Home automation consistently provides more and more help for people who experience difficulties handling traditional systems of interaction with the physical environment. Given that it is possible to control automation of the home and audiovisual media, it is also necessary to be able to use a real environment to evaluate assistive technology.

In an automated environment, it is not possible to accurately judge people's reactions when they are using prototypes or samples. However, in a real space that is similar to the one they live in, they can carry out the tasks they do every day in their home or work environment, just as they would normally do them, and the team can then evaluate the support products under their usual conditions of usage. Evaluating support products within a real environment means they can be prescribed with greater confidence. This real environment is what the Independent Living Centre (CVI) offers.

The cost is the main impediment to having a real environment to carry out evaluations: updating facilities with real products and aids that are sold on the market is more costly than creating an environment with prototypes and samples.

• Physical space is required. In fact, several physical spaces are required to assume the functions of the rooms in a living or working space (office, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, etc.).
• State-of-the-art technology is also required, which means a regular flow of money is needed and the professionals working on the project need to keep themselves constantly up to date on developments.
• Furthermore, the close collaboration of a number of different parties is called for: universities, hospitals, foundations, companies that market support products, healthcare professionals and the rest of the evaluation team, designers, engineers, architects, etc.