Controlling Smart Devices in the Home

Domestic appliances have replaced much human labor in the home. But how human do we want these devices to be, and how much autonomy do we want to give them? To throw some light on these questions, first the use and limitations of conversational agents (natural language interfaces) are discussed. Then some aspects of the experience of families living in a smart house are described, and compared with that of employers of servants in 19th-century Britain. On the basis of this research it appears that people do not want household devices to be very human, and do not want to give them much autonomy. Designers are recommended to observe two rules: Smart domestic devices should put people firmly in control and should as far as possible be unseen and unheard.

[1]  E. Goffman,et al.  Forms of talk , 1982 .

[2]  Amparo Lasen,et al.  History Repeating? A Comparison of the Launch and Uses of Fixed and Mobile Phones , 2005, Mobile World.

[3]  Beeton,et al.  Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management , 1861 .

[4]  Illah R. Nourbakhsh,et al.  A survey of socially interactive robots , 2003, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[5]  Sanna Leppënen,et al.  Daily Routines and Means of Communication in a Smart Home , 2003 .

[6]  Anders Green,et al.  Social and collaborative aspects of interaction with a service robot , 2003, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[7]  P. Baran.  The Theory of the Leisure Class , 1957 .

[8]  John Marshall,et al.  The Victorian House , 1986 .

[9]  Clifford Nass,et al.  Etiquette equality: exhibitions and expectations of computer politeness , 2004, CACM.

[10]  John Wilkinson,et al.  WHAT BUTLER SAW , 1984 .

[11]  A. M. Turing,et al.  Computing Machinery and Intelligence , 1950, The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence.

[12]  Antonella De Angeli,et al.  The unfriendly user: exploring social reactions to chatterbots , 2001 .

[13]  T. Veblen.  The Theory of the Leisure Class , 1901 .

[14]  Kerstin Dautenhahn,et al.  Design spaces and niche spaces of believable social robots , 2002, Proceedings. 11th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[15]  Joseph Weizenbaum,et al.  ELIZA—a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine , 1966, CACM.

[16]  Alan Dix.  Beyond intention - pushing boundaries with incidental interaction , 2002 .

[17]  F. Aldrich.  Smart Homes: Past, Present and Future , 2003 .

[18]  L. Hamill.  Time as a Rare Commodity in Home Life , 2003 .

[19]  Norbert A. Streitz,et al.  Trust and Incidental Interaction: Would You Let a Talking Paper Clip Run YOUR Home , 2005 .

[20]  Bernard Porter.  Not in Front of the Servants , 2006 .

[21]  A. M. Turing,et al.  Computing Machinery and Intelligence , 1950, The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence.

[22]  Pamela Horn,et al.  The rise and fall of the Victorian servant , 1977 .

[23]  D. Randall.  Living Inside a Smart Home: A Case Study , 2003 .