Home as a Platform: Levels of Automation for Connected Home Services

Tomorrow’s home will not only be a place to live, but will be a platform of services and experiences provided by an interconnected ecosystem of technologies. This platform requires a framework that describes and simplifies the types of homes and services which address consumers’ needs and provides current and future directions for researchers and practitioners. Although there have been some efforts to understand homes’ types and levels of automation, there is not a commonly established framework. In this paper, we propose a framework outlining types of homes and various levels of home automation: Electric homes, Customized homes, Proactive homes, Support homes, and Companion homes. This framework is built upon previous automation models and is supported by our expert interview panel. The first two levels describe current states and the next three levels discuss future directions and possibilities. Each level varies in terms of the complexity and intelligence of in-home technologies, their interaction and integration with one another as well as with the user, ability to process information based on the stages from information processing theory, and aspects of companionship that a home can provide to its residents. The proposed framework is the first step in achieving a standardized understanding of home automation across stakeholders.