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S. Chien, A. Mahdavi:
"User interfaces for occupant interactions with environmental systems in buildings.";
Talk: PLEA 2007 Sun Wind and Architecture, 24th International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture 22-24 November 2007, Singapur; 2007-11-22 - 2007-11-24; in: "PLEA 2007 SUN, WIND and ARCHITECTURE - 24th International Conference on pASSIVE AND LOW ENERGY ARCHITECTURE 22 - 24 November 2007", S. Wittkopf, B. Tan (ed.); (2007), ISBN: 978-981-05-9400-8; 780 - 787.

Occupant control actions in buildings (i.e. user interactions with environmental systems for heating, cooling, ventialtion, lighting, etc.) can significantly affect both indoor climate in and environmental performance of buildings. Nonetheless, relatively few systematic (long-term and high-resolution) efforts have been made to observe and analyze the means and patterns of such user-system interactions with building systems. Specifically, the necessary requirments for the design and testing of hardware and software systems for user-system interfaces have not been formulated in a rigorous and reliable manner. This paper includes an exploration of the requirements and functionalities of user interfaces for building systems in sentient buildings. We compare a number of commercial user-interface products for building control systems. Thereby, we consider three aspects, namely control options, information types, and hardware. The outcome of this comparison is expected to serve as the starting point for developing a new generation of user interface models to promote higher levels of connectivity between occupants and sentient environments.

sentient buildings, user interface, environmental controls