{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T12:48:41Z","timestamp":1769690921145,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,7]],"date-time":"2017-11-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1510012800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Advances in domains such as sensor networks and electronic and ambient intelligence have allowed us to create intelligent environments (IEs). However, research in IE is being held back by the fact that researchers face major difficulties, such as a lack of resources for their experiments. Indeed, they cannot easily build IEs to evaluate their approaches. This is mainly because of economic and logistical issues. In this paper, we propose a simulator to build virtual IEs. Simulators are a good alternative to physical IEs because they are inexpensive, and experiments can be conducted easily. Our simulator is open source and it provides users with a set of virtual sensors that simulates the behavior of real sensors. This simulator gives the user the capacity to build their own environment, providing a model to edit inhabitants\u2019 behavior and an interactive mode. In this mode, the user can directly act upon IE objects. This simulator gathers data generated by the interactions in order to produce datasets. These datasets can be used by scientists to evaluate several approaches in IEs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s17112562","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,7]],"date-time":"2017-11-07T11:46:01Z","timestamp":1510055161000},"page":"2562","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["The Virtual Environment for Rapid Prototyping of the Intelligent Environment"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4315-1955","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yannick","family":"Francillette","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Chicoutimi, LIARA, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9430-3691","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eric","family":"Boucher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Chicoutimi, LIARA, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Abdenour","family":"Bouzouane","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Chicoutimi, LIARA, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"S\u00e9bastien","family":"Gaboury","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Chicoutimi, LIARA, Chicoutimi, QC G7H 2B1, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"3","article-title":"The Computer for the 21st Century","volume":"3","author":"Weiser","year":"1991","journal-title":"Sci. Am."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Weiser, M., and Brown, J.S. (2001). The Coming Age of Calm Technology, Springer."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Weiser, M., and Brown, J.S. (1996). Designing Calm Technology. December 21, 1995, Xerox PARC."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Leitner, G. (2015). The Future Home is Wise, Not Smart, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-23093-1"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Bouchard, K., Bouchard, B., and Bouzouanea, A. (2017). Practical Guidelines to Build Smart Homes: Lessons Learned. Opportunistic Networking: Vehicular, D2D and Cognitive Radio Networks (Book Chapter), CRC Press."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"339","DOI":"10.1002\/widm.20","article-title":"Sensor selection to support practical use of health-monitoring smart environments","volume":"1","author":"Cook","year":"2011","journal-title":"Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Data Min. Knowl. Discov."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14162","DOI":"10.3390\/s150614162","article-title":"Simulation of smart home activity datasets","volume":"15","author":"Synnott","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alshammari, N., Alshammari, T., Sedky, M., Champion, J., and Bauer, C. (2017). OpenSHS: Open Smart Home Simulator. Sensors, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/s17051003"},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"53","article-title":"The User Activity Reasoning Model in a Virtual Living Space Simulator","volume":"9","author":"Park","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Softw. Eng. Its Appl."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lundstr\u00f6m, J., Synnott, J., J\u00e4rpe, E., and Nugent, C.D. (2015, January 23\u201327). Smart home simulation using avatar control and probabilistic sampling. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communication Workshops (PerCom Workshops), St. Louis, MO, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/PERCOMW.2015.7134059"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Synnott, J., Chen, L., Nugent, C., and Moore, G. (2014, January 26\u201330). The creation of simulated activity datasets using a graphical intelligent environment simulation tool. Proceedings of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE, Chicago, IL, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/EMBC.2014.6944536"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Korm\u00e1nyos, B., and Pataki, B. (2013, January 15\u201317). Multilevel simulation of daily activities: Why and how?. Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Virtual Environments for Measurement Systems and Applications (CIVEMSA), Milan, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/CIVEMSA.2013.6617386"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Helal, A., Cho, K., Lee, W., Sung, Y., Lee, J., and Kim, E. (2012, January 4\u20137). 3D modeling and simulation of human activities in smart spaces. Proceedings of the 2012 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence & Computing and 9th International Conference on Autonomic & Trusted Computing (UIC\/ATC), Fukuoka, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/UIC-ATC.2012.35"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ariani, A., Redmond, S.J., Chang, D., and Lovell, N.H. (2013, January 7\u20138). Simulation of a smart home environment. Proceedings of the IEEE, 2013 3rd International Conference on Instrumentation, Communications, Information Technology, and Biomedical Engineering (ICICI-BME), Bandung, Indonesia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICICI-BME.2013.6698459"},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"13","article-title":"SIMACT: A 3D open source smart home simulator for activity recognition with open database and visual editor","volume":"5","author":"Bouchard","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Hybrid Inf. Technol."