Interoperability Issues Among Smart HomeTechnological Frameworks

Lorena RossiINRCA

Ancona, ItalyEmail: l.rossi@inrca.it

Alberto Belli, Adelmo De Santis,Claudia Diamantini, Emanuele Frontoni,

Ennio Gambi, Lorenzo Palma,Luca Pernini, Paola Pierleoni,

Domenico Potena, Laura Raffaeli,Susanna Spinsante, and Primo Zingaretti

Polytechnic University of MarcheAncona, Italy

Email: n.surname@univpm.it

Diletta Cacciagrano, Flavio Corradini,Rosario Culmone, Francesco De Angelis,

Barbara Re, and Emanuela MerelliUniversity of Camerino

Camerino, ItalyEmail: name.surname@unicam.it

Abstract—Population aging may be seen both as a humansuccess story, the triumph of public health, medical advancementsand economic development over diseases and injures, and as oneof the most challenging phenomena that society faces in thiscentury. Assistive technology in all its possible implementations(from Telemedicine to Ambient Assisted Living, and AmbientIntelligence) represents an emerging answer to the needs of thenew generation of older adults whose desire is to live longer witha higher quality of life. Objective of this paper is to presentthe results of a public financed action for the developmentand implementation of an ”integration platform” for AmbientAssisted Living that includes features of home automation (en-ergy management, safety, comfort, etc.) and introduces ”smartobjects”, to monitor activities of daily living and detect anyabnormal behavior that may represent a danger, or highlightsymptoms of some incipient disease.

I. INTRODUCTION

Worldwide population is growing older in many countries[1]. While the population of more economically developedcountries (MECD) has been aging for well over a century,this process has recently begun in most of the less developedcountries and it is compressed into few decades. Populationaging may be seen in a twofold way: as a history of humansuccess, with the triumph of public health, medical progressand economic development over diseases and injures; and asone of the most challenging phenomena that society facesin this century. It concerns the ability of families, states andcommunities to sustain the needs of a such relevant part of pop-ulation, both from a social and an economical point of view.The current shift in demographics presents a major challengeto companies and societies alike [2]. One particularly essentialimplication is the emergence and constant growth of the so-called ”gray market” or ”silver market”, that market segmentmore or less broadly defined as people aged 50 and older.Within this market, an important role is represented by assistivedevices, i.e. those devices that, often with a high technologicalcontent, can help older people to maintain their ability inperforming the activities of daily living and, therefore, theirindependence. Assistive technology in all its possible imple-mentation (from Telemedicine to Ambient Assisted Living, andAmbient Intelligence) represents an emerging answer to the

needs of the new generation of older adults, whose desire isto live longer with a higher quality of life.

From a customer perspective it is of key importance thata relatively expensive assistive device is ”future-proof” [3] interms of the possibility to be used over several years and togrow and adapt to the users’s changing needs. Furthermoresystems need to be installed in existing homes and theymust be integrated with the existing infrastructure. Thesechallenges can be addressed only with modularity and thisis possible only with standardized interfaces between systems,and system components and interoperability. A multitude ofstandards applicable to assistive technology already exists, butunfortunately the situation is really complex. For many relevanttopics for assistive technology, there simply are no standards,or no standards with market acceptance. This compels ev-erybody to ”re-invent the wheel” with each new product orproject. On the contrary, for other topics, there are too, oftenoverlapping or rivaling, standards driven by different vendorsor organizations requiring the developer to choose betweensupport all standards (too expensive) and to select one standardand accept incompatibility with all others.

The aim of this paper is to show the results of an actionfounded by Marche region, whose main target is the devel-opment and the implementation of an ”integration platform”for Ambient Assisted Living that, starting from the approachbased on platforms already existing in Telemedicine services,expands such concept, including home automation features(energy management, safety, comfort, etc.) and introducting”smart objects”, able to communicate their interaction with anolder user in order to monitor activities of daily living anddetect any abnormal behavior that may represent a danger orsome kind of symptoms of an incipient disease. The arrange-ment of existing systems and new expressly developed objectsplaces interoperability as one of the main topics of the projectdevelopment. The paper is organized as follows: Section II andall its subsections provide an overview of each project, withrelated architectures and data management strategies; SectionIII discusses the proposals for interoperability each projectis addressing, with the aim of identifying a viable solution.Finally, Section IV draws the main conclusion of the paper.

