Domotica ad uso sociale

The use of innovative technology in our homes gives us the opportunity to satisfy many needs which were not possible with older systems. When a designer thinks about a domotic home he must think about safety, comfort, energetic efficiency and usability, for these reasons a team of professionals works together to design a customized home. Home automation systems offer a wide range of excellent features that can make anyone's life easier and more enjoyable. But this is especially important in the case of disabled people who have particular accessibility concerns for their home. When most people think about accessibility technology for the homes of disabled or elderly people they get about as far as thinking of stair lifts and easy access showers or baths, moving the position of light switches. But with today's technology there is much more that we can do. From using a smartphone as a control system to replace any switches that are difficult to reach, to automatic doors and electric cabinet tracks. The first part of this work concerns accessibility and design for all; speaking of the technical aspects of domotics, predisposition and future additions to the system. The second part describes practical solutions which increase quality of life and the conclusion of the work is the design of a flexible and low cost home controlling and monitoring system for the elderly and caregivers based on Arduino/Android solution. The architecture presented in this work can be customized in different ways in order to accommodate different application scenarios with minimum re-coding and design. provides ideas for the design of the systems. The aim of this thesis is to underline that domotics are not just something for able and wealthy people but it has many social aspects and it is an ethic choice to be done by architects, electricians and builders. The thesis is structured according to the following logic diagram; four broad areas were considered. The first area has the purpose of giving an idea of the context in which the problem of disability arises, considering: the definition of disability, the problem of accessibility, the interpretation of the social costs and finally the laws both at national and international level . The second part describes the home automation in general and then describes the social approach to home automation. The third part through user/stakeholder analysis (interviews) and the analysis of the opportunities on the market, establishes the requirements for a home automation system designed for an elderly or disabled person. The fourth and final part of the thesis describes the path through which we have arrived at the architecture of the prototype which we built for a family who are facing the problem of autonomy especially for an elderly person who wishes to live, as long as possible, in his/her own home .