An “observatory apartment” will soon shed light on buzzing questions such as the type of information a smart home can provide and how its inhabitants will interact with it, according to Alpha Galileo. Organized by CNRS, Montpellier University and Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 University, the Human at Home (HUT) project will mimic the Intelligent City approach and delve into smart home analytics.
This fall, two volunteer students will move into the apartment and be observed by approximately 60 researchers including legal experts, economists, electronic engineers, architects, and specialists of language, behavior and health.
As the “HUTmates” go about their day, pressure sensors in the floor and movement sensors will monitor their actions. This data could be pertinent to architects in optimizing a building’s layout and identifying what areas are avoided. This will also be relevant to health professions by analyzing the inhabitants’ posture and movements, which can indicate if someone is healthy or in pain. Pollution sensors will also aid in future services such as determining if the water is contaminated, sensing pollution when opening a window or determining the safety of electrical circuits. Research on the sensors themselves will help engineers make the sensors energy independent, so they can recover energy from the environment.
The experiment will also look at how to manage the ongoing data being produced by the interconnected objects. The main role of this scientific project is to answer a broad spectrum of questions to create a better equipped and more efficient smart home.
The residents will move out in the summer of 2019, and the apartment will be “reformatted” based on feedback and results of the first observation. It will then be offered for free to volunteer students for another study.