HomeOS: Context-Aware Home Connectivity

The trend of cheaper ubiquitous and pervasive technology has reached a critical point. A standardized integration of devices in the context of a home environment will be possible in the near future. HomeOS is an attempt to provide a standard interface for a context-aware application and device integration system. HomeOS offers three key features: crossplatform application portability; application following; and management of multimedia streams. HomeOS allows applications and home management services to run on a central server written in Java, and displays interface widgets on remote devices capable of acting as terminals. By implementing pre-defined Java interfaces, applications and devices can be integrated into HomeOS, which handles the details of routing events to the current location of a designated user.