Services for the Home. Core Services

Media attention has been focused on innovative infrastructures for the residential area such as wireless LAN in the home or broadband connections to the Internet.

However, the private household, even more than a corporate user, is interested in the application side (i.e., an easy-to-use, reasonably-priced, and fun service provision). Many applications exist in reality, yet they provide a quite unstructured picture.

Kolbe (11) proposed a classification scheme for analyzing and describing the respective classes of home applications in existence. According to Brenner and Kolbe (12), there are eight main services for the private household that can be supported by IT (see Fig. 1):

Figure 1. IT-influenced services for of the private household

The basic services ‘‘information’’ and ‘‘communication’’ take mutual advantage of each other: There is no communication possible without at least basic information provided on one end, sometimes referred to as message or content. In turn, information needs to be conveyed in order to provide any benefit. For example, any news story posted by an Internet portal is meant as ‘‘communicating information’’ to the (anonymous or personalized) users of that portal.

They are referred to as core services whereas the other ones are looked on as primary home services because they are based on information and communication features. Nevertheless, ‘‘communication’’ and ‘‘information’’ are described separately as some services exclusively provide bilateral or multilateral information (e.g., electronic books, news) or communication (e.g., e-mail, short message service (SMS)) benefits. Market revenues are most substantial in those basic areas.

Miles (13) and others (10) after him observed that more and more aspects of private life are affected by home services. We can differentiate three forms of usage according to the degree of networking. Prior to widespread networking, stand-alone applications such as an electronic encyclopedia or a game on a PC were common.

The next step is locally interconnected applications within the confines of the private home such as entertainment networks for home cinema applications or controlling the heating via TV or PC. The third form is the out-of-the-home connected applications such as applications using the Internet for e-mail or shopping as well as remote monitoring services. All services can be structured a long these three areas.

In practice, these types of services are used in conjunction with each other, for example, during activities on the Internet the household seeks weather information (information and travel) for air travel via a portal or a price comparison for airfares (travel), then executes the purchase (transactions) using a travel portal and then pays online using a credit card (transactions), and finally gets an e-mail or mobile message confirmation of this order (communication). Another example is the ‘Info- or Edutainment’ area that unites information, entertainment, and education aspects (e.g., in interactive multimedia encyclopedias or electronic learning toys for children).

Work, transaction, and private aspects of life are converging as are technologies and applications. In some instances, private and business usage is almost indistinguishable (e.g., the use of an Internet portal or some smart phone features). Therefore, some of the services described below may also provide business value as selective business applications benefit the private user, especially in a home office environment.

Core Services. Information. Information is offered by all services in which the dissemination of information to the private household is central. Information provides the basis for more complex service types to be discussed later.

The following residential applications fall into this category:
- News portals providing up-to-date coverage such as news or weather information. Together with search capabilities, they provide access to the vast resources of the Internet to the private user. Interactive TV and multimedia broadband networks are prerequisites for customized individual news services that compile one’s own newspaper on personal preferences and interests like sports or stock exchange news as examined by MIT’s Media Lab.

- Electronic books and newspapers such as the electronic version of the New York, Times, which is available online for a fraction of the newsstand price. Electronic books with portable e-book players are one of the most notable examples for pure information. Encyclopedias, magazines, dictionaries, or special topics are available on different formats for proprietary players. Hyperlink functionality, connectivity to video printers, and find- and-select algorithms are advantages that traditional books do not share.

- Push services of events and product news: Mobile marketing is gaining ground fast. The latest research in Finland shows that 23% of all mobile-phone-using Finns (80% of all Finns) have received SMS push marketing (14).
- Information kiosks, which provide basic information for travelers or shoppers.

Communication. Communication enables the private household to establish bilateral or multilateral contact with the immediate or extended environment. This core service provides information as the basis for a variety of further services. However, communication as a basic need of users is evident in the residential home. Traditional media like telephone and fax have been complemented by innovative media such as e-mail or mobile communications, both text and voice.

SMS has achieved near 80% usage rates in some European countries, and SMS advertising has exploded. Mobile text messages generate a substantial part of telecom operators’ revenue. In Europe, SMS revenues were at 12 billion Euros for 2002 (15).

Mobile phone users in the United Kingdom sent over one billion text messages during April 2002. The Mobile Data Association predicts that the total number of text messages for 2002 will reach 16 billion by the end of the year (16).

Home Services. Health. Health refers to all applications concerned with making provision for, maintaining, and monitoring the health of a person or social group.

Related services in the area are:
- Telemedicine with patient monitoring (surveillance of vital signs outside the hospital setting) and monitoring of dosage (including real-time adjustment based on the patient’s response). Wireless sensors can be attached to the body and send signals to measurement equipment. They are popular in countries with widely dispersed populations (e.g., Norway) and increasingly developing countries.

- Electronic fitness devices that support training and wellness of the private user.
- Health-related websites.

Health applications for today’s household are very limited in its range. In some countries, smart cards carry patients’ data for billing and insurance companies or health consultancy software for private diagnosis and information about certain diseases. In the future, expert systems will enable medical advice from each home without leaving the private bed.

Home Services. Home services consist of systems that support home security, safety, meal preparation, heating, cooling, lighting, and laundry.

Currently, home services comprise only special devices such as those in a networked kitchen. Future scenarios project comprehensive home automation with interconnected kitchen appliances, audio and video electronics, and other systems like heating or laundry. Some prototypes by the German company Miele (called Miele @ home) showed early in the development of ‘‘smart homes’’ that the TV can control the washing machine.