II. OVERVIEW OF SINGLE PROJECTS DATAARCHITECTURES AND MANAGEMENT

A. Project HicMO

The main goal of the HicMO project1 is to design anddevelop an Ambient Assisted Living platform which, integrat-ing diverse sensors and intelligent devices, provides advancedservices for monitoring domestic activities and ensuring thewell-being of the elderly person.

The project involves 13 SMEs providing various kinds ofsensors and intelligent devices and the Universita Politecnicadelle Marche, which participates with researchers in differentfields of industrial and information engineering in order tosupport partners in any aspects of the design. Within the projectvarious classes of devices are taken into consideration:

• Environmental sensors, for monitoring temperature,humidity, air quality, lighting levels of the variousrooms of the house. Furthermore, a set of sensorsfor monitoring energy consumption and, by means ofsmart plugs, the use of devices.

• Wearable sensors. A sensor that can be embedded inshoes’ sole, adaptable to different types of shoes, thatis able to collect, analyze and transmit data aboutthe movement of the user like e.g. speed, number ofsteps, periods of movement and rest, and so forth.Furthermore, a t-shirt with a 3D accelerometer and aGalvanic Skin Response is under development. Thist-shirt is able to provide information about user’sactivity, it is a fall detector and can identify eventsof significant, or intense nature. Finally, an RFID taghas been deigned to be embedded in a ring or abracelet. This sensor is coupled with an element, ofsmall dimensions, which records the user proximityto objects; in this way, we have information about theposition of the user, devices with which she interacts,and so forth.

• Telemedicine system, which is composed of 4 medicaldevices: Blood pressure monitor, digital scale, pulseoximeter and electrocardiograph.

• Multimedia management: a SmartTV adapter and aplatform for e-learning. The former is able to trans-form any TV in a device for playing multimediacontents; this device is conceived to provide a simpleinterface for the overall project. The latter has beenincluded because we believe that to assist an elderlyuser also means being able to train the person.

• Active household appliances. In particular the projectincludes a refrigerator, which is able to transmit in-formation about its status and about interactions withthe user, e.g. opening of the door, opening of themedicinal drawer, change of temperature.

Central to the development of the project is the notion ofSmart Object (SO), an abstraction of devices and sensors func-tionalities which provides an uniform view over heterogeneousstandards, communication protocols, data types and categories

1Hicmo is the acronym of the Latin sentence ”Hic Manebimus Optime“,i.e. here we’ll stay excellently

(from values of physical measurements to texts). Each SO isseen as a service able to transmit information over HTTP toa centralized system (called PID) letting the manufacturershandle all internal characteristics. SOs are described by XMLdescriptors which provide information to identify the SO, de-scribes measurements gathered by the SO, and lists commandsto which the device is able to responds. By using the XMLdescriptor, the PID configures itself in order to manage datacoming from the SO, whatever the sampling frequency andthe data structure and granularity is. Above the PID a setof intelligent services is designed for transforming data intoknowledge, hence triggering actions aimed at ensuring thewell-being of the user. Optionality of measure, measurements,command can be specified. The XML descriptor is composedof three main sections:

• baseInformation: is the section providing base infor-mation about the SO, like the macAddress, the man-ufacturer, HW and SW versions, protocols adopted,etc.

• dataProvider: it is the central part of the document,describing SO capabilities in terms of measurements,commands, events that can be provided by the SO andstatuses it can take. For the lack of space we brieflydescribe here the most relevant properties of each.Measurements can be composed of one or more mea-sures, for instance blood pressure is a measurementcomposed by three measure: systolic pressure, dias-tolic pressure and heartbeat. Each measure is describedin terms of a data type, unit of measure, description,max and min values. Commands are characterized byrelevant parameters and their characteristics, commandtime out, and command status. Finally events areare associated with event reporting rules, and eventconditions, that are a combination of range conditionsover measures.

• dataConsumer: in this section the identifiers of otherSO from which the described SO can consume dataand/or command are provided.

