Glossary

Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.

11 results found in Smart Home.

Acoustic Activity Recognition (Sound Activity Recognition, Audio Activity Recognition, Environmental Sound Recognition)
The use of microphones and machine learning to automatically identify and classify sounds occurring in an environment, such as doorbells, alarms, appliances, speech, and other everyday acoustic events…
Activity Monitoring (Activity Recognition, Activity Tracking)
The use of sensors, algorithms, and computational models to automatically detect and track a person's actions and behaviours within an environment. In assistive technology contexts, activity monitorin…
Ambient Display (Ambient Interface, Peripheral Display)
A display or interface that communicates information through subtle environmental changes — such as colour shifts, lighting changes, or gentle sounds — that can be perceived at the periphery of a user…
Assisted Living Technology (Assistive Living Technology, Ambient Assisted Living, AAL)
Technology systems designed to help people with disabilities, chronic conditions, or age-related limitations live more independently in their homes or residential facilities. This includes smart home …
Busyness (Activity Level, Activity Intensity)
In the telecare literature, busyness is a coarse-grained measure of overall domestic activity — typically the count of ambient sensor firings per room per time period — used as a proxy for a resident'…
Cognitive Orthosis (Cognitive Prosthesis, Cognitive Assistive Device)
A technology-based device or system designed to compensate for cognitive deficits by supporting functions such as memory, planning, attention, and task sequencing. Analogous to a physical orthosis tha…
Digital Family Portrait
Digital Family Portrait is a 2001 research prototype from Georgia Institute of Technology (Mynatt et al.) that uses an ambient, picture-frame-style display in an adult child's home to represent the da…
Environmental Control System (ECS, Electronic Aids to Daily Living, EADL, Environmental Control Unit)
An environmental control system (ECS) is an assistive technology that enables people with physical disabilities to independently control devices and features in their environment, such as lights, door…
Lifestyle Modelling (Lifestyle Monitoring, Lifestyle Modeling)
Lifestyle modelling is the correlation of a person's observed day-to-day activities — sleeping, eating, moving between rooms, interacting with objects — with inferences about their well-being, usually…
Passive Infrared Sensor (PIR Sensor, PIR, Motion Sensor)
A passive infrared sensor detects movement by measuring changes in ambient infrared radiation in its field of view — typically body heat from a person moving across the detection zone. PIR sensors are…
Smart Environment (Intelligent Environment, Smart Space)
A physical space equipped with sensors, computing devices, and networked systems that can monitor conditions, infer context, and respond to the activities and needs of occupants. Smart environments ai…