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dedicated to specific purposes such as lighting con-
trol. Portability began to matter and attempts where
made in order to overcome those drawbacks.
In 1996 a method for menu-driven UI, more par-
ticularly, for distributing menus throughout a home,
was presented (Fujita and Lam, 1996). In order to
make the software portable, functions could be im-
plemented using a personal computers, infra-red, re-
mote controls, home distributed networks and televi-
sion receivers. This invention was advantageous in a
way that menus could be distributed to any place in a
home, users could control the home system and out-
side services from any display location in the home
and different menus could be distributed at the same
time to distinct display locations.
In 2005, a mobile-based HAS solution was in-
troduced (Van Der Werff et al., 2005). The de-
sign consisted on a mobile phone with Java applica-
tions, a cellular modem, and a micro-controller. User
friendly graphical UI was provided on the mobile
phone through applications developed in Java pro-
gramming language. The controller board resided at
home and worked as a home server, which carried
out the task of operating and monitoring house ap-
pliances. The home server communicated with the
remote control via cellular modem.
More recently, a ZigBee-Based Home Automa-
tion System was proposed (Gill et al., 2009). ZigBee
is a specification for a set of communication proto-
cols used to build personal area networks built from
series of small, low powered digital radios (Alliance,
2006). It is based on an IEEE 802.15 standard. Zig-
Bee devices often transmit data over longer distances
by passing data through intermediate devices to reach
more distant ones, creating a network with no central-
ized control or high-power transmitter/receiver able to
reach all of the networked devices. The decentralized
nature of such wireless ad hoc networks make them
suitable for applications where a central node can’t
be relied upon.
Another key feature for HAS is the capability for
remote operation. Considerable efforts have been put
into the development of remote control systems for
home automation. With the proliferation of Internet,
various Internet-based remote control architectures
for home automation have been proposed (Al-Ali and
Al-Rousan, 2004; Corcoran and Desbonnet, 1997).
These systems rely on the Internet as the medium for
communication and generally feature friendly graph-
ical user interfaces. Home gateways provide network
interoperability, a simple and flexible user interface,
and remote access to the system.
3.2 All in One and UI Customisation
Home Automated Systems have been making an ef-
fort to control all house features. The standard ap-
proach now commonly used is for each device or sys-
tem in a given environment to be controlled according
to a particular methodology which might differ dra-
matically from other systems (Stein et al., 2000). For
example, a home might include a security system, an
entertainment system, an environmental control sys-
tem, and so forth, each with it’s own unique interface.
By requiring the user to learn several methods of oper-
ating each system or set of devices in the environment,
it is more difficult for the user to become familiar with
the various systems and to take full advantage of all
their features. Another drawback associated with this
standard approach is that the use of different inter-
faces may result in an increase in the amount of space
taken up in the setting. More and more users want a
single application capable of controlling Illumination,
HVAC and white goods.
Liu and Xian approached this problem particu-
larly for disabled people (Liu and Xian, 2007). The
system was build so as to merge all house features.
To enhance the experience, a voice controlled, User
Friendly UI was carefully designed, so that user could
use not only standard keyboard and mouse, but also
the voice to control home environments including
lights, TV, radio, VCD/DVD player, fan, and air con-
ditioner. Furthermore, the self-designed software ap-
plied home automation control idea to internet access
and PC application software access with the features
of surfing the internet, sending and receiving emails,
using other PC software such as Microsoft Office.
A report by William Wimsatt went further and in
addition to gathering features, developed a contextual
UI (Wimsatt et al., 2006). Contextual Interface is a
product of a design process in which the various inter-
face features are selected to improve the users ability
to operate the interface. Examples of interface fea-
tures that can be controlled include the selection of
controls, size, shape and position, background and
foreground colour schemes, sounds, as well as the
selection of actions that are initiated by operating a
control. In most graphical user interfaces these items
remain static so that irrespective of the context, a con-
trol such as a start button, remains in the same place
on a display with the same appearance and performs
the same function. This invention involved two levels
of contextual relevance.
First, the user interface as a whole is contextu-
ally sensitive to the elements appearance (e.g., colour,
size, font, etc.) and their behaviour vary depending on
the context of the control unit (CU). The context of
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