Visualization and Control of a Smart Home Research Facility using an Interactive Public Display

Abstract: This thesis presents the design and implementation of an application for a large interactive public display. The role of the application is to visualize and control the sensor systems that are located in the Human Health and Activity Laboratory, a smart home research facility at Luleå University of Technology. These sensor systems work independently from each other and present different kinds of data while there is no easy way to find out if the systems are active or if there are any problems. There is also a need to be able to present the laboratory, displaying images for public users with descriptions. The project had two main phases, where the first one was to choose frameworks and database while also plan a user interface for the application that was useful for people using the laboratory. This was done by first drawing the application on paper to define functionality and appearance and then in Power Point where two people got to test the application and use their feedback as a result for the implementation. The second phase was to implement the application and integrate the systems, which included figuring out how to do this in the best possible way and lessons learned from it. It also included figuring out how to create a real dynamic menu depending on URL location and rewriting and rethinking a lot of CSS styling to create the design that was wanted. As a conclusion, the project was a success and it is a very good and easily extendable solution for the problem stated and it has a potential to be a very useful tool in the future.