Figure 2: Floor plan of the smart house.
I will now describe the house tour and the possible interactions in each room of the house. Figure 2 illustrates a floorplan of the house. The tour begins outside the front of
Figure 3: Front of the house of the future with accompanying Jcar.
the house next to the hovering Jcar (figure 3). It winds through the house exiting through the office on the opposite side of the entrance. After the house tour, the guests are led around the house where they see the textures of the walls and surroundings to end up where they started, next to the Jcar at the entrance of the house. The Jcar is a anti-gravity car that hovers as it waits for it's owners to tell it where to bring them. Unfortunately, the Jcar was not in service at the time of the tours.
Upon entering the house, the visitors are greeted by a voice, the home comfort system guide, that describes the features of the home comfort system. The voice welcomes the visitors and invites them into the first room, the living room, to be explored. The visitors enter the living room and the lights turn on automatically. The mood is set by a user configurable wall sized video display and accompanying audio. The first selection
Figure 4: Living room with video display.
non-intrusively enhances the ambiance of the room. Shown on the wall in figure 4 is a gentle waterfall while accompanying music lulls the visitor into the relaxing environment. Two chairs face this display so that one can sit and relax. This mood can be changed by suggestion. With a voice command, the user can request a more exciting party mood with
Figure 5: A borrowed band for the party house.
energetic video and loud intrusive dance music (example of the video is in figure 5). These are just some of the possible moods available with such a system.
Figure 6: Kitchen with dining area and in the farther room, the living room.
Passing the spiral sculpture, the tour enters the kitchen (figure 6). Here, elements of a traditional kitchen mingle with a few additions. Mounted on the refrigerator is a menu planner that keeps a running inventory of all the items in the refrigerator as well as any that you input. The
Figure 7: Screens from the menu planner.
planner (figure 7) uses this inventory to plan special treats and healthy menus for the household. It also can alert the user when certain items need replenishment. Directly across from the work space of the kitchen, the dining area, with its mood setting program, dims the lights and emits soft music. The table is set with an elegant meal and dessert and a chair invites the tourists to sit and relax. Again, this program can be set to establish any mood, but for the tour, a cozy intimate atmosphere is presented.
Figure 8: Bedroom featuring my parents in the portrait above the bed.
Figure 9: Frame of the current show viewed from the video screen - ``The Dick Van Dyke Show".
The tour continues through the kitchen and down the hall to find the bedroom to the left (figure 8). This sparsely furnished room has windows that open to views of the surrounding landscape and beyond. As we approach the bed, the lights dim. Once on the bed, a video activates on the ceiling with reruns of the ``Dick Van Dyke" show (see figure 9). This feature allows video to be easily viewed from bed with the need of pillow propping that conventional floor model televisions necessitate. Furthermore, at the appropriate time, the home comfort system dims the lights and lulls you to sleep with a gentle lullaby.
Figure 10: Smart bathroom in the house of the future.
A few quick steps away from the bed is the bathroom. This bathroom is special in that it accommodates the fact that people are not always fully alert when using it. The shower is fully automatic and always ready to go with a vocal command. For example, the command, ``shower on" lowers the shower curtain over the facility and turn the water on. Conversely, the command, ``shower off" turns off the water and raises the curtain. A stylish fuschia commode auto-flushes when necessary and located on the opposite wall, another view wall is located ``to help you pass the time" (quoted directly from the home comfort system tour guide).
Figure 11: Excerpt from a message that the home activity center relayed during the tours.
The final room on the tour is the home activity center that supports computing and communications needs. Unlike the living room, which is specifically programmed to cater to entertainment, the activity center is where the brains of the smart house are located and programmed. In addition, it includes a video/audio message center that will automatically alert the home owner of any messages that have been transmitted during the day. One message is played during the tour and it is our friend Keith (figure 11) reminding us to go the the Sandini Circus the next day.
This room contains computing facilities again with the displays embedded on the walls and reconfigurable to any part of the house. Also in this room, the tourists get a taste of remote collaborative computing as Jason Leigh, physically located in another part of the lab, communicates with the tourists via a remote simulation using the same house that the tour occupies. We see his physical representation through an avatar, his graphical characterization. Jason, in turn,
Figure 12: The avatar representations of myself on the left and Jason Leigh on the right.
also walking through the same house that we are but at his location, can monitor the movement of the tracked individual, in most cases, me, with an avatar representation. Both are pictured in figure 12. We communicate with Jason through a speaker phone (the lowest end of the technology at our disposal for the tour). This part of the tour breaks any illusion of non-interactivity that may be present, for the Jason avatar moves and responds to my requests (with the exception of a kidnapping incident that occurred during a tour where Jason was unexpectedly taken by his evil twin). Here, Jason explains how remote collaboration allows people to work together without occupying the same physical space. In this way people from different sides of the world can work together easily and inexpensively.
The tour exits from this room out to the back of the house. Upon exiting, the home comfort system reminds the user that the menu planner has some grocery needs, alerts the user of any system problems and also if any appliances have been left running. Finally, it alerts the user to remember her keys and lock the doors. The home comfort system can take care of many of these details if left undone, but it is programmed not to spoil the user too much. The tour group gets an overall view of the house as it winds around to the front of the house. Jason, as an avatar, follows along with us and we conclude the tour at the front door where it began.