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| Life is simpler in smart homes Swedish housing developer JM said its employee Greger Sandström earned his PhD in smart houses at the Royal Institute of Technology. His vision for the future is a home that makes life easier and more convenient but where the gadgets are barely seen. "When people hear 'Smart Homes' they usually only think of refrigerators with a touch screen and that's too bad. The technology itself is actually boring. Instead we should focus on customer benefit, in terms of increased security, convenience or comfort, " says Greger Sandström, whose day job is pre-construction manager at JM, and who as of today holds a PhD degree. After eight years of research and interviews with almost 200 families in Värmdö and Stockholm, Greger Sandström has completed his dissertation Smart Homes and User Values – Long-term evaluation of IT-services in Residential and Single Family Dwellings. The purpose of the study was to follow up and evaluate how families use and benefit from technology in the Smart Home. The study shows that even minor differences in the design of Smart Homes systems provide major differences in user behavior. For instance, accessibility is crucial; an easily available touch-screen to control the system is preferable to a laptop that the user has to log in to before it can be used. The study also shows that there is need to supply a new kind of model for providing services in which support, maintenance and regular updates of the Smart Home technology is made and where you should be able to modify the system according to the family's changing needs over time. write your comments about the article :: © 2010 Construction News :: home page |