This chapter focused on the issues of designing feasible smart home technological platforms for the delivery of Ambient Assisted Living services, providing a review of the most relevant research projects in the field, and discussing in details the real-world experiences performed by the authors in a similar scenario. Matching the complexity of user requirements to the available consumer devices and technologies means a hard work to be performed on integration of different components, harmonization of services and applications. As understood by the authors, through personal experience, the approach to the real-world implementation often brings out different aspects and problems with respect to the results of a laboratory or experimental development. Referring to the main issues to overcome, some general considerations have been made, such as: the advantages of a user-centred design, the need of monitoring the correct operation of the system, and the importance of checking the real interoperability among different components. All these factors should have influence on the design solutions adopted, with the aim to bring benefits to all the involved stakeholders, from final users to designers and developers, to business entities.

Chapter Contents:

• 21.1 Introduction
• 21.2 Background
• 21.3 The TRASPARENTE platform
• 21.4 Motivations for design solutions
• 21.4.1 Issues in real-world implementation
• 21.4.2 Integration of different components in TRASPARENTE
• 21.5 Experimental results
• 21.5.1 Proof of concept
• 21.5.2 Data management
• 21.5.3 Data analysis
• 21.5.4 User interfaces
• 21.5.5 Conclusive tests
• 21.6 Discussion and open issues
• 21.7 Conclusion
• References

Inspec keywords: handicapped aids; home computing

Other keywords: field experience; user-centred design; smart home technological platform; AAL services; real interoperability; business entities; ambient assisted living services; consumer devices

Subjects: Computer assistance for persons with handicaps; Home computing