Semantic information management for user and context aware smart home with social services

Emerging network technologies and growing variety of available devices open new smart home systems perspective for data capturing and analyzing. Systems tend to become wider in scale and are able to capture different aspects of living conditions inside and outside buildings. The variety of available information makes those systems attractive to various user groups with different roles and responsibilities in Smart Home domain. Yet current solutions for monitoring systems do not consider personal user needs, which lead to overwhelming user with excessive information flow. This paper proposes information management system with usage of Semantic Web technologies (ontologies and queries), which takes into account personal user needs in the system and current situation in the environment and reduces information load to the user by providing personal data. It is expected that proposed information management approach will make general monitoring systems user friendly and personal oriented and thus safer during the operation. The detailed description of designed ontology is provided. Two basic scenarios for Smart Homes with social services are considered and developed prototype is described. Current implementation of the proposed architecture shows feasibility of the approach and prompts further fields of research.