Smart Home System based on Wireless Sensor Networks
FCITR MAGAZINE
Dr. Adel Ali Ahmed and R.A. AL-kadasi et al*
Faculty of Computing and Information Technology Rabigh King Abdulaziz University
Kingdom Saudi Arabia
*FEIT, IT, Taiz University
1.0 Introduction
Nowadays, almost of the modern technologies are based on the remote control which is almost applied via the wireless network. Home automation is becoming one of the fastest developing application-based technologies in the world as people strive to make their life more comfortable, convenient and safe. The idea of comfortable living in homes has been changed for the past decade as Digital and Wireless technologies are now integrated into it, thus leading to the concept of smart home. In simple terms, smart homes can be described as homes that are fully automated in terms of carrying out a predetermined task, providing feedback to the users, and responding according to situations. Smart home automation simply allows many aspects of the home system to be automatically controlled. However, since this technology is still very much in flux, other terms are also used in the literature with equivalent meaning, such as: “home automation”, “smart house”, “digital home” or
“electronic home” [1].
This research proposed smart home automation system (SHAS) that develops an advance security system that provides us with a proactive alarm as can be shown in Figure 1. In addition, it provides energy conservation technique which applies a smart lighting system, which turns on and off the light according to the human occupancy. Moreover, the proposed system remotes the contacting system, that deals with the user via two cheap and available techniques which are SMS via GSM mobiles and the internet.
Figure 1. SHAS controlling functions
2.0 How Does SHAS Work
The basic idea in designing the SHAS is to be able to control the home automatically according to the environment conditions such as the degree of natural light, temperature, humidity etc as illustrated in Figure 2. The mentioned information has been collected with the sensors that have been distributed widely all over the home. The gateway mote is the one responsible of transferring the collected data into the PC. The PC contains the software that is responsible of processing the incoming data. According to the process stage the suitable reaction would fired. The reaction may be sending a SMS via the GSM modem or firing an alarming circuit or any other type of reaction.
2.1 Working mechanism steps
In this section, we would summarize our system work as steps that bias on the previous mentioned information in this article:
Step 1: Each mote reads the values of its sensors (WiEye reads PIR, VL and acoustic; Telosb reads temperature and humidity) and encapsulate them into a message that is broadcast to the sink.
The sink mote receives those messages, and encapsulates them into another message format, and then send it to the PC via the serial of the gateway that is connected with the PC via the USB.
Figure 2. SHAS working mechanism
Step 2: The PC keeps the incoming read value of the sensors in a file, and updates them each time a message is received via the serial.
Step3: The smart home java application would start its work.
Step 3.1: In the first initialization of the system, its configurations must be applied. We meant by the system configurations; creating at least one power user and configuring the GSM and the microprocessor programming board by setting its parameters such as choosing the port number, the baud etc.
Step 3.2: The application starts examining each system status i.e.
whether it is on or off.
Step 3.3: The application start exporting the sensors values from the file.
Step 3.4: According to the sensors values, the application starts reacting for each system as its condition. The reactions differ from one system to another; however, we can summarize them in the following points: Lights (on / off); Alarms (on / off); Door locks (open / close); Drapes (open / close); SMS and Air condition (on / off).
Step 4: repeat step 3.1 till 3.4 everyone second
3.0 System implementation and testing
SHSA used the following hardware: Telosb platform from MEMSIC [2];
Telos with Personal Infrared (PIR) sensor board from EasySen WiEye [3];
Microcontroller PIC16F887A; GSM modem and Java language for main panel programming as shown in Figure 3.SHSA used one two TelosB sensor board for air conditioning and fire controlling; Telos with PIR used for home automation and security and Microcontroller PIC16F887A for controls the household items circuit which manage the circuit states whether on or off according to a specific conditions that are passes to the microcontroller as input parameters.
(a)
(b)
(c)…..
(d)
Figure 3. SHAS Hardware and Demo; (a) main panel;(b) Microcontroller and TelosB;(c) Telos with PIR and (d) Home TestingDemo
4.0 Conclusion
Wireless sensor networks as an easy deployment, low cost, sensing ability, and wireless communication link network technology has been applied in many applications. This article proposed home automation system that develops an advance security system that provides us with a proactive alarm.
In addition, it provides energy conservation technique which applies a smart lighting system, which turns on and off the light according to the human occupancy. Moreover, the proposed system remotes the contacting system, that deals with the user via two cheap and available techniques which are SMS via GSM mobiles and the internet
References
[1]. Lorente, S.; , "Key issues regarding Domotic applications," Information and Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 2004.
Proceedings. 2004 International Conference on , vol., no., pp. 121- 122, 19-23 April 2004, doi: 10.1109/ICTTA.2004.1307644
[2]. http://www.memsic.com/products/wireless-sensor-networks/wireless- modules.html
[3] http://www.easysen.com/WiEye.htm
