Integrated Management of Energy, Wellbeing and Health in the Next Generation of Smart Homes

Abstract

This contribution proposes an implementation for next generation smart homes, where heterogeneous data, coming from multiple sensors (medical, wellbeing, energy, contextual, etc.) and house equipment (smart fridge, smart TV, etc.), need to be managed, secured and visualized. As a first step, it focuses only on energy and health data. However, it aims to lay the foundations to manage any type of information towards the development of smart interactions with the house, which might include artificial intelligence and machine learning. These data are securely collected using a central Web of Things gateway, located inside the smart home. For the e-health part, a set of possible use-cases is provided, along with the current progress of the implantation. In this regard, the main idea is to link the next generation smart homes with external medical entities in order to provide, first, quick intervention in the event of an abnormality being detected, and to be able to provide basic medical services such as remote consultations with a doctor for a particular health issue. This vision can be very promising, particularly in rural areas, where access to medical services is difficult. As for the energy part, the aim is to collect users’ energy consumption inside the smart home, which can be supplied from different sources (heat, water, gas, or electricity), and to enable the use of advanced algorithms to predict and manage local energy consumption and production (if any). This approach combines data collected from smart meters, operational information of the smart energy devices (the status of smart plugs), user’s requests and external network signals such as energy prices. By using a home energy management system that accepts such input parameters, the operation of in-home devices and appliances can be optimally controlled according to different objectives (e.g., minimizing energy costs and maximizing user’s comfort level).