User-friendly configuration of smart environments

Abstract

Abstract-The configuration of smart homes represents a difficult task for end-users. We propose a goal-driven approach to this challenge, where users express their needs using a graphical configuration environment. Our system then uses semantic descriptions of devices in the user's surroundings to derive a plan to reach the desired situation. We are able to satisfy complex demands using only first-order logic, which makes this system flexible yet fast. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate how to achieve high usability of the proposed system without burdening users with the underlying semantic technologies. Our initial demo supports setting the ambient temperature, alarms, and media playback, but the use of semantics allows to extend the system with many different kinds of services in a decentralized way.

Configuration of smart environments made simple: Combining visual modeling with semantic metadata and reasoning

“…To enable end users to generate goals themselves, we have integrated our system with ClickScript, a visual programming tool that allows users to graphically model their desired environment [13]. To model the different attributes of a room state, users drag icons that represent the matching components to ClickScript's editing view and connect them to the desired inputs (see Figure 2).…”