As our contextual smart home became more intelligent, the way we interacted with it became much more like the interactions we have with other people. So it made a lot of sense to give our smart home an identity and a name. This means that it can fully interact with people & services, also adopting the privacy, security & trust relationships that come with an Internet identity.
The adoption of an identity makes it simpler and easier for family members to connect to our smart home via familiar methods and use its many user interfaces. The use of a recognised identity or persona also enables many existing communications end points and methods that are more typically associated with people. Our smart of is a contact on our Smartphones that we can call, chat with, send SMS messages or email.
Our smart home is not just capable of simple request and responses. It is a learning based system that proactively takes action and informs us of things that we need to know about in a timely fashion. As well as sending us notifications, it also sends media and reports via email, etc. All of the usual communication channels are available to it that you or I would use. It will make intelligent decisions based upon the priority of the communication, known location information and the online presence of family members. It will then deliver information and updates in the most appropriate fashion and this can include in home voice announcements.
Our smart home has a phone number and email address, SIP credentials and even a Twitter account. It will respond to Twitter DMs from trusted friends.
Our smart home also models people, roles and trust relationships. This means it can enforce permissions and access controls when interacting with known people.
