Today Insta GmbH was able to present the results of its work packages in the ForeSight research project at the final conference in Berlin after three years of intensive work. Together with Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Insta designed a multi-sensor and a concept for software-based sensors that, among other things, enables AI-supported activity recognition in rooms.

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Under the motto "ForeSight is the future of living," leading representatives from politics, science, the electrical industry, and the housing sector gathered at the Digital Technologies Forum in Berlin today to present the results of the ForeSight AI research project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK). Ingeborg Esser (GdW) and Wolfgang Weber (ZVEI) were among the participants. The conclusion: a smart living ecosystem is technologically feasible and, as exemplified by use cases, implementable. This marks a milestone in the digitalization of residential properties. There are also high expectations for the current SmartLivingNEXT technology program, launched by the BMWK, which aims to build upon the results of ForeSight.
Many aspects of daily life are already digitised and interconnected. The data derived from this digitalization forms the basis for services that can simplify everyday life. Residential properties also generate data, although buildings are rarely technologically interconnected. There are many different systems that are often incompatible with each other. The resulting "patchwork" is the main reason why the breakthrough of AI-based applications for residential buildings has been delayed. The idea behind ForeSight is to connect data spaces in a rule-based manner, thus opening them up for a variety of applications.
After three years of research involving 78 organisations within the ForeSight community, exactly that has been achieved. The technical feasibility of a platform for residential buildings that enables cross-manufacturer applications with artificial intelligence has been demonstrated. In addition to being the largest smart living community in Germany, ForeSight offers two other platform elements: the ForeSight Dataspace, an open AI-supported data space that is Gaia-X compatible and available to participating companies for building a secure and sovereign smart living ecosystem, and the ForeSight Toolbox, which includes blueprints and information on semantic interoperability, data quality, and the development of intelligent services. The ForeSight Toolbox also incorporates ethical acceptance criteria regarding the use of AI in residential buildings. It also includes several exemplary use cases dedicated to implementing and scaling intelligent services in residential buildings.
As part of the ForeSight consortium, the Lüdenscheid-based electronics specialist Insta GmbH and the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences worked together on a virtual activity sensor. This sensor, based on AI models, can recognize different household activities. Various "real" measurements (such as temperature, vibration, audio) captured by the multisensor serve as the basis for this recognition. Insta GmbH developed the sensor hardware, while the Dortmund research institution provided the machine learning algorithms.
These services developed within the framework of ForeSight were tested using exemplary use cases within the project. These include the "Intelligent Building Gatekeeper," "Smart Energy Management," "Smart Assistance," and "Predictive Maintenance."
"Electrification and digitalization are the two essential drivers of our time to achieve climate protection, resilience, and sustainability efficiently and economically. To unlock the potential for buildings, smart home components, building technology, and the private living environment must be intelligently interconnected. ForeSight enables interoperability between existing and proven manufacturer systems and products. This makes living energy- and process-efficient, safe, and comfortable," said Wolfgang Weber, CEO of ZVEI.

About the ForeSight Consortium:
The consortium consists of a total of 17 user companies, SMEs, hidden champions, associations of the housing sector and the electrical industry, as well as research institutions. It represents a possible "miniature reflection" of a smart living ecosystem, bringing together three major industries for the first time: the housing and real estate sector, the electrical industry, and platform and software providers. The consortium includes Aareon, Bosch, DFKI, dormakaba, easierLife, FAPS, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences, GdW, GSW Sigmaringen, Goethe University Frankfurt, Insta GmbH, CONNCTD, ixto, KEO, PPC, Strategion, FE, and ZVEI.

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