The profile of modern home automation systems will change fundamentally. Classical use cases aiming at the individual apartment such as comfort oriented controls and increase of energy efficiency have to be complemented by requirements from the energy providers and, in particular, home care and health care. The potential of innovative home automation as a technical instrument for supporting family-based and institutional care processes in the home environment is proven today: home automation systems can be a significant instrument for simplifying life for older adults living alone. Home automation systems as a technology for addressing the challenges of demographic change also offer the potential of providing German vendors with a leading position internationally in a growing market of strategic importance.

The project „LivingCare“ aims at developing and evaluating a user centered, autonomously learning home automation system covering use cases from the domains of assisted living/prevention, comfort/safety, and energy efficiency, which adapts itself to preferences, needs and behavior patterns of the user in a life-accompanying manner.

The project is driving innovations in three central areas and uses them, for the first time in this combination, in the field of home automation:

• sensing (wireless mobility sensor suitable for retro-fitting in existing homes),
• cognition (data fusion, modeling, autonomous learning)
• and – on this foundation – situation-appropriate interventions.