SO interoperability is enhanced by the definition of a concep-tual ontology which extends the ontologies developed in theSemantic Sensor Web and Ambient Assisted Living domains[5], [8] by including the description of different types ofdevices and measurements like the one involved in the project,and by providing a high level conceptualization of AmbientAssisted Living goals and actions to which measurements arerelated.

B. Project TRASPARENTE

The system considered in the project named TRASPAR-ENTE2 covers several aspects of the home living, such asindependent living, home security, health monitoring and en-vironmental control. It may be considered as composed byseveral sub-systems related to different domains, as shownin Fig. 1: domotic system, behaviour detection, telemedicine,human-system interfaces. Each subsystem has its own devicesgenerating data with specific features, all managed by means of

2The acronym TRASPARENTE means transparent and stands for ”assistantnetwork technologies for residential autonomy in the silver age”

Fig. 1. Domains in the TRASPARENTE architecture.

server applications that provide a unique integrated platformfor data processing. In the following subsections, the mainelements of the system are summarized. Each element needsto collect the proper data for different aims, from a widerange of heterogeneous sensors, that differ according to type,transmission method, network technology, processing, storage.Gathered data are transmitted over several types of networktechnologies (CAN bus, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wireless SubGHz).As a general approach, data of each domain are stored lo-cally and the processing operation is performed by the localserver, depending on the usage and on the functionalities toimplement. In some cases the local server collects all thedata received from a specific type of sensor, and sends theremote server an aggregated information, properly processed.This approach builds upon previous research experiences [6]and is shared by the industrial partners involved within theproject.

1) Domotic System: The domotic system represents thebasic home automation infrastructure and is composed by twoarchitectural levels:

• the CAN bus level is the lower level, that includes aset of ”nodes”, i.e. sensors and actuators;

• the Ethernet/Wi-Fi level is the higher level, that pro-vides interconnection between CAN and IP networks.The Ethernet network of the domotic system is con-nected to the home local network (e.g. Wi-Fi).

The communication is bidirectional: on one hand, data ac-quired by the CAN devices may be transmitted to the serverlocated within the IP network thanks to a gateway device. Onthe other hand, the gateway forwards the nodes the commandsreceived by the control devices over the home local network(such as tablets or smart TV hosting the system interfaces).Actuators can control lights, engines to open/close windows,door locks, flow meters and so on. These devices are activatedby specific commands sent from the control devices. This is anexample of a command instruction generated by an interfacedevice to turn on a light:http://192.168.21.5:1234/Scenario?rid=0&DevType=8&ScenNum=255&instantAck=0&DevNum=1&p1=0&p2=1&p3=0&p4=0&p5=0&set=1.

Among the parameters: the IP address of the Ethernet/CANgateway device which manages the request, the identification

of the actuator that will execute the command, and other valuesto identify the type of action. Sensor nodes include powermeters, presence sensors, magnetic sensors for opening/closingdetection of fixtures. Some types of sensors transmit data whenrequested by the server, other when an event occurs. So thefrequency of transmission and the load of data on the networksare variable. For example, when a presence sensor is activated,it sends a message to the server. By processing this message,the server identifies the sensor and its position in the house,and stores this event in the local database.

2) Load Detection and Monitoring: The network for elec-trical loads monitoring may be considered as a part of thedomotic system, being composed by a set of sensors, calledmeter nodes, connected to the CAN bus of the domoticnetwork. Each node is used to monitor and control an electricalload so, depending on this two functions, the nodes can bothsend information about the power consumption of the load andenable/disable it when receiving the corresponding commandby the server. As for the monitoring function, the informationabout the power consumption can be acquired periodicallyby the sensors and stored in a database, for example toevaluate the appliances consumption. The control functionsare related to the definition of two thresholds, namely warningand danger; the server checks the conditions of absorption andexecutes the proper action, e.g. to disable an electric load.

3) Telemedicine platform: The telemedicine subsystem in-cludes several certified electro-medical devices, such as bloodpressure meter, oximeter and scale. Each of them transmitsthe collected values to a remote platform, so that they maybe analyzed by a doctor or caregiver to monitor the patient’shealth condition. Some of these data are also forwarded by thegateway to the local server over the Ethernet or Wi-Fi network.

