Special Needs

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Adapting Smart Home Technology for Diverse Needs

An important—and valuable—aspect of Smart Home technology is its ability to be adapted to address special needs. This might range, for example, from remotely monitoring and controlling all of the smart technologies installed in a vacation cabin at the lake, or simply turning off the home garden lights from your bedroom when it’s time to turn in for the night.

While the goals of smart home technologies are typically entertainment, security, and energy management, they can be adapted to address special needs that are unique to your home, and those who live there. Here are some examples of special needs that might be addressed:

  • Remotely checking that the swimming pool gate is locked, and locking it, if you forget—from anywhere inside the home, or away.
  • Remotely checking the temperature in the guest house, and adjusting it before the in-laws arrive.
  • Limiting the technologies that can be controlled from a specific location. The keypad in a child’s bedroom, for example, might control the lights and music volume for that room—but not the security system.

For a family member who is aging-in-place, more complex accommodations are often necessary. Let’s say that your vision-impaired mother lives with you. She enjoys watching TV during the day when the rest of the family is away. But because she can no longer read the buttons on the standard TV remote, a special universal remote with a flat screen can be programmed to accommodate her specific needs.

Here’s how. The remote might be designed to show four large squares—Red/Blue/Green/Yellow—plus a long black vertical strip in the center, containing a sliding bar to control the volume. When she taps the color that represents the station she wants to watch, the TV turns on, and the cable box tunes to that station. Then she can adjust the volume.

If she’s having an off day and cannot remember what program she wants to watch (or the name of the station where it is located), she can simply toggle through the four squares until she finds a TV show that will satisfy her. A small black triangle, programmed into the upper right corner, converts the screen into a standard, full-function remote—for other family members to use. See An Electronic Safety Net for Elders.