Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Embedded Smarthouse Bathroom
Entertainment Systems for Improving
Quality of Life
Shigeyuki Hirai
Abstract
The phrase “Smarthouse to improve the smartness of a human's daily
life” has two meanings. One is to improve individual smartness, which represents
the Quality of Life (QoL); the other is to improve social smartness, which includes
human communications and social consumptions. This chapter primarily describes
entertainment systems that can be embedded particularly in the bathrooms of smart-
houses and used by humans in everyday life to improve QoL. The systems include
“Bathonify,” a sonification system that reflects the bathing states and vital signs of
the bather; “TubTouch,” a bathtub entertainment system that uses embedded touch
sensors and a projector to control various equipment and systems; and “Bathcratch,”
a DJ scratching music system that is operated by rubbing and touching the bathtub.
Even though these systems are based on Japanese bathing culture and style, they pro-
vide advances in the pleasures of everyday life. In addition, these embedded systems
and their techniques provide advances in computer entertainment platforms that can
be extended to various places and situations.
Keywords
Smarthouse
·
Bathroom
·
Embedded sensors
·
Interactive sonification
·
Media arts
6.1
Introduction
Food, clothing, and shelter (housing) are essential for the survival of human beings,
and thus, research has been actively underway in these areas. With network-enabled
household appliances now a reality, ubiquitous computing (Weiser
1991
) research
to enhance the convenience and comfort of everyday life in the home, resulting in
the term “Smarthouse,” is also actively being conducted (Mason et al.
1983
; Kidd et
al.
1999
; Intille et al.
2005
; Ruyter et al.
2005
; Ueda and Yamazaki
2007
; Siio et al.
2010
; Hirai and Ueda
2011
). Some of the research being conducted is focused on
entertainment aspects and includes various ideas and systems for enjoying everyday
life. To date, most of the research has focused on the living room and kitchen, where