4) Behavior detection platform: The platform for behaviordetection employs data obtained from a set of different devices,to detect and evaluate some features in the user’s behavior. Theintegrated smart shoe is a special shoe equipped with forcesensing resistors that allow posture and balance evaluation.The records obtained are sent to a gateway using wirelessSub-GHz technology, which forwards them to the server overthe local network, where they are processed by appropriatealgorithms. The same transmission method and technology areapplied to bed/sofa sensors, pressure sensors used to localizethe user and obtain information on his movement inside thehouse. The body sensor network concentrator (BSNC) is thedevice that collects data acquired by a set of wearable sensorsand forwards them to the server via Wi-Fi. Possible types ofsensors are accelerometers, gyroscopes, temperature sensors,and magnetometers.

5) System-user interfaces: The system provides severaltypes of interface devices to meet the needs of different usersand conditions. Touchscreen portable devices, smart TVs andNFC devices are used to send commands to the system,to acquire data, to request information. The data flow isbidirectional and involves mostly the local Wi-Fi and Ethernetnetwork. In these higher-level applications, data are formattedas JSON elements. The local server replies with JSON objectsto all the client application requests, regardless of the originaldata format.

C. Project AALISABETH [Ambient-Aware LIfeStyle tutor,Aiming at a BETter Health]

The project aims to address the issues of diseases preven-tion, early detection and management with the highest impacton the elderly population. It proposes innovative solutions,characterized by low invasiveness and great easiness to beused. The system we are developing within AALISABETHproject provides, in a single framework, support for indepen-dent living of elderly person. It uses different technologieswhose interaction and integration allow the system to behaveas a unique, highly distributed, intelligence. Consistently withan holistic view, different system components, organized ina hierarchical and modular infrastructure, cooperate towardsthe common goal of promoting the well-being of the elderlyperson.

The interpretation of human behavior, based on non-invasive sensors, requires the analysis of large volumes of dataof different types [8]. Whereas, the representation of the livingenvironment, requires systems that are scalable in numbers ofcomponents, flexible to tuning the sensors configuration, andsimple to perform the specification of behavioral patterns. Theproposed solution provides these features, but also requires acareful modeling of both hardware and software aspects.

The hardware components of the system consist of environ-mental and body sensors. Some of them are already availableon the market, others have been designed ad hoc by industrialpartners of the AALISABETH project, such as the tray formeasuring the type and quantity of foods consumed by theuser. In order to enable extensibility and modularity of thesystem, the sensors are managed by a gateway that transmitsall the data on a single temporal DBMS. The common schemeused for storing the sensor values takes into account the timewhen the events are generated by the sensors, thus recordsare store according to the following scheme [id, type, value,timestamp]. Whereas, the devices, that are involved in the dataacquisition and production of n values aggregation, for eachevent, are stored in DBML as n events with their types, valuesbut with the same timestamp. Furthermore, the values andthe functions of the devices in the system are described byan ontology [data ontology] that is an extension of a singleontology [domain ontology] [7].

The development of software components used for thedata analysis and discovering of diagnostic suspicion has beenrealized in two phases:

• The realization of ontology views that allow the cre-ation of virtual sensors by using the events collected inthe ontology data. The purpose of the ontology of viewis to select and group into abstract concepts, eventsthat are significant for subsequent behavioral analysisof the users [9].

• The development of a query engine for ComplexEvent Processing [10]. The description of the temporalsequence of events, described in the ontology of view,allows to perform for both qualitative analysis, suchas the presence or not of pathological behaviors, andquantitative measurements as indicators of the lifestyleof the users.

Fig. 2. PAss Integration architecture.

D. Project Pass (Private Assisted House Project)

The Pass Project aims to define a novel service care modelfocusing on the people needs called Private Assisted House.This means that different levels of service are enabled by aflexible software integration platform whose development isdone considering different people profile. The project startedwith an analysis of users requirements and then focused on de-signs and develops of a user cantered smart home environment.Smart-objects are also designed and developed to be sensor andactuator. Following we mainly focus on the architecture of thesoftware integration platform (see Fig. 2).

