Abstract
In this age of electronic communication, checking the physical mailbox is still part of our daily life. Mailboxes are placed several meters away from the house, and sometimes across the opposite side of a street. It is annoying to walk to the mailbox each day and realize that the mailbox is empty. In this paper, an Internet of Things (IoT)-connected smart mailbox is developed that automatically sends a notification to the smartphone whenever new mail arrives. This notification removes the frustration of an unnecessary trip to the mailbox. The proposed mailbox contains a low power device comprising of sensors, a system-on-chip microcontroller with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and a rechargeable battery that charges with a solar panel. Whenever the mailbox door is closed, it checks the presence of mail and then sends the data to a hub using BLE. The hub is placed inside the house and sends a push notification to the smartphone using the home Wi-Fi. A smart speaker, Google Home, is also interfaced with the system, which can verbally say the status of the mailbox when asked a customized question. A prototype of the smart mailbox, the hub, and the smartphone app is developed and tested successfully.
Highlights
Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home technologies are bringing lots of excitement in our day to day lives
The mailbox will be at this low power idle state most of the time
The prototype uses a lithium polymer (Li-Po) rechargeable battery having a capacity of 2500 mAh and it is connected with a solar panel through a solar charger circuit
Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) and smart home technologies are bringing lots of excitement in our day to day lives. It is expected to grow to about $53.5 billion by 2022 as more people begin to adopt smart home technology [6] In this age of email and social media, we still look forward to checking our physical mailbox each day. Sometimes the mailboxes are placed several meters away from the house door and sometimes they are placed on the other side of a busy street It might be frustrating for people, especially seniors and the disabled, to walk several meters to the mailbox each day by crossing a busy street and find that no mail has arrived. The situation becomes more troublesome when the weather is extremely hot, cold, or rainy In this project, an IoT connected smart mailbox is developed. The owner is notified of an anticipated letter or gift as soon as it is delivered to the mailbox—as long as the owner’s smartphone is connected with the Internet on any place of the world—and it gives peace of mind
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