Home Automation Technologies Research Articles

Low-Cost Air Quality Sensing towards Smart Homes

The evolution of low-cost sensors (LCSs) has made the spatio-temporal mapping of indoor air quality (IAQ) possible in real-time but the availability of a diverse set of LCSs make their selection challenging. Converting individual sensors into a sensing network requires the knowledge of diverse research disciplines, which we aim to bring together by making IAQ an advanced feature of smart homes. The aim of this review is to discuss the advanced home automation technologies for the monitoring and control of IAQ through networked air pollution LCSs. The key steps that can allow transforming conventional homes into smart homes are sensor selection, deployment strategies, data processing, and development of predictive models. A detailed synthesis of air pollution LCSs allowed us to summarise their advantages and drawbacks for spatio-temporal mapping of IAQ. We concluded that the performance evaluation of LCSs under controlled laboratory conditions prior to deployment is recommended for quality assurance/control (QA/QC), however, routine calibration or implementing statistical techniques during operational times, especially during long-term monitoring, is required for a network of sensors. The deployment height of sensors could vary purposefully as per location and exposure height of the occupants inside home environments for a spatio-temporal mapping. Appropriate data processing tools are needed to handle a huge amount of multivariate data to automate pre-/post-processing tasks, leading to more scalable, reliable and adaptable solutions. The review also showed the potential of using machine learning technique for predicting spatio-temporal IAQ in LCS networked-systems.

Smart home design flexibility as an enabler of sustainability and the reception in Sulaiymaniah, Kurdistan Region-Iraq

Technological progress has become a key aspect of our well-being and impacts both our daily life and everyone’s use of architectural space. The recent decade has witnessed a rapid evolution of technology which paved the way for smart interior design solutions and stimulated the environment for designers. Studying the effect of integrating smart solutions into aspects of flexible and sustainable interior design. In general, one of the most important ways to achieve Sustainability is to develop the space flexibility by the integration of home automation technology into future living spaces to ensure more efficient use of space (adaptable buildings are likely to use the same amount of space and materials more efficiently, on average, over their entire life). Smart homes have different goals and end-users. A smart home has to be a house and a home to stay, but as the way of living changes within the house, certain changes in space are needed to satisfy the new lifestyle of the occupants. This study explores how flexible space can improve the sustainability of interior design by using Smart Technology and understand the level of acceptance of smart home technology and the design preferences by the people of Sulaymaniyah. A questionnaire survey was established based on the literature review of principles of flexibility, sustainability, and smart technology in interior design, collected raw data and perform statistical analysis to understand whether or not Smart home technology is suitable for the region and what would be the design preferences of people to make it more welcomed in the housing sector as a solution to attain more flexible and sustainable buildings. Results explained that there is a market for Smart Homes in the region of Sulaymaniyah with some modifications in the concepts of smart homes design. The younger group of samples is more accepting of the concept while the older group is also accepting, however, is not entirely comfortable with the complete integration of public and private zones of the future Smart homes.

Determinants of information communication and smart home automation technology adoption for aging-in-place

PurposeSmart home (SH) internet of things can promote home safety, health monitoring and independence of older adults to age-in-place. Despite its commercial growth, low adoption rates of the technology among aging consumers remain a major barrier. The purpose of this study is to examine SH technology ownership of older adults and its causal pathways with demographics, health and functioning, home safety and information communication technology (ICT) use.Design/methodology/approachA survey on technology-mediated aging-in-place was completed by 447 respondents, 65 years and older. Structural equation modeling was used to underscore the causal pathways among demographics, health, independence and home safety, ICT and home automation technology adoption.FindingsThe study found that ICT usability, home security and independence have a significant direct effect on SH ownership. Demographics had no significant direct effect, but its influence was mediated through ICT usability. With home safety as mediator, physical impairment, falls and accidents and independence had a significant association with SH ownership. Similarly, increased social support (mediated through home security) decreased the probability of SH automation ownership.Originality/valueThe findings signify the perceived usefulness of SH automation as theorized in technology acceptance models.

A method for embedding a computer vision application into a wearable device

Pattern classification applications can be found everywhere, especially the ones that use computer vision. What makes them difficult to embed is the fact that they often require a lot of computational resources. Embedded computer vision has been applied in many contexts, such as industrial or home automation, robotics, and assistive technologies. This work performs a design space exploration in an image classification system and embeds a computer vision application into a minimum resource platform, targeting wearable devices. The feature extractor and the classifier are evaluated for memory usage and computation time. A method is proposed to optimize such characteristics, leading to a reduction of over 99% in computation time and 92% in memory usage, with respect to a standard implementation. Experimental results in an ARM Cortex-M platform showed a total classification time of 0.3 s, maintaining the same accuracy as in the simulation performed. Furthermore, less than 20 KB of data memory was required, which is the most limited resource available in low-cost and low-power microcontrollers. The target application, used for the experimental evaluation, is a crosswalk detector used to help visually impaired persons.

