[LINK] Smart Home Accessibility Guidelines

[Rik Harris]

Regarding the comment that smart meters are not a "smart" technology: I do not want my meter to be the device that adjusts electricity usage in the house – I want it to a) be a meter and b) make the information available to other components of a smart home. 

I don't want the "owner" of the smart meter to play any further role in the operation of the smart home.  For example, pairing a smart meter with a Nest thermostat (www.nest.com) might allow additional information such as presence and habits of occupants to be used to make decisions about how to best heat and cool the home.  This information should not be available to an electricity retailer or distributor. 

The smart meter in my home is plenty smart enough to play this role, if only the data was properly available to other smart home technology integrators.

Ideally, the components of a smart home should be decoupled, to allow for maximum innovation in each of the technologies.  I certainly don't want implementation of further smart home technologies to be hanging around waiting for the next opportunity to upgrade the meter technology!

rik.

On 03/03/2013, at 9:14 AM, Tom Worthington <tom.worthington at tomw.net.au> wrote:

> John Gill Technology has released "Smart Home Accessibility Guidelines": 
> http://www.johngilltech.com/guidelines/smart_home.htm
> 
> There is an article on this "Guidelines Cover Accessibility For Smart 
> Homes Of The Future" (E-Access Bulletin, February 28th, 2013): 
> http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=821
> 
> These recommendations suggest that ICT in the home can help the elderly 
> and others with disabilities, but only if their needed are taken into 
> consideration when designing the interfaces for the smart home. I 
> suggest that voice and other hands-free controls would be useful for the 
> population generally, as well as those with a disability. Designers of 
> smart home controls and displays tend to make them too complex and hard 
> to use and so an accessible design would benefit everyone.
> 
> However, controls and displays miss the point of a "smart home", which 
> should anticipate needs and adjust, without having any explicit input 
> from the occupants and any need for them to look at displays. Smart 
> meters are an example of what is not a "smart" technology. Householders 
> should not have to read the tariff from a meter and then manually adjust 
> the appliances in their home: this should happen automatically. Smarter 
> technology has existed for decades with off-peak electric hot water 
> systems, which switch on automatically when tariffs are low.
> 
> Also homes can be designed for accessibility by using some very low 
> tech, low cost techniques. More in my blog at: 
> http://blog.tomw.net.au/2013/03/accessible-smart-home-guidelines.html
> 
> 
> -- 
> Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
> PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
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> 
> Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
> Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
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