The PAss smart environment consists of an event-basedmiddleware able to manage smart-object messages. A messagefrom a smart object is sent to an home gateway - a devicethat runs the integration platform - and can be used for somebasic automations inside the house following simple if-then-else rules. This is our first level of communications locally tothe house. At the same time, the message can be routed to abig data repository equipped with intelligent logic to analysedata for a more powerful computation that can return to thehouse actuation, or configurations. This is our second levelof communication able to connect the houses with remoteplatforms for powerful global analysis considering the dailylife activities.

As home gateway software platform we take Freedomotic[11]. We select it because of it is a mature, state-of-the-art, open-source middleware for home automation, it caninteract with many low-level communication standards andit is equipped with an extension mechanism. Freedomoticintegrates an event bus that can be used for communicationdeveloping plugins to support communication protocols andobject interfaces. We leverage its modular architecture al-lowing the design of plugins able to communicate with itsmessaging bus infrastructure. Each event in the real worldconnected to Freedomotic is represented by a message in thebus.

In order to guarantee interoperability among different smartobjects and software applications we use a communication pro-tocol called Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT)[12]. MQTT uses a publish/subscribe mechanism, extremelysimple and lightweight for messaging, designed for constraineddevices and low-bandwidth, high-latency or unreliable net-works. In MQTT there are two main actors: (i) a client, thatwants to subscribe a channel to get information, or publishinformation with a topic; and (ii) a broker, that managesthe distribution of messages. The design principles are to

minimise network bandwidth and device resource requirementswhilst also attempting to ensure reliability and some degreeof assurance of delivery. Moreover, MQTT publish/subscribemechanism benefits of a broker functionality used to decouplethe publisher and the subscriber allowing flexibility on thesolution configuration.

For each architectural component in Fig. 2 a client sendsor receives messages from a broker according to predefinedtopics. Message contains a payload with the data gatheredby sensors or required by actuators. A payload is made byseveral key-value pairs which include a timestamp, a uniqueidentifier, a type identifier to identify the kind of objectoriginate the message, and all the relevant information relatedto the smart object from which they originate. Once a clientthrough the broker receives the MQTT message, the payloadis extracted from the message and then elaborated accordingto the following main steps.

• When a change in the environment is detected by asmart object a new event is detected. Each event willcontain a set of properties describing the name ofthe object that has generated the event, descriptionof the smart object, the used protocol, the addressof the object and also the real value of the detectedchange. This object will create an event specifyingthe properties listed above, and use these properties toset the MQTT message topic. Then it insert into theMQTT payload the real value of the detected change.

• The message then is sent to the Broker on a deter-mined channel or topic.

• The broker receives messages and then delivers it tothose clients that have subscribed a specific channelor a group of channels.

• When the home gateway receives the MQTT messagefrom the broker, sent by the smart object, it createsa new Freedomotic event using the MQTT topic andsetting the real value of the event using the MQTTpayload. After that, Freedomotic publishes the eventinto its event bus as if it were a totally new detectedevent.

E. Marchingegno and Sibilla project

The project involves the construction of a system of remotereal-time assistance of elderly people living alone. This systemis mainly composed of a pair of LED smart lamps calledMarchingegno and Sibilla, the first one is located in thehouse of the elderly, the other one in the house of relativesor caregiver. The smart lamp Marchingegno is an automaticdispenser of medicines that integrates a system for the mobilitymonitoring of the elderly in the home environment. The matelamp Sibilla is the display of the system that reports criticalevents and provide real-time information about the mobility ofthe elderly.

Several automatic drawers containing different medicinescompose the dispenser of Marchingegno. Each drawer isprogrammed in order to open at preset times and emit bothlight signals and sound alarms to remind the elderly to takethe medicine. In case of non-withdrawal, the system producesa remote alarm to report the omission of taking medicines.

In addition, Marchignegno includes a system for the mo-bility monitoring of the elderly based on wireless sensorsnodes distributed in the home environment. Each sensor nodecontains a Passive InfraRed (PIR) sensor that detects themovements of the elderly in a specific room. The sensor nodesare also equipped with ZigBee interface. As soon as the sensornodes detects the presence of a person in a room they transmitdata to a coordinator node located into Marchingegno via Zig-Bee interface. The received information are properly processedby an embedded microprocessor in which an algorithm thatdetermines the residence time of the elderly in each room isimplemented. If this time exceeds a preset danger threshold,the system generates an alarm to alert the permanence of theelderly in the room for a period not consistent with normaldaily activities.

