Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people, a premises or a machine, for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting them. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment such as CCTV or IP cameras. Home automation or smart homes (also known as domotics or domotica) is the residential extension of building automation and involves the control and automation of lighting, heating (such as smart thermostats), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and security, as well as home appliances such as washer/dryers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers that use WiFi for remote monitoring. Modern systems generally consist of switches and sensors connected to a central hub sometimes called a "gateway" from which the system is controlled with a user interface that is interacted either with a wall-mounted terminal, mobile phone software, tablet computer or a web interface, often but not always via internet cloud services.
