Definitions and attributes of smart home appliances

Abstract

The status of Smart Home Appliances (SHAs) in the smart home industry has been raised as major components of a smart home. To design a good SHA, diverse stakeholders in the smart home ecosystem need to have a common understanding of smart homes and SHAs. However, the studies on what they are, especially those reflecting practitioners' point of view, have been scarce. In this research, we conducted systematic literature reviews and practitioner interviews using the concept mapping method to identify the attributes of SHAs depending both on academia and industry. In addition, we suggest a framework of the smart home ecosystem which describes how those attributes are revealed in the relationships among SHAs, users, and external stakeholders. Since all of the interviewees are Korean SHA development professionals, the findings from this research could have been limited to the current status of the Korean SHA industry. Nonetheless, we expect that this research would contribute to building a consensus on what smart homes and SHAs are and provide the designers and developers of SHAs with systematic perspectives on smart homes.