Pursuing pleasance: Interrogating energy-intensive visions for the smart home

Abstract In recent years, household sustainability has received increasing attention in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. This has largely been driven by the argument that through interaction design, we can create ‘smart homes’ that enable households to be more responsible with precious resources, such as food, water and energy. However, the assumption that home automation technologies lead to improved sustainability may not hold. As a contribution to this discussion, this paper demonstrates how home automation devices promote a lifestyle vision which may undermine intended energy savings. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of smart home articles, we identify and interrogate the industry vision of ‘pleasance’. We highlight seven qualities that underpin this vision: aesthetic experience, fun and cool, customisation and control, convenience and simplicity, peace of mind, extension and expansion, and effortless energy-saving. We analyse how energy-intensive pleasance is embedded within two commercially available types of devices: smart thermostats and networked lighting. We show how these devices and the pleasance vision that they mobilize may encourage householders to use more energy. The paper concludes with design suggestions on how HCI community can re-envision pleasance through the examples of thermostats and networked lighting to achieve energy reductions and sustainability outcomes.

Arduino Based Smart Energy Saving System in Ugandan Public Universities: A Case Study of Muni University, Uganda

The application of internet of things in the real world offers numerous benefits including smart homes and offices, a technology that does not only save energy but also saves money. Office automation is becoming popular due to its numerous benefits as applied in the world of internet of things. The specific objectives of the study were: to assess the current energy usage, identify current energy saving measures, and design and implement a smart energy saving system for Muni University. System requirements were collected from the respondents who were staff of Muni University. The study considered 2 respondents from estates office, 2 from procurement, 1 from each of the three departments of education, Computer and Information Science, and Nursing Sciences. User requirements were gathered a qualitative protocol using focus group discuss and thematic analysis technique was employed. Heterogeneous home automation systems and technologies were considered in review with central controller-based Arduino, sensors, web based, email, Bluetooth, mobile, SMS, ZigBee, Dual Tone Multi Frequency, and cloud based. The study design utilized the Global system for mobile communication technology as a user interface using SMS based communication with Arduino as the central controller. The system supports internet of things concept that can be applied in saving electrical energy usage in public places including public universities. The study further recommends the Ugandan government to advocate for Arduino Based Smart Energy Saving System that can reduce electrical energy expenditure in Ugandan public universities Muni University inclusive.

Energy Management Strategy for a Society of Prosumers Under the IOT Environment Considering the Network Constraints

The increasing penetration of photovoltaics, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles makes a new entity, named prosumer, becoming possible into power systems. Prosumers are agents that both consume and produce energy. Smart home, home automation technology, and the Internet-of-Thing (IOT) technology with a variety of integrated energy management components are becoming widespread. These technologies enable prosumers to optimize their electricity use considering their energy use and electricity market price information. However, since prosumers are connected at a distribution system level, without proper coordination of prosumers' energy schedule, bidirectional power flow problem caused by the high proportion of prosumers may arise. The problems include line congestions and voltage violations. To prevent the network problem, prosumers energy schedule needed to be managed by the distribution system operator (DSO). The resulting scheduling model contains large variable dimensions and has the risk of exposure of users' electricity privacy information. To resolve these problems, a unified quantitative model, named virtual storage (VS) model, is established for various distributed energy resources (DERs) within the prosumer. The prosumers' VS model is further integrated by aggregators (Aggs) agent. Then, the DSO combines the Aggs' VS model and two-way power flow constraints to determine the optimal day-ahead schedule of prosumers, using a centralized operation strategy. Finally, a modified IEEE33 bus testing system is used for case verification.

A wearable health monitoring system for posttraumatic stress disorder

Abstract Posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD, a mental disorder that ensues after experiencing a shocking, life-altering, and/or traumatic event, has commonly afflicted veterans returning from military service. In this paper, we propose a system that monitors for any signs of nightmares, attempts to suppress them, or wakes the patient slowly if unsuccessful, thus improving the quality of life of those who suffer from nightmares related to PTSD. Consisting of a combination of temperature control, aromatherapy, and auditory therapy capabilities, the proposed innovation will be integrated in the form of a wearable device. The Internet of Things resource in the realm of home automation technology enables the affordable use of smart sensors as the foundation for the system. Wearable technology ties the individual into the countermeasure network and monitors for nightmare conditions. The system will have the capability of optimization through machine learning and remote management. Due to widespread diagnosis of PTSD in those exposed to trauma, the system has the potential to positively impact millions of people and reduce rates of depression and suicide.

