Smart Environments are filled with devices and sensors that need to communicate with users. Whether a thermostat feels an out-of-range temperature, or the dishwasher cycle just ended, whether the presence sensor detects someone in your house, or your pet feeder is empty, human users must be informed to decide about the best action to take. This may cause serious information overload, as a constant flow of notifications, replicated on all householders.

The thesis of Emanuele Furci, presented on December 2014, analyzed this problem and proposed an intelligent, context-aware, ontology-based system able to intercept and filter all kinds of notifications. Any notification will be delivered to the right user, with the right modality (audio, mobile, e-mail, TV, ...), depending on the imporance of the notificaiton, and on the current user context (working, at home, in a meeting, ...).

Various notifications are generated by a smart house and need to be delivered, through different means, to the householders.

The software architecture for the Smart Notification system.

The full text of the thesis, as well as the presentation slides and demo videos, are available at Emanuele Furci's thesis page.