and accessible book makes an original argument about anthropology's legacy as a study of "more than human." Smart and Smart return to the holism of classic ethnographies where cattle, pigs, yams, and sorcerers were central to the lives that were narrated by anthropologists, but they extend the discussion to include contemporary issues like microbiomes, the Anthropocene, and nano-machines, which take holism beyond locally bounded spaces. They outline what a holism without boundaries could look like, and what anthropology could offer to the knowledge of more-than-human nature in the past, present, and future.

When picking out a home, there are a number of aspects to keep in mind: location, size, and layout. One issue that many people neglect is energy conservation, which is quickly becoming one of the most important aspects of modern life. How do make your home energy wise? Where do you start? What aspects of home living can affect, and be affected by, our energy choices? This task can be momentous and intimidating. The Energy Wise Home: Practical Ideas for Saving Energy, Money, and the Planet makes it easy. Jeff Dondero walks you through your home’s walls, doors, windows, and roof, room by room and appliance by appliance, breaking them down into simple terms so that you can make the smartest energy and resource choices possible. He even covers gardens and garages, explaining what household items cost to run, how to conserve energy when using them, giving guidance on what’s sustainable and what isn’t. This encyclopedic manual is very helpful for understanding the machine that is your house, and how to keep it maintained and running well and “green” while saving you money. This guide is a great fit to make sure that you make the best of your home and the resources that power and run it. Conservation in the home is something that you owe to yourself, your family, and your planet.