A systematic review of outcomes of environmental control systems and smart home technology in terms of primary activity, participation, and independence, and secondarily of quality of life and user satisfaction was conducted. In all 16 databases were searched electronically, two journals, and three conferences were hand searched, covering years 1993-2007. Of the 650 documents identified, five met the set inclusion criteria, representing four studies. One was a randomised control study, and the other three small (n=5-8) pre-post studies. The internal quality of the studies was moderate, while the external validity was mainly good. Two studies concerned smart home technology and two environmental control systems. Study participants were mainly people with physical impairment, ranging from 6-82 years of age. Three studies demonstrated increased activity and/or participation; two increased independence; one improved quality of life; in one user satisfaction was high. In spite of the few studies the findings indicate that environmental control systems and smart home technology are promising technologies for enabling activity and participation, independence and quality of life for people with physical impairments. However, more studies are needed to properly establish the effectiveness of these technologies.