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DVD player, internet telephony, air conditioning unit or TV: Imagine that every device and service unit in your home is networked together and it’s childplay for you to operate them all from a personal remote control. That is the goal of the i2home project, funded by the EU and managed by DFKI Saarbrücken. The project consists of nine partners in research and business implementing an open, standards-based platform (universal remote console ISO/IEC 24752), that makes it possible to interact with an unlimited number of devices and services over a central, operator interface customized for the user’s personal needs.

At CeBIT 2008 in Hall 9, B37, DFKI is presenting a multimodal dialog system that is based on the ODP framework also developed at DFKI. Using a smartphone as the end device, it represents a version of the operator interface developed for i2home. In this system, the focus is on a language and gesture controlled operation of the network, for example, to give the elderly or the learning impaired easier access to the digital home. It is possible with this system, in a relatively simple way, to operate the home’s air conditioner: The exhibit will show how with the voice command, “Set the air conditioner to 20 °C”, the air conditioning unit can be activated and set to the automatic mode.