The interconnection to out-of-home cable TV or telephone networks leads to the remote control services (e.g., security). Much media attention was received by the Internet refrigerator by NCR, which orders needed groceries without human interaction.

Key areas comprise:
- Central control of heating or air conditioning from home computer or TV.
- Lighting, shutters, and temperature control.
- Remote monitoring of home devices for security, laundry, refrigeration, or cooking.

Intelligent clothing and wearable computing are seen as emerging areas.

Travel. Travel includes all applications that support the selection, preparation, and undertaking of journeys. Travel applications make the central booking information systems for hotel or flight reservation accessible to the residential user. Individual preferences provide a search pattern for finding the places of interest. Future visions includes interactive, multimedia booking from the TV chair via broadband network with instant acknowledgements.

Main focus areas are:
- Travel planning on the Internet ranges from planning the entire trip via travel portals Travelocity or Expedia to selected information on public transportation or plane departures. These travel data can also be pushed to mobile devices or delivered according to the geographic position of the user.

- Automotive services. Increasingly, the car becomes an entertainment and information center with complete audio and video system. In addition, global positioning functionality helps planning and undertaking trips.
- Ticketless travel, such as e-ticket of airlines and ticketless boarding with contactless smart cards.

Transactions. Transactions combine all the administrative services and transactions, such as shopping and banking, of the private household.

The main applications of administration, e-banking, and e-shopping are applications serving ‘‘traditional’’ functions (17). Those services help the home to fulfill necessary administrative obligations with more efficiency and ease.

Using the PC and Internet connection, the private user can perform his bank business or order certain merchandise. Today’s services (e.g., management of payments) will extend to a broader range (e.g., complete investment and mortgage affairs).

Of particular importance are the following transaction- oriented services:
- Electronic execution of administrative activities such as monitoring the household’s budget with spreadsheets or planning software such as Quicken.

- Using personal information management (PIM) software such as scheduling, personal address book, or task lists, often provided in combination with PDAs or smart phone software.
- Deployment of productivity tools such as word processing, presentations, or spreadsheets for private letters, invitations, or planning purposes.

- Electronic banking and investing is the main service in this category. Although the focus is still on well- structured transactions such as payments (e.g., electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP)), more complex tasks such as investment advice and research is delivered to private banking clients.

In Switzerland, more than 50% of all private banking clients use the Internet for banking. Overall, 13% of all brokerage transactions and 26% of all payments are done via e-banking. Financial information is also accessed by the households. The big Swiss bank, UBS, lists prices of more than 370,000 stocks. Alerts can be sent to a mobile device. Some banks offer mobile banking services that resemble the features of the Internet offering.

Shopping on the Internet has become an important service. Although purchases focus on standardized products, everything from furniture to groceries is available. The percentage of online purchases relative to total shopping revenue remains at moderate levels but is gradually increasing. The 2003 Christmas season experienced a strong increase in Internet sales: 18 billion (out of 217.4 billion total sales), up from 13.8 billion in the last quarter of 2002. More importantly, many retailers have offered a seamless shopping experience of catalogs, Internet, and stores (18).

Especially auctions like eBay have received much attention from the private user: Amazon.com, a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995. Amazon.com and other sellers list millions of unique new and used items in categories such as apparel and accessories, sporting goods, electronics, computers, kitchenware and housewares, books, music, DVDs, videos, cameras and photo items, toys, baby items and baby registry, software, computer and video games, cell phones and service, tools and hardware, travel services, magazine subscriptions, and outdoor living items.

Entertainment. Entertainment includes those applications that can be used for leisure activities or for the purpose of entertaining household members.

Particular areas of entertainment services are:
- Home cinema with digital surround audio and home media server that connect flat plasma or LCD-TVs, audio systems, and multimedia PC environments with the Internet. In 2003, U.S. DVD sales surpassed videotape figures for the first time.

- On-demand digital TV with hundreds of channels of audio and video content.
- Games and gambling both via the Internet and mobile networks and in electronic stand-alone devices such as game boys and gambling machines.

- Digital toys such as Sony’s smart dog or Lego’s Mindstorms programmable brick sets developed in collaboration with MIT’s MediaLab. Here, a close relationship to the learning component is evident.
- Using multimedia devices such as digital video cameras or digital photography in combination with home PCs and video authoring software for creating multimedia shows at home.

- Free and premium Internet radio with endless options of genres and downloadable music on portable devices such as MP3 players or smartphones.
- Adult content.

Education. Education refers to all applications that train and educate members of the household in special skills or knowledge. In an increasingly dynamic private environment, this function will gain in importance.

Distance Learning (DL) is frequently a self-selected activity for students with work and family commitments. Effects of social isolation should thus be limited. For instance, DL can facilitate daycare arrangements. In some circumstances, exclusion from the social network of the face-to-face classroom can be one of the drawbacks of DL (21).

The private household uses this type of ‘‘education’’ for the training of special skills it is interested in using off-line computer-based training (CBT) software on CD-ROM or DVD to improve, for example, on a foreign language for the next holiday abroad or naval rules in order to pass the sailing exam. In addition, electronic accessible libraries and content on the Internet open the field for self-education processes to the private area.

The usage artificial intelligence will substitute human teachers as far as possible and make them more efficient for special tasks. Virtual reality will help by visualization and demonstration of complex issues. Increasingly, colleges and universities offer DL classes based on strong demand from traditional and nontraditional students. Besides the added flexibility and benefit for students who are reluctant to speak up in class, DL benefits those students living far from the place of instruction. Dholakia et al. (22) found that DL has the potential to reduce or modify student commutes.