Citizen actuation for smart environments: Evaluating how humans can play a part in smart environments

Abstract

Cisco defines the internet of everything (IoE) as the networked connection of people, processes, data, and things [1]. This goes beyond the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) of connected devices alone transforming the way people live their lives. It is through this combination of people, processes, data, and things that the future of many fields in computing (such as smart cities) can be realized. Smart environments are physical worlds interwoven with sensors, actuators, displays, and computational elements, embedded seamlessly into everyday objects and connected through a continuous network [2]. A smart city/environment, by definition, needs a modern technological backbone but also relies on the natural resources of its inhabitants. The intersection of people, processes, and things is the area explored in this research. Things and people are combining to enable smart environments to become smarter, and smarter here is defined as optimizing/improving the environment's use of resources or the occupant's comfort. In parallel to research into the IoE, there is also a history of research into embedded systems, and this has evolved into cyber-physical systems (CPSs) and now cyber-physical social systems (CPSSs). The main difference between CPSs and IoT systems lies in the fact that IoT systems are aimed at interconnecting all the things in the physical world, while CPSs sense the physical world but are normally closed-loop systems [3].