**6. Conclusions**

In this paper, we have introduced the LIARA Portable Smart Home Kit (LIPSHOK), a smart home in a box (SHiB) kit capable of managing both heterogeneous sensors and

actuators, along with several wireless communication technologies, in a unified modular architecture. In order to keep this architecture affordable, its design relies on a centralized unit that does not require powerful hardware to manage the flow of data generated by all the sensors in real time. Since it is a simple architecture that is based on inexpensive hardware, we have put our efforts toward offering a standalone and generic solution, in order to facilitate its installation. Moreover, four custom sensors are also featured in this kit. However, these devices do not exclude the possibility for researchers and developers to integrate other sensors or actuators, which may be either proprietary or custom-made in the LIPSHOK kit. While each of these four sensors has been presented independently, this is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time such a comprehensive SHiB kit has been presented.

### **7. Future Work**

Future work will focus first on the refection and enhancement of the bathroom modules. Indeed, since these modules have not been designed to meet any of the IP standards, it seems important to offer modules that are IP67 considering the environment where they are installed. Moreover, the need for these modules to be powered through an electric cable, while it only outputs 5V, remains a drawback in their design that may raise concerns for smart home residents. Thus, we are working on making the bathroom modules capable of being powered by a button cell battery.

In addition, as a post-COVID-19 pandemic context is starting to emerge, our objective of deploying the complete LIPSHOK kit in real conditions, within a non-research laboratory environment, now appears achievable. Therefore, future work will focus on this essential step that is required to ensure the LIPSHOK SHiB kit works in residential settings.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, K.C., P.L., K.B. and S.G.; methodology, K.C., F.T., P.L., S.G. and K.B.; software, K.C. and P.L.; experimentation and validation, K.C., P.L. and F.T.; writing— original draft preparation, K.C., F.T. and P.L.; writing—review and editing, S.G., J.M., K.B. and F.T. supervision, S.G., K.B. and J.M.; project administration, S.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to acknowledge all the people who participated in this study, as their involvement was essential to the success of this work.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
