Systematic analysis of smart homes: Current trends and future recommendations

With the maturity of information and communication technology (ICT), numerous innovative applications are proposed in different arenas including smart living environments. Technology-enabled smart living has transformed the traditional living system to an enhanced user satisfaction model by providing a balanced environment, thus, securing the residents from disruptions and risks. Besides these magnified advantages, it is found almost full of faints in emergency situations. The researchers and architects put their full potential towards the development of new applications, but no significant attention is paid to analyze the existing designs to identify flaws and suggest enhanced solutions accordingly. To bridge this gap in the literature, this paper presents a comprehensive review to evaluate the capabilities of available smart home designs to counter any emergency situations. Along with highlighting safety, healthcare, and many other unwanted challenges, we also discussed the key problems that obfuscate the trustworthiness of smart homes for its residents. Moreover, the design limitations to present an early alarming and automatic evacuation mechanism especially for deaf, blind, and other visually impaired people is another big challenge to tackle. Finally, we elaborate on the limitations of available smart home solutions and suggest various open research problems that require further development.