Introduction

There is no single accepted definition of a ‘smart home’. At its broadest, a smart home is one where smart technologies are installed and where those technologies facilitate automatic or user-initiated communication, involving a range of appliances, sensors, actuators and switches – these are collectively referred to throughout this chapter as devices. In smart homes, communication takes place between devices in ways that can serve to empower people and, in so doing, improve their quality of life. There is, in other words, something to be gained by communication.

As noted in Chapter One, the context of smart homes in the UK is one in which older people live in a variety of different types of dwellings. Most ‘ordinary’ homes already have a range of devices which operate independently of each other and virtually all of these homes can host smart technologies insofar as links can be established between devices via radio, dedicated wiring or mains cabling. Dwellings that are already built according to ‘design for all’ principles can, in particular, employ smart technologies to benefit a much wider range of people regardless of their age or ability.

This chapter explores the significance of device communication and specifically relates it to the needs of older people and the empowerment that it offers. However, it also points to the danger of such technologies removing choice and control from the user through an over-reliance on automation, and the transfer, without proper consent, of personal information to third parties – a particular concern in what is known as lifestyle monitoring.

As a prelude to exploring smart homes and the significance of their capacity for communication, the point must be made that, while there is increasing discussion among service providers about the role of such technologies in supporting independent living for older people and others, little or no consideration has been given to their place within social theories of ageing. It could be argued that such an omission is appropriate insofar as the technologies can be considered as neutral and as of similar significance as the bricks and mortar from which our homes are constructed. This standpoint is, however, untenable. The technologies and the bricks and mortar that shape our homes create the social milieu of our lives. They, and their contents, are an integral part of our social identities.