Safety and security of remote monitoring and control of intelligent home environments

Intelligent home environments are one of the major application areas of pervasive computing. Safety and security are two most important issues in the remote monitoring and control of intelligent home environments. This article takes safety and security into consideration together and proposes a phone-out-only policy for ensuring security and virtual home environments for safety. A remote monitoring and control system for a security camera is used to illustrate the new methodologies for safety and security. By using the demonstration system people are able to easily monitor and control a security camera, central heating, microwave oven and washer from anywhere by using mobile phones. Our system distinguishes from the existing DTI (Department of Trade and Industry in the UK) next wave technologies and a few of on-going EU projects in the ways of dealing with safety and security and its simplicity. Remote monitoring and control of intelligent home environments can be of great benefits to the working families and holiday makers and has a great commercial potential.