Towards the Evolution of Smart Home Environments: A Survey

Current lifestyles and technologies have inspired new ways to manage home appliances free of restrictions previously imposed by distance and time. So-called home automation technologies allow users to control and schedule common home tasks, often without human intervention. Several types of home automation systems have been proposed and classified according to their functionality, mode of user interaction, scheduling systems and cost-effectiveness. This paper reviews proposals in the smart home field from the last five years, considering both technical and functional aspects. The paper seeks to define automated or smart home systems by identifying common aspects of current such systems.

A home automation based environmental sound alert for people experiencing hearing loss.

Different assistive technologies are available for deaf people (i.e. deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing). Besides the well-known hearing aid, devices for detection of sound events that occur at home or at work (e.g. doorbell, telephone) are available. Despite the technological progress in the last years and resulting new possibilities, the basic functions and concepts of such devices have not changed. The user still needs special assistive technology that is bound to the home or work environment. In this contribution a new concept for awareness of events in buildings is presented. In contrast to state-of-the-art assistive devices, it makes use of modern Information and Communication and home automation technology, and thus offers the prospect of cheap implementation and higher comfort for the user. In this concept events are indicated by notifications that are send over a Bluetooth Low Energy mesh network from a source to the user. The notifications are received by the user's smartwatch and the event is indicated by vibration and an icon representing its source.

Design of a Voice Based Intelligent Prototype Model for Automatic Control of Multiple Home Appliances

The revolution in Information Technology(IT) and Artificial Intelligent has provided innovations in diverse kinds of home automation where appliances can be controlled effortlessly and seamlessly .In this paper a review of several home automation technologies was presented and the advantages voice based technology was considered trending among other technologies in terms of flexibility and cost and comfort. In this paper, the conceptual prototype design model and the circuit diagram for controlling multiple home appliances at the same time were presented. The model uses Arduino Uno microcontroller system to control multiple home electrical or electronic appliances with maximum of 5 volts. The design transmits voice command through user wireless microphone (attached to the user cloth) to the intelligence micro controller via graphical user interphase (GUI). The control software developed for the prototype model was implemented using C# programming language, Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and Microsoft Speech recognition system.

Evaluating Access and Mobility within a New Model of Supported Housing for People with Neurotrauma: A Pilot Study

Objectives: (1) Evaluate the features of purpose-built apartment living on access, environmental control, and home and community mobility of people living with neurotrauma and (2) Examine tenant perceptions of those features.Research design: Observational case series pilot study.Setting:Three apartments within a residential development in Melbourne, Australia.Participants:Three males (aged 30–55 years) with traumatic brain and/or spinal cord injury living in the three separate apartments.Method and procedures:Measures:Two-published measures of user experience of built and technology environments, coupled with customised interdisciplinary post-occupancy evaluation (POE) methods and GPS-enabled mobility tracking.Analysis:Measures completed per manual guidelines and data reported descriptively. Customised measured drawings produced to represent tenants’ physical access and mobility. GPS community mobility data plotted on Google Earth.Results: Built design features which enabled access and mobility included linear paths of travel, well-located furnishings, and joinery design that allowed approach from either side using a wheelchair. Personal home furnishing choices posed barriers to physical access. Home automation technologies positively influenced participants’ sense of control and independence, but posed learning challenges. Close proximity of housing to accessible public transport and services enabled community travel options.Conclusion: Findings from this pilot study indicate the combination of housing location, design and technologies used, together with availability of local community services, provides an acceptable level of environmental control, access, mobility and tenant experience. Further research is required to determine validity of the novel measures used, and deliver rigorous research design to evaluate those features most important in achieving optimal outcomes.

A method to identify VR-based set-up to foster elderly in design evaluation

User involvement during design process is an important issue in inclusive design (ID). To this purpose, in the last years, virtual reality (VR) technologies have been introduced to construct virtual prototypes, in order to allow test with users even at the end of the conceptual design phase. The present paper aims to propose a method to support the selection of VR interaction technologies, which can be suited by end users accordingly to their physical and cognitive abilities. The proposed method is applied in order to compare the main VR interaction technologies with the objective to identify an optimal low-cost VR set-up to involve elderly people in evaluation of an innovative concept of kitchen environment which implement smart grid and home automation technologies.

