Design and Verification of a Smart Home Management System for Making a Smart Home Composable and Adjustable by the Elderly

As the aging population continues to increase globally, the development of methods to support the independent living of the elderly is becoming increasingly essential. Although smart home technology is expected to be used to support independent living in the homes of the elderly, the barriers to introducing this technology into the homes of elderly people are high. To support the continuation of independent living tailored to each elderly person, we aim to realize a system that can be composed and adjusted by the elderly themselves to turn their homes into smart homes using an easy-to-understand framework and an age-friendly interface that visualizes the framework. In this study, we developed a simple system described by a combination of trigger and action and a straightforward iPad configuration application. To evaluate the usability of the developed system, we performed an experiment in which young people experienced the configuration and adjustment of the system in a simulated environment. The results showed that the average time required for setting up the system was approximately 2 min, and the average of the system usability scale to evaluate the configuration system was 78.5, which was sufficiently high, indicating that the system was acceptable. In the future, we will verify whether this system can be accepted by the elderly as well.