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Barton, J.J., and Vijayaraghavan, V. (2002). Ubiwise, a Ubiquitous Wireless Infrastructure Simulation Environment, HP Labs."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Krzyska, C. (2006). Smart House Simulation Tool. [Master\u2019s Thesis, Technical University of Denmark]."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Games, R. (2017, August 05). Smart House Simulation Software for STEM, 2016. Available online: https:\/\/teachathomeio.com\/."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"35","article-title":"Smart Home Intelligence\u2013The eHome that Learns","volume":"4","author":"Bregman","year":"2010","journal-title":"Int. J. Smart Home"},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"51","article-title":"Artificial intelligence techniques for advanced smart home implementation","volume":"6","author":"Reaz","year":"2013","journal-title":"Acta Tech. Corviniensis-Bull. Eng."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ins.2010.11.012","article-title":"Validating ambient intelligence based ubiquitous computing systems by means of artificial societies","volume":"222","author":"Serrano","year":"2013","journal-title":"Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Bot\u00eda, J.A., Campillo, P., Campuzano, F., and Serrano, E. (2017, August 05). UbikSim Website, 2014. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/emilioserra\/UbikSim\/wiki."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"517","DOI":"10.1177\/0037549705058073","article-title":"Mason: A multiagent simulation environment","volume":"81","author":"Luke","year":"2005","journal-title":"Simulation"},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Puybaret, E. (2017, August 05). Sweet Home 3D, 2016. Available online: https:sourceforge.net\/projects\/sweethome3d\/."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Technologies, U. (2017, August 05). Unity\u2014Game Engine, 2005. Available online: https:\/\/unity3d.com."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Foundation, B. (2017, August 06). Blender, 1995. Available online: https:\/\/www.blender.org\/."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Hall\u00e9, S., Gaboury, S., and Bouchard, B. (2016, January 12\u201313). Activity Recognition Through Complex Event Processing: First Findings. Proceedings of the Workshops at the Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Phoenix, AZ, USA."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"434","DOI":"10.1145\/1073204.1073211","article-title":"RPU: A programmable ray processing unit for realtime ray tracing","volume":"24","author":"Woop","year":"2005","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Graph. (TOG)"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1109\/MIS.2015.18","article-title":"Exploiting passive RFID technology for activity recognition in smart homes","volume":"30","author":"Bilodeau","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Intell. Syst."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bilodeau, J.S., Bouzouane, A., Bouchard, B., and Gaboury, S. (2017). An experimental comparative study of RSSI-based positioning algorithms for passive RFID localization in smart environments. J. Ambient Intell. Hum. Comput.","DOI":"10.1007\/s12652-017-0531-3"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"205","DOI":"10.1007\/s12652-010-0043-x","article-title":"Smart homes for the elderly dementia sufferers: Identification and prediction of abnormal behaviour","volume":"3","author":"Lotfi","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Ambient Intell. Hum. Comput."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Abeykoon, V., Kankanamdurage, N., Senevirathna, A., Ranaweera, P., and Udawalpola, R. (2016, January 1\u20133). Real Time Identification of Electrical Devices through Power Consumption Pattern Detection. Proceedings of the International Conference on Micro and Nano Technologies, Modelling and Simulation, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Colledanchise, M., and \u00d6gren, P. (2014, January 14\u201318). How behavior trees modularize robustness and safety in hybrid systems. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2014), Chicago, IL, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2014.6942752"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ogren, P. (2012, January 13\u201316). Increasing modularity of UAV control systems using computer game behavior trees. Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, Minneapolis, MN, USA.","DOI":"10.2514\/6.2012-4458"},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Champandard, A.J., Dawe, M., and Hernandez-Cerpa, D. (2010, January 9\u201313). Behavior trees: Three ways of cultivating game ai. Proceedings of the Game Developers Conference, AI Summit, San Francisco, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Marzinotto, A., Colledanchise, M., Smith, C., and Ogren, P. (June, January 31). Towards a unified behavior trees framework for robot control. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Hong Kong, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2014.6907656"},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Simpson, C. (2017, August 06). Behavior Trees for AI: How They Work. Available online: https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/blogs\/ChrisSimpson\/20140717\/221339\/Behavior_trees_for_AI_How_they_work.php."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"790","DOI":"10.1109\/TSMCC.2012.2198883","article-title":"Sensor-based activity recognition","volume":"42","author":"Chen","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part C (Appl. Rev.)"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, L., Nugent, C.D., Biswas, J., and Hoey, J. (2011). Activity Recognition in Pervasive Intelligent Environments, Springer Science & Business Media.","DOI":"10.2991\/978-94-91216-05-3"},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Earnshaw, R.A. (2014). Virtual Reality Systems, Academic Press."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2562\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T18:48:31Z","timestamp":1760208511000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2562"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,7]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11]]}},"alternative-id":["s17112562"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s17112562","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,7]]}}}