User-friendly home automation based on 3D virtual world

Home automation is a system to control things around the home such as a door, a light, surveillance systems and consumer electronics. A user can control a variety of home devices with the help of home automation. To provide mobility, a mobile-based home automation has been developed. Remote controlling and monitoring are possible with the mobile phone. As another home automation, an internet-based one has also been proposed and provides friendly graphic user interface. But the home automations mentioned above lack user-friendliness, neither intuitive nor realistic. To improve the user-friendly interface, 3D virtual world is adopted as the control interface for the home automation. With the help of 3D virtual world, a user can monitor the status of home devices and control them intuitively anywhere and anytime through the internet. The proposed home automation system can advance a 3D social network service by linking the virtual world to the real world.