INTEL GALILEO BASED HOME AUTOMATION SYSTEM IN MALAYSIA

Several home automation systems have been rapidly introduced in the recent years. However, the consumer adoption of home automation systems has been immensely slow. Moreover, most home automation systems available in the market are designed for western countries and do not have certain features that are crucial for consumers in tropical countries like Malaysia. Therefore, this paper identifies the possible criteria for this slow adoption and evaluates the potential of Intel Galileo for addressing these problems. Four popular home automation technologies are analysed and surveys are conducted to identify the needs of electricity and water consumers in Malaysia. A low cost, secure, user-friendly, easily installed and flexible Intel Galileo based home automation system that caters the needs of Malaysians is presented. The system is integrated with an Android application and uses a Wi-Fi network. To demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system, the design and prototype implementation of a basic home automation system based on the Intel Galileo is developed and evaluated based on several tests and interviews. The proposed system can be used as a reference to increase consumer adoption of home automation systems in tropical countries.

Development of Secured Home Automation using Social Networking Sites

Background/Objectives: Home automation is becoming more important day by day due to its numerous advantages. Home automation technology provides essential security to homes and associated control operations. This paper deals with the design and implementation of secure home automation using Raspberry Pi. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The proposed technology is to design a basic home security application on Raspberry Pi through reading and posting of messages in social networking sites. This data can be shared to authorized user via social networking sites to achieve home automation. Findings: Raspberry Pi board is a flexible embedded processor and with the support of open source packages the required camera system and systems for Facebook management and one time pass word management are implemented. The GPIO pins are sufficient for external control. Conclusion/Improvements: The system developed provides user friendly automation for security of home using Facebook and can be enhanced in future using bio metric authentication.

사용자 생활패턴 학습을 통한 홈오토메이션 시스템

Home automation technology combines various devices in home organically with each other to ensure the convenience and improved safety of the home life refers to a technique for improving the human living. Because of the technology needed to make this house before you can act as awareness of your thoughts. In this paper, we implement the system model, such as data collection using a sensor network, and take advantage of the idea that the data itself to the home, and an introduction to the method.

Information vs Automation and Implications for Dynamic Pricing

Utility providers have an incentive to curb consumption during periods of peak demand because of the short-run costs of temporarily expanding output via older, more polluting capacity and the long-run costs of investing in new plants and/or transmission infrastructure. Demand reduction can possibly be accomplished by i) increasing price in these periods, ii) enabling consumers to better monitor their electricity usage using smart meters, and iii) providing home technologies which can automate price response. Using a field experiment randomized at the account level in two cities and with extremely disaggregate data on household electricity consumption, we estimate the effect of different price-schedules in combination with smartmeter and home automation technologies on electricity consumption. We leverage our disaggregate electricity consumption data in order to match households based on their pre-experiment consumption patterns. This allows us to estimate individual treatment effects that can be used to target specific households and greatly increasing the potential payoff of future interventions.

Smart Blueprints: How Simple Sensors Can Collaboratively Map Out Their Own Locations in the Home

Off-the-shelf home automation technology is making it easier than ever for people to convert their own homes into smart homes. However, manual configuration is tedious and error-prone. In this article, we present and compare a family of solutions that automatically generate a map of the home and the devices within it using data from the smart home sensors themselves (e.g., light and motion sensors). These solutions can be used to automatically configure home automation systems or to automatically produce an intuitive map-like interface for visualizing sensor data and interacting with controllers. We call our approach Smart Blueprints because it automatically maps out the unique configuration of each smart home. We demonstrate the Smart Blueprints using a variety of sensor combinations, including light sensors, motion sensors, and magnetometers deployed on the doors and/or windows of the home. For evaluation of each combination on sensor-map generation, we deployed more than 200 sensors in seven different houses at different locations and compared the ability to use a variety of techniques to map out the configuration. We show that, in almost all houses, our system can automatically narrow the configuration down to 1--5 candidates per home using only one week of collected data.

Consumer-managed federated homes

There are emerging opportunities for distributed, composite services, based on the combination of smart homes, networked consumer devices, third-party services, and social, geographical or commercial collaborations. However, current home automation technology tends to focus on the single-home solution, rather than enabling home users to securely share and easily manage the resources and services of their home area network. This article describes a new federated home architecture that addresses these needs, reports on prototyping to date, and provides an overview of several important technologies for the next generation of federated homes. Our vision is to support a future of user-centric device and service sharing from home to home across the Internet, in a way that does not rely on centralized authority but supports a web of secure, peer-wise trusted relationships between consumers.

Proposal for Improving Connectivity and adding Authentication and Security to KNXNet/IP Protocol

KNXnet/IP protocol defines mechanisms for using KNX Home and Building Automation technology on top of the IP protocol using client/server architecture. Due the nature of KNXnet/IP protocol it presents some connectivity and security problems inherent to the protocol definition. In this work we propose some mechanisms for trying to fix these problems and finally we implement and test them using real KNX devices.