The DAT Smart Home

The DAT Smart Home - located in Milan, Italy, within the premises of the Don Gnocchi Rehabilitation Institute - has a threefold purpose. Within the rehabilitation and Assistive Technology counselling activities of the Institute, it serves as a physical setting where clients with disabilities learn and experience how to make the most effective use of technology for their independence at home. For professionals and the general public it serves as a demonstration and educational laboratory to get knowledge of technologies for home automation and home care at distance. Within the Bioengineering Centre of the Institute, it serves as a research lab where innovative devices, sensors, applications and protocols can be tried out and further developed for home care, independence and quality of life. In order to meet these three goals the home has been designed according to a modular and flexible approach that allows for quickly configuring and customizing the technological environment according to the needed setting case by case. An open design concept has been adopted to accommodate for new devices and standards the current advancement in home automation technology is bringing about.