Re-purposing everyday digital technology for marginalised groups

Smart home technologies, such as Internet of Things devices have great potential to support older people to live for longer in their own homes. Yet individuals with communication, memory and dexterity problems often cannot use such technologies. Through a co-design, participatory approach the needs and problems experienced by older people and their supporters were explored to ascertain how they could be enabled to use Smart home technologies. The solution that was developed, IntraVox, is a virtual hub that enables connectivity from different resources and devices based on the sensor data that is being collected in the house. IntraVox sends various commands to a voice-enabled personal assistant which in return controls smart home devices. This approach can improve the usability of voice-enabled personal assistants by removing the necessity for the user to remember and pronounce specific commands whilst also reinforcing the syntax and the usefulness of those commands. This discussion describes the development process and user-feedback of the IntraVox solution