Taking the Mystery Out of Sensing Devices in the Home

Future applications in the home will make use of a variety of distributed sensing devices that use detailed information about the home occupants and their environment. To address users’ privacy concerns, we argue that systems that support rich sensor applications in the home should provide users with adequate transparency and control over how sensor data is collected, processed, and shared around the home. We describe four properties that we believe should be standard for sensing applications, and introduce the concept of a Home Dashboard to motivate how they might be used. We then delve into the associated research challenges and suggest possible approaches to realizing such a system.