Crossborder Initiative on Smart Homes

Welcome to the website of the Austro-Italian Initiative on Smart Homes

The DOMOS Initiative

Domos is the Proto-Indo-European term for house or home. The home, the smart home respectively, is the central topic of the initiative and cooperation. The involved partners  are all concerned with different aspects of smart homes: From the technical perspective (devices, hardware elements, smart home systems); from the user perspective (usability, user experience, acceptance); from the integrative perspective (smart home integration, smart cities), and; from the demographic perspective (population aging, demographic change), to mention only a few. The scientific as well as economic and industrial  landscape of the involved regions is heterogenous enough that all involved partners can benefit from the cooperation in different manners, for example, in terms of products, services or know-how.

Background

The regions of Friuli Venezia Guilia (FVG) in Italy and Carinthia in Austria share a long, common history. The connection goes at least as far back as the Roman Empire when the Val Canale was used as the way across the Alps. Trieste has long been an important harbour of the Austrian Empire and many connections on the economic, touristic, cultural and social level are still thriving.

In the age of globalization it is more important than ever to intensify regional connection. As one possibility to cope with the competition from America and Asia the European Union initiated the Europe of Regions.  Although technology facilitates global communication and cooperation, it cannot replace personal contact. What could be more natural than to benefit from short ways of communication with one´s neighbour, to learn from each other, to prevent parallel development and, on the basis of common interests, to develop synergies that enhance the competitive position of all involved.

These considerations build the basis for the initiative, which was founded in spring 2011 by the Universities of Udine (Prof. Carlo Tasso) and Klagenfurt (Prof. Martin Hitz). We are happy that the University of Applied Sciences Carinthia (Prof. Christian Menard) has also joined the initiative. All involved institutions work on related topics in the area of smart home research and development, and they have all established considerable networks in their geographical area, the fusion and extension of which is the goal of this initiative.

Interested?

If you would like to join the initiative, you are cordially invited to do so and we ask you to contact: ..