Human at Home: Toward a Human-Centered and Smart Living Environment
How can technology improve our living conditions? How will we interact with “smart” homes? What information is it possible and desirable to share? What future legal framework should govern this data? Led by the CNRS, the University of Montpellier, and Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 University, the HUman at home projecT (HUT) project is exploring these questions through an “observatory apartment” that has been occupied since October 2018.
(Original video presentation of the HUT project)
Volunteer HUTers
In the fall of 2018, two student volunteers moved into an “observatory apartment,” a research site for some sixty researchers. Lawyers, economists, electronics engineers, computer scientists, architects, specialists in language and behavioral sciences, marketing, and health—the questions they ask can only be meaningfully explored by studying a permanent living space. Even when they aren’t physically present, the researchers make use of the valuable data generated by the “co-HUTers.”
In practical terms, floor pressure sensors and motion sensors in certain rooms are used to track occupants’ movements and actions within their living spaces. This information can be valuable to both architects (to identify areas that residents may be avoiding and optimize the layout) and healthcare professionals (as movements and postures can serve as indicators of well-being or ill-being). Sensors for pollution, cupboard or window openings, water and electricity consumption, and more, make it possible to envision new services.
Linguists and cognitive scientists are studying how residents interact with so-called “smart” systems. Research on the sensors themselves aims, for example, to make them energy-autonomous (energy harvesting from the environment).
Research also focuses on the management of data generated by connected devices—both from a technical perspective (how to organize these “data lakes”) and from ethical and legal perspectives. An independent ethics committee has been established to protect the privacy of “co-HUTers.” Its role is to review all scientific projects, and it can be consulted at any time by residents and researchers or may take up cases on its own initiative.
To design this apartment, the consortium made use of a modular space at the Maison des sciences de l’Homme Sud. Capable of being configured into various rooms of a home, it allows for short-term experiments to be conducted alongside the long-term study taking place in the observation apartment.
The first occupants left the apartment in the summer of 2019. The apartment was then “reconfigured” based on the initial results and new research avenues, before being offered again free of charge to two other student volunteers.
Become a CoHUTeur and experience the smart home of tomorrow!
To apply, you simply need to be enrolled in a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral program in Montpellier; be willing to volunteer and enthusiastic about the project, whether or not you have an interest in technology; and agree to generate and share data on a daily basis as part of the project, which will be used exclusively by researchers and project members.
- Please complete the application form by May 21, 2021.
First, we will review your application. Then, if you are shortlisted, you will participate in a second round of interviews and discussions in June to join this innovative and experimental shared living arrangement.
Finally, the results will be communicated to the selected coHUTers in early July. Tenants will be able to move into the apartment starting October 1.
At the intersection of disciplines
This research project brings together, within a consortium, a local government (Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole), seven companies (Delided, EDF, Nexity, Oceasoft, SensDigital, Synox, Weda), and a dance association leading an artistic research-creation project (“Comme ça”), alongside the Maison des sciences de l’Homme Sud and 12 research laboratories:
- Dynamics of Law (CNRS/University of Montpellier);
- Muscle dynamics and metabolism (INRA/University of Montpellier);
- Epsylon (University of Montpellier/Paul Valéry University of Montpellier 3);
- Espace-Dev (IRD/University of Montpellier/University of the Antilles/University of French Guiana/University of Réunion);
- EuroMov (University of Montpellier);
- Institute of Electronics and Systems (CNRS/University of Montpellier);
- Laboratory of Computer Science and Production Engineering (IMT Mines d’Alès);
- Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (CNRS/University of Montpellier);
- Laboratory for Innovation, Forms, Architecture, and Environments (Ministry of Culture);
- Montpellier Research in Economics (University of Montpellier);
- Montpellier Research in Management (University of Montpellier);
- Praxiling (CNRS/Paul Valéry University of Montpellier 3).
It received support from the Maison des sciences de l’Homme Sud, as well as financial support from the CNRS Mission for Interdisciplinarity and Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole.