End-User Control in the Smart Home

In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in applying ubiquitous computing technology in the home, looking at improving the lives of the home occupants. While most of this smart home research has centered on elder-care (monitoring and supporting of elders to allow them to live independently), there has been little focus on enabling home occupants to take control of the ubicomp technology in their home and, more importantly, to take control of their complicated lives. In this talk, I will present 2 different techniques for supporting end-user control of smart homes, a visual rules-based technique (iCAP) and a programming-by-demonstration technique (a CAPpella) for end-user programming of smart home applications. I also will describe recent fieldwork with dual income families with school-age children and the implications of these findings on end-user control systems for the home.

Speaker Details

Anind Dey is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests lie at the intersection of human-computer interaction and ubiquitous computing. In particular, he has been performing research in context-aware computing for over a decade, looking at issues of end-user control and feedback, application development, privacy and information overload. Before joining CMU, Anind was a senior researcher with Intel Research in Berkeley and an Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Date:
Speakers:
Anind Dey
Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University