The smart lamps are equipped with WiFi module to providethe Internet connectivity via a domestic router. In this way,the mobility details, the notes of taking of medicines and therelated alarms processed by Marchingegno are transmitted toa remote web server that is continuously checked by Sibillasmart lamp.

In case of potentially dangerous situation, the system iscapable to produce a real-time alarm on the Sibilla and onthe dedicated Smartphone application. Using the web serverthe information about the mobility of the elderly in homeenvironment, the notes of taking medicines and the alarmsare also displayed on PC or Smartphone application. Throughweb server login authorized users are able to modify thedanger threshold of the system for the mobility monitoringof the elderly and to configure the service of daily dosage ofmedicines in case of drug administration should change. Thecomplete architecture of the project is illustrated in Fig. 3.

House of the relatives House of the elderly

Smartphone Application

Sensor NodeSensor Node

Sensor NodeSensor Node

Internet

Domestic

Router

Domestic

Router

Web Server

Sibilla Smart Lamp

Marchingegno Smart

Lamp

Fig. 3. Architecture of Marchingegno and Sibilla project.

F. Project HDOMO

The HDomo 2.0 (Human Based Domotics 2.0) projectinvolves 16 SMEs and 2 research institutes and is mainlyfocused on Human Behaviours Analysis (HBA) in AAL. Thisproject aims to propose a novel idea of an interoperableembedded intelligent system where a series low cost smartsensors can analyse human behaviours to obtain interactivityand statistical data, mainly devoted to HBA in intelligentAAL environments. HDOMO defines a framework that is

Fig. 4. HDomo data and functions layers.

conceptually described in Fig. 4 and can be split in thefollowing modules: a low level indoor smart sensor family(going from localization, to access management and frominteractions to gesture analysis), a gateway installed insidethe AAL environment capable of smart sensor managementand low level interoperability, a communication layer sendingdata to a cloud based web architecture responsible of HBAclassification and alarm management.

One of the novelties of the system is in the use ofvision sensor (both RGB and RGBD) for people tracking andinteraction analysis, where the depth information has been usedto remove the affect of the appearance variation and to evaluateusers activities inside the home and in front of the fixtures.Also group interactions are monitored and analysed with themain goal of having a better knowledge of the users activities,using real data in real time. All information coming from thishuman behaviour analysis tool can be used to provide basicdata gathered in real time for an AAL environment. This datatogether with classical domotic data are used to classify correctand incorrect behaviours using a machine learning approach.

III. PROPOSALS FOR INTEROPERABILITY

A. Interoperability in the HicMO Project

Interoperability in HicMO is managed by a layered ap-proach combined with meta data definition and semantictechnologies. At the lower lever, internal data structures andhardware characteristics of each local device are autonomouslydefined by each hardware vendor. In order to be integrated inthe system, devices characteristics are described at the abstractlevel of Smart Objects (SO) capablities, adopting a commonlogical schema defined by the XML schema. The definitionof a semi-structured schema simplifies SO integration at PIDlevel, yet it guarantees the flexibility necessary to accountfor the many hardware and functional disparities, providedthat the XML schema is carefully designed. A conceptualontology of devices characteristics and functionalities, as wellas application domain goals has been conceived to leverageinteroperability. In particular the ontology supports the designand verification of the XML schema, the verification of thesemantic correctness of SO XML descriptors, the reconcilia-tion of data heterogeneities both in the XML descriptor andduring environmental data communication. Finally it enablessmart data integration at application level. The design andverification of the XML schema is supported by the definition

of the ontology as it allows to separate the abstract, conceptualdescription of the domain from the logical implementation ofthe logical XML schema, in line with state of the art designmethodologies. Examples of heterogeneity reconciliation atdata level are the recognition of the equivalence of termslike degree Celsius and degree centigrades, orthe automatic conversion of values from Celsius to Kelvin byexploiting relationships express in the ontology. At applicationlevel, high level domain information can be exploited toenhance semantic based search of certain categories of SOs(e.g. SOs with certain capabilities, SOs reporting measures thatare relevant to recognize certain events,...) and to reason aboutthe high level relation among measures and environmentalevents (e.g. a general rule like: if the user is interacting with thesmart TV and no one else is in the house, then the refrigerator’sdoor must be closed), in line with the recent ”Ontology-BasedData Access” paradigm [4].

