Low-Cost Energy-Efficient Smart Monitoring System Using Open-Source Microcontrollers

Abstract

Monitoring home/office and many other locations have become highly recommended and very important in present time. Different types of security and monitoring systems are available in the markets but they have different pros and cons upon each other. This paper presents the design and prototype implementation of a highly scalable low-cost energy efficient smart monitoring system. Unlike the majority of the available monitoring systems in the markets, this system exploits the concept of parallel processing by combining more than one microcontroller (based on the design requirement). The Interface of microcontrollers together is based on the master/slave technique which uses one central (master) microcontroller and one or more slave microcontrollers. The communications between the central microcontroller and the secondary microcontroller(s) is done using I2C protocol. This system consists of microcontrollers and hidden motion detection sensors that trigger the functionalities of other system components such as buzzers, lights, cameras, and GSM. Moreover, an authentication code is used in the system in order to allow authorized users to activate and deactivate the system.