Smart Space Deployments

Through generous donations from University of Florida alumni, an essential extension of the Mobile and Pervasive Computing Lab was made possible, and that is the Gator Tech Smart House (GTSH)—a real-life, single family home located in a retirement community in Gainesville, Florida. The GTSH was a natural extension of the Matilda Smart Home—a 500 sq. ft. mock-up home built inside the Lab using modular panel structures. The GTSH today is one of the most well-known smart home projects amongst its peers.

Active Projects:

• The Gator Tech Smart House (GTSH)
• The Matilda Smart House

The Gator Tech Smart House (GTSH)

Believing in “moving technology from the drawing board into real-life deployments,” in 2005 we founded the Gator Tech Smart House, an experimental laboratory and an actual live-in trial environment for validating technology and systems developed in the Mobile and Pervasive Computing Laboratory. Specifically, Dr. Helal and his research team have been conducting research and development activities designed to assist older persons and individuals with special needs in maximizing independence and maintaining a high quality of life. To this end, the GTSH activities are focused on innovating Pervasive Computing technology to create a supportive and assistive environment for the elderly and the disabled.

The GTSH (pictured above) is a 2,500 sq. ft. single-family home whose construction cost was covered by generous donations from UF alumni. The house has been used as a platform to implement, test, and validate various systems and human-centered applications. It is one of the few research facilities in the U.S. where actual human subjects are engaged in the research by living in the house for variable periods of time. The facility is located in the Oak Hammock retirement community, which is run by the University of Florida. A layout of the GTSH is shown in the figure below.

A 3D virtual tour is available on-line to describe this facility.

The Mobile and Pervasive Computing Lab recognizes that without the generous donations and support of the various organizations, the achievements, technology innovation, and impact of the GTSH would not have been possible.

Donors and Sponsors Credit

The House

Appliances

Furnishings

The Matilda Smart House

This mock-up house, which is designed as a zigzag-shaped panel structure, is over 500 sq. ft. and housed inside the Mobile and Pervasive Computing Lab. Matilda’s house consists of a living room, a kitchen, a small bathroom, and a single bedroom (as shown to the right in the figure below). The house has been used in prototyping and demonstrating new ideas and technologies in support of aging, disabilities, and independence.

Matilda Smart House was built using an internal grant from the college of Engineering at the University of FLorida. Without Matilda and her house, it would have been much harder to convince donors and supporters to chip in their donations to build the Gator Tech Smart House.