Smart environments is a technological concept that, according to Mark Weiser

Mark Weiser

Mark D. Weiser was a chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States. Weiser is widely considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, a term he coined in 1988.-Biography:...

 is "a physical world that is richly and invisibly interwoven with sensors, actuators, displays, and computational elements, embedded seamlessly in the everyday objects of our lives, and connected through a continuous network"

Introduction

Smart environments are envisioned as the byproduct of pervasive computing and the availability of cheap computing power, making human interaction with the system a pleasant experience.

Definition

Cook and Das , define Smart environment as "a small world where different kinds of smart device

Smart device

A smart device is an electronic device that is cordless , mobile , always connected and is capable of voice and video communication, internet browsing, "geo-location" and that can operate to some extent autonomously...

 are continuously working to make inhabitants' lives more comfortable." Smart environments aim to satisfy the experience of individuals from every environment, by replacing the hazardous work, physical labor, and repetitive tasks with automated agents.
Poslad
differentiates three different kinds of smart environments for systems, services and devices: virtual (or distributed) computing environments, physical environments and human environments, or a hybrid combination of these:

• Virtual computing environments enable smart devices to access pertinent services anywhere and anytime.
• Physical environments may be embedded with a variety of smart devices of different types including tags, sensors and controllers and have different form factors ranging from nano to micro to macro sized.
• Humans environments: humans, either individually or collectively, inherently form a smart environment for devices. However, humans may themselves be accompanied by smart devices such as mobile phones, use surface-mounted devices (wearable computing) and contain embedded devices (e.g., pacemakers to maintain a healthy heart operation).

Features

Smart environments are broadly classified to have the following features

1. Remote control of devices, like power line communication systems to control devices.
2. Device Communication, using middleware, and Wireless communication to form a picture of connected environments.
3. Information Acquisition/Dissemination from sensor networks
4. Enhanced Services by Intelligent Devices
5. Predictive and Decision-Making capabilities

Technologies

To build a smart environment, involves technologies of

1. Wireless communication
2. Algorithm design, Signal Prediction & Classification, Information theory,
3. Multilayered Software Architecture, Corba
   Çorba
   Chorba , ciorbă , shurpa , shorpo , or sorpa is one of various kinds of soup or stew found in national cuisines across Middle East...
   
   , middleware
4. Speech recognition
   Speech recognition
   Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
   
   
5. Image processing, Image recognition
6. Sensors design, calibration, Motion detection
   Motion detection
   Motion detection is a process of confirming a change in position of an object relative to its surroundings or the change in the surroundings relative to an object. This detection can be achieved by both mechanical and electronic methods...
   
   , temperature, pressure sensors, accelerometers
7. Adaptive control, Kalman filter
   Kalman filter
   In statistics, the Kalman filter is a mathematical method named after Rudolf E. Kálmán. Its purpose is to use measurements observed over time, containing noise and other inaccuracies, and produce values that tend to be closer to the true values of the measurements and their associated calculated...
   
   s
8. Computer Networking
9. Parallel processing
10. Operating Systems

Existing projects

The Aware Home Research Initiative at Georgia Tech "is devoted to the multidisciplinary exploration of emerging technologies and services based in the home" and was launched in 1998 as one of the first "living laboratories." .
The MavHome (Managing an Adaptive Versatile Home) project, at UT Arlington

University of Texas at Arlington

The University of Texas at Arlington is a public research university located in Arlington, Texas, United States. The campus is situated southwest of downtown Arlington, and is located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. The university was founded in 1895 and served primarily a military...

, is a smart environment-lab with state-of-the-art algorithms and protocols used to provide a customized, personal environment to the users of this space. The MavHome project, in addition to providing a safe environment, wants to reduce the energy consumption of the inhabitants.
Other projects include House_n at the MIT Media Lab

Media lab

Media lab is a term used for interdisciplinary organizations, collectives or spaces with the main focus on new media, digital culture and technology....

and many others.