A configurable telecare system

Current home systems do not support simple, yet sophisticated, ways of controlling the home in a generic and high-level way. In contrast, Homer, a home system for telecare and home automation developed by the authors, is designed to make it easy for non-technical users to achieve this. Developers create home components that expose their services and functionality in a way that encourages combination. Components are made accessible to end-user applications through an HTTP interface, allowing use of any interface technology. Internally, Homer supports automation through policies that combine the functionalities and services offered by components. These policies can be created using many kinds of user interfaces. The Homer architecture, components, policies and user interfaces are discussed. Finally, the paper concludes with an evaluation of the work in comparison to similar systems.

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