Zero Configuration Comfort and Accessibility in Smart Environments

By enabling more personalized hospitality services and adjustment of smart environments, the personalization of building and home automation systems can create better comfort, eased accessibility, improved user experience and greater energy efficiency for living and working environments. However, there is a lack of automation in nowadays systems, such that users must perform tedious manual interaction with the smart environments in order to personalize the environment according to their preferences and needs. In this regard, this paper presents the concept of Zero Configuration Comfort and Accessibility: portable and personalized smart space profiles which can be (i) configured, (ii) stored, (iii) accessed, (iv) transferred, and (v) applied to any smart environment in an automated manner. In addition to the concept, the main technical challenges and solution approaches for achieving portable personalization in smart spaces are presented. Moreover, the paper provides details about the design and implementation of a system prototype which demonstrates the feasibility and value of the proposed concept.