Delivering the keynote address at a workshop on ''Wireless Sensor Networks'at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Prof Pallapa Venkataram, said the aim was to improve day-to-day home life with smart computer technology, while still keeping things normal.
IISc had developed an interactive Institute touring guide.
Efforts were on to develop 'smart pens' to help people with vocabulary problems by underlining unknown words and pressing a translation key, a 'Gate reminder', which would remind a person leaving for work whether he or she had taken the mobile phone.
''A smart wardrobe digitally looks up weather forecasts for the user so that they can comfortably and adequately coordinate what they wear with the outside environment before they leave the house, while a smart pillow can select books of choice for reading at bedtime and can play your favourite music to drift off to when you start getting sleepy. A smart refrigerator can help users keep track of individual food items expiry dates as well as manage shopping lists'', he added.
Speaking on the challenges, Venkataram said, ''We need to overcome a number of problems from technical, social and pragmatic domains before the vision of a smart home become a reality.
Technical questions of interoperability, manageability and reliability; social concerns about adoption of domestic technology and implications of such technology and design issues that arose from considering just how smart the smart home must be were some areas to be looked at.
Ubiquitous computing with wireless sensor networks will usher in information anywhere, any time and in any form to make life easier and help development of Tsunami early warning systems, process control automation, space exploration and environmental pollution control systems, other experts in advanced computing said.
Some commercial applications included interactive museums and patient monitoring, Dr N Sarat Chandrababu, director, Centre for Development of Advanced computing, said.
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