Assessing Smart-Home Platforms for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)

Smart-home platforms support applications, services, and devices for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL). The developers of those platforms commonly focus on technological requirements only, without having a clear understanding of end-users such as older adults living independently. Moreover, since there are no functional testing methods for AAL platforms, the authors introduce a testing methodology for smart-home platforms and use it to test two platforms for their suitability: the universAAL platform that is based on an ontology model, and the 'Universal Plug and Play' (UPnP) platform in combination with 'Digital Home Compliant' (DHC) framework (first version), both using fixed terminology and descriptions. The authors first developed a comprehensive overview the support older people may need from a smart home. The authors then developed scenarios that cover many of those needs and used the scenarios as test cases in functional tests in a simulation environment. The results show that 4/5 of the smart-home applications in the AAL scenarios will not work without a platform extension. This demonstrates the importance of these extensions. Therefore, the use of an ontology model for platforms is advisable because of its quick and easy adaption to new devices and services, needed for the worldwide rollout of smart-homes for AAL.