XML modelisation of smart home environment

Abstract

Our environment is not usually adapted for people who have lost the ability to use their proper lower limbs to walk or their proper arms to perform daily living tasks, such as opening a door, eating, or even having access to a computer. To compensate their incapabilities, the disabled people have often recourse to assistive technological aids such as, electrical wheelchairs to compensate moving function, robot manipulators to move objects in their environment, environmental control systems to control the home environment and communication systems to improve their ability to communicate with people or to get information by using a computer. Consequently the user is confronted to several heterogeneous systems, imposing several user interfaces, providing multiple and complementary functionality's, and forming a whole complex environment that we describe as being a smart environment. This situation is usually described in the literature and by some industrials as the smart homes concept that is not necessarily limited to home environment, but also to hospital environment and to outside (school, train station, leisure places...). In this article we present our approach to design an environment fit for people with disabilities basing itself on a standard description of the domestic equipment, interfaces, technologies, and actions. This solution which uses XML language and Object concept, invites the manufacturer to hide their products specifications and to represent them in a unified way to make it possible to propose an appropriate design to the people with special needs.