SmartCase: A Smart Home Environment in a Suitcase

Typically, intelligent environments include a heterogeneous set of devices and services offering complex functionalities. To establish a real assistive intelligent environment the available functionalities, their interdependencies and possible side effects must be comprehensible for the end-users and for the diverse set of developers, architects and craftsmen involved in the development process. In this paper, we present a detailed small-scale model of an instrumented two-rooms apartment and show how the model can be utilized for designing, evaluating and controlling intelligent environments. Furthermore, we present an architectural foundation based on Universal Remote Console technology and discuss how to synchronize the model with the real environments.