Multimodal environmental control system for elderly and disabled people

The objective of the work presented in this article is to design an environmental control system which allows disabled and elderly users to command a large variety of appliances in their homes. The system consists of a central unit which communicates with the different devices through the EHS (European Home System) and TECI (Thomson Electronics Computer Interface) protocols. User interacts with a mobile remote control unit through a touchscreen and an input/output voice and audio module. The mobile unit is connected to the central one by a radio control link. Disabled and elderly users have participated in the different steps of the design starting from the specification phase and continuing in the development in order to match more accurately the design to their needs and to guarantee a final system with a high degree of usability.