The Human Factor – Introducing Game Mechanics to Computerized Home Automation Systems

Domestic use is responsible for a large portion of the worldwide consumed resources, namely electricity and water. For instance, in 2001 the USA housing sector alone was responsible for the consumption of 14% of the 2001-yearly production of electricity consisting of HVAC, home appliances and hot water. [1] While substantial research is aimed at reducing the energy consumed by domestic systems and appliances as well as improving the thermal capabilities of the buildings envelope, little attention has been given to the behavior of the inhabitants. Acknowledging that, even in similar houses, dweller’s behavior and proile have a substantial impact on the consumption of energy and other resources (Santín, 2010) (Figure 1), this paper presents a possible way for altering the behavior of users. Considering the growing technological development and use of home automation systems (domotics), untapped potentials for interaction between houses and their habitants occur. Speciically, the drastic reduction in component price for sensors, actuators and wireless connectivity, as well 176 | eCAADe 31 - Computation and Performance - Volume 1 - Design Media and HCI as the vast popularity of smartphones, is acting as a fertile breeding ground for new application and methods of controlling the living environment. This paper focuses on the design of a user oriented home automation interface to actively reduce resource consumption in a domestic building. The solution suggested addresses the issue of increasing user motivation to reduce their environmental footprint speciically, by means of embedding a serious game into the human-machine interface. The work consists of a game framework as well as a proof of concept demonstration of the method in which the user would interact with the systems. GAME AS A GAME-CHANGER While we are accustomed to see games used primarily for fun and as a pastime, a new type of game had increasingly emerged in recent years, generally referred to as “serious games”. Michel and Chen (2005) had deined serious games as “games that do not have entertainment, enjoyment or fun as their primary purpose”. Seeing the overwhelming popularity of computer based game software, a sub-branch had been created within the domain of serious games. The purpose of these computer games is to reach and capture the attention of players to other means such as education, problem solving or norm changes. Ritterfeld, Cody and Vorderer (2009) have narrowed the deinition for serious computer games into “any form of interactive computer-based game software for one or multiple players to be used at any platform that has been developed with the intention to be more than entertainment”. The reason games are sought by educators is that they can be used as a tool to alter behavior. Serious games in particular have been found by Klimmt (2009) to have potential for creating social and behavioral changes, and he has isolated mechanisms which are likely to be most efective to achieve the desired change. He had divided the reasons for which the mechanisms would be efective to 15 groups. Several of them, such as the ability of a serious game to be an efective method of convening information in an enjoyable manner, the serious game’s ability to increase level of acceptance by creating a social network were key drivers in the design of the proposed game. In this paper, the use of game mechanics is tackled as a source of motivation as well as an educational method for altering people’s behavior. The game framework is presented as human computer interface in home automation systems and aims to turn the daily activity of living into an engaging layered-reality serious game, in which the game’s ‘levers’ are the day-to-day actions done in the house in ields related to the resource consumption. HUMAN-HOME INTERFACE The game framework as human computer interface in home automation systems relates on the one hand to the human behavior and on the other hand to a number of aspects of dwelling impacting the consumption of resources, namely energy, water and waste. Energy, water and waste Regarding energy management, it is most signiicant and relatively simple to monitor the house’s energy balance: the frequency and extent to which the appliances are being used, the usage of the comfort system, the domestic hot water production and lighting are the most crucial factors in this category. If the house is producing energy (e.g. wind, solar collectors or thermal collectors) , or is connected to a