B. Interoperability in the TRASPARENTE Project

As already discussed in the above section, the TRASPAR-ENTE project comprises several domains, that are properlyinterfaced within the architecture to implement data manage-ment policies able to fulfill the project aims. According tothis approach, the interoperability issue may be similarly ad-dressed, through the design of suitable connectors and softwarecomponents, that can interface the different services exposedby the architecture to any external entity issuing a request,keeping the system data de-coupled from the services, andnot directly accessible by external entities. Data are collectedfrom the architecture by issuing proper requests to its services,and formatted according to the requirements of the queryingentities.

C. Interoperability in the AALISABETH Project

There are two possible levels of standardization:

• The adoption of the scheme [id, type, value, times-tamp] for collecting any data-event of each type ofsensor, even for complex sensors. But also for pro-ducing a semantic annotation of the type, values andfunctionality of any class of sensors.

• The adoption of a single domain ontology used todescribe any type of sensor, those that are already inthe market and those will be in the future. Companies,producers of sensors or consumers of sensors formaking new products, commit to annotate the featuresby adopting the proposed domain ontology.

D. Interoperability in the PAss Project

The PAss project focus on how to add value to the integra-tion of specific functions made by smart objects and softwareplatform. To this, we need a standard way to represent dataand to send them over the net across the various componentsof a home automation solution tailored to take care of elderlypeople in their home environment. We choose a lightweightsolution for internet of things communications based on thepub/sub mechanism and focusing on representing messagein the JSON language. This allow us to use a key-valuesyntax to specify semi-structured data that can be managed

both in a home gateway local with some home automationlogic, and in remote big data solutions without take care ofa mandatory rigid scheme. This allows a complete opennessof the PAss solution in which the complexity is managed tothe periphery of the system for the implementation of specificcontrol logic for remote assistance. PAss is exploiting suchinteroperability in different use cases proposed by the careinstitute partner of the project to address specific disabilitiesand illness, these cases are a key requirements for us tounderstand the complexities of different scenarios and the needof a completely open solution due to the high variability ofassistive needs.

E. Interoperability in the HDOMO Project

The interoperability layer of HDOMO is mainly focusedon the high level aspects of the proposed system. In particular,data gathered from smart sensors and vision systems arecollected by the AAL environment gateway and only actions(defined by ad high level semantic) are sent to the cloudarchitecture and to the classifier (i.e. actions like sleep, openingrefrigerator, closing window, etc). This high level actionsmainly based on HBA analysis, are the base for the behaviourclassification and alarm management. On this layer a standardXML SOAP services module was developed to cope withdifferent low level information.

IV. CONCLUSION

Interoperability issue in a complex environment like assis-tive devices in AAL systems represents a key component toallow real life diffusion of the proposed solution. The projectsunder development, financed by Marche Region program on”Smart Home for Active and Healthy Aging”, faces thechallenge of developing different layer of abstraction. At thesame time, a cross action is conducted among the differentprojects whose main object is to define a minimum data setof common rules shared among the systems and aimed atenabling smart objects and platforms of different projects.The main goals of this action are: i) defining the domainof application of interoperability between the systems, ii)proposing a shared approach to smart object cataloging anddefining the common way used by different smart objects tointeract with the framework platform. The work is conductedtaking into account the results already obtained at a Europeanlevel by actions like UniversAAL and AALiance projects, thatrepresent a starting point that cannot be neglected.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The projects under development presented within the paperare co-funded by the Marche Region administration, under theaction ”Smart Home for Active and Healthy Aging”.

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[11] Open Source Building Automation, Smart Spaces Framework -http://freedomotic.com/

[12] OASIS, Message Queuing Telemetry Transport - http://mqtt.org/.