Introduction

"I'm home," you announce to your house, as you stroll through the door… Your house, responds warmly by switching on lamps and tuning the television to your favorite channel. Your fridge checks all the food on its shelves and in its drawers and searches the Internet for a good dinner recipe.

Cool, huh?

Well, it's not so far off. These domestic functions are already possible with today's technology, if not already on the market.

The concepts of Smart Home, Connected Home, Home Networking or Home Communication are quite well known through the media. This interest toward home automation and control leads to a new view for the future home, a new life style, with new services and applications.

Smart Homes represent a network of connected home appliances, electronic devices, control systems and computers, the main purpose being house automation and control. Emphasis is put on surveillance and other security systems, audio/video equipment, gadgets control, computers and communications (including the connection to Internet).

Centralized management will allow our domestic appliances and services to communicate with each other and make electronic decisions on our behalf such as selecting TV programs, suggesting which groceries to buy, monitoring and managing energy consumption for optimum efficiency, controlling environmental conditions, and delivering news and information to us wherever we are and whenever we need it.

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