Public networks and home networks

This paper gives new possibilities of public and home networks to provide new services in the near future and the result of a project using the PSTN and ISDN in tele-assistance services. The author and his group are involved in work related to the European standard Home System (EHS) and the development of software for a service centre connected to the home providing assistance to the elderly and disabled people connected to the service. One of these are the CASA TIDE project that aims to design, develop and evaluate an integrated solution offering a global service environment to elderly and disabled people to monitor and control a range of application suited to the requirements of this category of the population. This solution integrates a communication access to public communication networks (PSTN, ISDN and CATV) to link the home to service centres and provide a new, secured but completely socially integrated environment for elderly and disabled people.