GROUP LEADER Rui Kuang rkuang cs columbia edu Andrey Butov ab2301 columbia edu andreybutov yahoo com Arvid Bessen ajb2103 columbia edu bessen cs columbia edu Svetlana Starshinina svs29 columbia edu Wizard of HOuse Management WHOM The WHOM language is designed to allow developers to simulate the creation and management of a household Using WHOM it is possible to define a household as well as a set of rules to govern the automatic operations of that household WHOM is designed to be a simple but powerful object oriented event driven flexible and robust language Overview Many sci fi writers envision a future world in which most of the household tasks would be performed by machines Even today many objects exist that have the capacity of being programmed Examples include VCRs alarm clocks etc It is not so hard to imagine that in the future many household objects from windows to full featured security systems will come with built in computers capable of controlling various built in functionalities A simple window equipped with the right mechanism can be easily opened or closed and locked or unlocked automatically without requiring any action by a human The possibilities are virtually endless and could involve not only windows that open and close but doors that lock and unlock and refrigerators that automatically restock themselves by contacting the nearest supermarket and ordering the necessary foods to be delivered at a certain time With a slight stretch of imagination it is also possible to imagine that in the future objects would be able to perform more complicated tasks such as windows washing themselves beds making themselves and entire households being able to implement internal security and ambiance features We have assumed that our objects are futuristic with complex mechanisms that enable them to perform a variety of function All objects in the house are connected to a single Household Management System HMS which allows them to communicate The WHOM language allows to define the behavior of these objects Instead of issuing commands to each of these objects the WHOM language is intended to provide a uniform and easy to use programming interface to the objects in the house This way the objects will be able to act even when the owner of the house is not present at all Thus rather than going into the trouble of issuing direct commands the user would be able to write a program in the WHOM language to specify what the objects should do and in response to what events Considering the fact that a majority of the population has no programming experience we had to make the language very simple to use In order to use the language first the house itself needs to be defined and then all the objects inside the house need to be plugged in This may be done by a WHOM system programmer similar to how some things get installed by the electrician currently However the language is simple enough for the user to be able to define behavior by first issuing simple commands such as close window when temperature 70 which can be combined to compose a more intelligent household management system The key characteristics of the language are outlined in greater detail below Simple WHOM is very easy to use for users even those that have minimal programming experience The commands are very close to the English language and the syntax is very intuitive The language provides several built in classes which can be very easily manipulated by the user by issuing commands such as close lock etc The object status is periodically examined and appropriate functions can be performed to change the status of the object Behavior intrinsic to the various objects allows the user to be able to perform simple household tasks with great ease Additionally the language supports the measurement of several environmental variables such as temperature light intensity etc and allows the user to specify the appropriate preset or customized response to changes in the environment define house Window northWindow Window southWindow Window eastWindow Window westWindow all Window close Group somewindows northWindow eastWindow westWindow somewindows open Powerful WHOM is very powerful even for beginners For more advanced users WHOM presents virtually no limits In addition to the built in classes the users can specify their own classes with their own set of parameters and commands Adding a new object type to the household management system will be equivalent to including a library class in a Java program and then all the commands to manipulate the object will automatically become available to the user The users can also create new functions in order to simplify more frequent tasks It is possible to program the HMS to respond to such complicated events like when the kids come home from school or to program the system so that the house cares for itself while the family leaves for vacation define house Window northWindow Window southWindow Security alarm if any Window broken alarm activate phone callPolice Object oriented The language is heavily object oriented since most of the commands in WHOM are commands to objects to perform certain actions In order for an object to execute a command it has to be defined for that object If a certain command does not exist an error message will be issued The various objects in a system will be plugged in into the house management system The objects will be either standard and predefined or customized and defined by the user similar to existing libraries and self defined classes in Java The standard objects such as windows doors TVs will have a predefined set of actions that could be performed on them The customized objects may come with a more complex set of actions that need to be specified by the user Extendible The user can specify any kind of house with any number of rooms windows doors and other objects Any object can be added or removed from the home management system at any time The actions performed by objects may be scheduled or event driven as desired by the user It is possible to expand the functionality greatly by introducing third party libraries such as a home bot for performing more complex actions with other objects This home bot would only need to be specified as an object that is able to perform a great variety of actions using various objects with a specified movement algorithm It is also possible to create various preset modes to help the user using the new household management system for
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