Parents,pre‐schoolers and learning with technology at home: some implications for policy

Schemes that seek to ensure that children have access to technology at home have, so far, been aimed at children over the age of 8. However, there is likely to be an increasing policy interest in extending similar schemes to pre‐school children given widespread commitment to the value of early intervention in children's education and family life. We draw on three research studies conducted by the authors to discuss the range of technologies that children encounter at home, the different forms their learning takes and family support for learning. We use these findings to provide starting points for considering the implementation of similar schemes for pre‐school children and their parents in the future, identifying several questions to consider when developing policy on home access to technology for pre‐schoolers: which technologies are most appropriate? Will access to technology at home lead to increased use? What roles do parents play in supporting learning? Which forms of learning are most likely to be promoted?     

基于SMS远程监控系统

SMS远程监控系统利用GSM网络的SMS(手机短信业务)和低成本的硬件电路构建家居设备的远程监控。在GSM覆盖的地域里,用户可以发送短消息来控制连接到系统的家电设备的开关状态。同样,系统也可以向用户告知其工作状态。用户可以设定特殊短信来监视家中是否发生了特定事件。将GSM/GPRS MODEM主控系统与无线模块相结合,系统构建了一个一主多从的控制网络,从而实现智能化家居监控网络。     

基于IPv6的智能家居系统的研究和思考

随着NGN下一代网络业务的不断推出,家庭用户对通信、娱乐、智能控制和安防的需求日益迫切,因此本文通过分析IPv6在智能家居方面的优势,提出了基于IPv6的智能家居模型。     

Inchworm robot grippers for clothes manipulation

Manipulating deformable objects like clothes, plastic, and paper by a robot is very challenging. This paper focuses on clothes manipulation as an example. A tracing manipulation method is used here to find a corner of the clothes. In this paper, tracing refers to tracing the clothes’ edge, with the robot’s movement based on feedback from sensors. One difficulty during this edge tracing is to make the robot trace smoothly and speedily without dropping the clothes in the process. This is due to the fact that deformable objects are sensitive to contact forces. A solution to this problem is to design a special robot gripper that can trace the clothes without having to worry about the clothes slipping away. In this paper, the development of inchworm-type grippers is proposed. Two sets of grippers inside a robot hand will allow the robot to trace the clothes more freely because there will always be a gripper firmly holding the clothes at any time. A unique tracing method for towel spreading using the inchworm grippers is also discussed. Experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of both the proposed grippers and also the algorithm. This work was presented in part at the 12th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 25–27, 2007     

Considerate home notification systems: a field study of acceptability of notifications in the home

A field study in ten homes was conducted to understand what influences users’ acceptability of notifications in the home environment. The key finding is that perceived message urgency is the primary indicator of acceptability of notifications in the home—if people think a message is urgent, they want the message to be shown immediately, regardless of what they are doing at the time of notification. The study also shows that the acceptability of low-urgent and medium-urgent messages could be improved by taking into account mental activity load at the time of notification. No effect of physical activity was found on acceptability. The results suggest that to improve the scheduling of notifications in the home, notification systems need a mechanism assessing both the message urgency and the mental activity load, whereas physical activity can be ignored. From a methodological point of view, it is difficult to measure acceptability of notifications in a realistic setting, given the need to balance experimental control with realistic context. The present paper suggests a way to introduce controlled notifications and subjective measurements of acceptability in homes.     

蓝牙（Bluetooth）在数字化信息家电中的应用

随着计算机和网络通信技术的发展,计算机数字化技术,现代通信技术,已融合到信息家电中,使之智能化并具有网络信息终端的功能,本文讨论了蓝牙协议体系分析及应用模型,蓝牙连接方案,及蓝牙在数字化信息家电中的应用。     

A digital photography framework enabling affective awareness in home communication

By transforming the personal computer into a communication appliance, the Internet has initiated the true home computing revolution. As a result, Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) technologies are increasingly used in domestic settings, and are changing the way people keep in touch with their relatives and friends. This article first looks at how CMC tools are currently used in the home, and points at some of their benefits and limitations. Most of these tools supportexplicit interpersonal communication, by providing a new medium for sustaining conversations. The need for tools supportingimplicit interaction between users, in more natural and effottless ways, is then argued for. The idea of affective awareness is introduced as a general sense of being in touch with one's family and friends. Finally, the KAN-G framework, which enables affective awareness through the exchange of digital photographs, is described. Various components, which make the capture, distribution, observation and annotation of snapshots easy and effortless, are discussed.     

基于无线的物联智能家居控制系统设计

提出一种基于无线的物联智能家居控制系统设计,该系统通过PXA270和nRF24L01模块实现无线采集、发送各项家居信息;通过GSM通信将烟雾、煤气、红外等传感器的异常报警信息以短信方式通知用户,并连接PXA270的PC实现实时远程监控。经过测试,该系统工作稳定,便于实际应用,市场前景广阔。     

User-configurable semantic home automation

The ideas of smart home and home automation have been proposed for many years. However, when discussing homes of the future, related studies have usually focused on deploying various smart appliances (or devices) within a home environment and employing those appliances automatically by pre-defined procedures. The difficulties of supporting user-configurable automation are due to the complexity of various dynamic home environments. Moreover, within their home domains, users usually think semantically; for example, “I want to turn off all the lights on the second floor”. This paper proposes a semantic home automation system, USHAS (User-configurable Semantic Home Automation System), which adopts Web Service and WSBPEL for executing automated process; OWL and OWL-S for defining home environments and service ontology; and a self-defined markup language, SHPL (Semantic Home Process Language), for describing semantic processes.