Inside+the+Smart+Home

In 2001, Orange, a UK mobile network operator, announced the “Orange at Home” project, a smart house incorporating the latest technology wizardry built some 20 miles north of London. It was intended to be more than a mere showcase, with plans for real families to move in and live with the smart home. My then research establishment, the Digital World Research Centre at the University of Surrey, was commissioned to study how these families reacted to their new home, and to report lessons for the future development of smart homes and smart home technologies.