CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
The
term “Smart Home” was first coined by the American Association of House
builders in 1984 with the invention of microcontrollers (Moawia Yahia, 2014).
The overall idea is to provide improved efficiency and security in their place
and areas of applications.
Smart Home can be also known as
Automated Home or intelligent home which indicates the automation of daily tasks
with electrical appliances used in homes. This could be the control of lights,
fans, viewing of the house interiors for surveillance purposes or giving the
alarm alteration or indication in case of gas leakage.
One of the reasons for the rise of
the smart home is the increasing risk of burglary and robbery and the busy
lifestyle of people is leading to the necessity of controlling the devices at
home remotely and increasing the necessity of keeping surveillance over their
homes.
The goal of the project is to
implement a smart home system by controlling the electronic devices at home
remotely with the help of a mobile device and getting alerts on intrusion or
movement around the restricted premises.
Arduino- uno Microcontroller, motion
sensors, heat sensors led bulb and SIM808-GPRS/GSM module are used to design
this system.
SIM808-GPRS/GSM module and the
Arduino-Uno Board are used to communicate between the mobile phone and the
devices and sensors installed at home. The mobile phone can be used as a controller
from anywhere in the world if the GSM network is available (Patranabis, 2003).
Lifestyle in the modern society along with human behaviour and
thinking is changing dramatically with the advancement of technology, and the
concept of a simple home is changing into a smart home.
In the scope of industrialization, automation is step beyond
mechanization. Whereas mechanization provided human operators with machinery to
assist them with the muscular requirement of work, automation greatly decreases
the need for human sensory and mental requirements as well. Automation plays an
increasing important role in the world economy and in daily experience.
Automatic systems are being preferred over manual systems. This project shows
the automatic control of a house as a result of which power is saved to some
extent.
Home
security has changed a lot from the last century and will be changing in coming
years. Security is an important aspect or feature in the smart home
applications. The new and emerging concept of smart homes offers a comfortable,
convenient, and safe environment for occupants. Conventional security systems
keep homeowners, and their property, safe from intruders by giving the
indication in terms of alarm. However, a smart home security system offers many
more benefits (Mior, 2009).
The advancement of technology has increased the safety and
security of people along with their belongings.
Mobile phones today are not just used to make calls. The use of
mobile phones is changing with the development of technology and they can be
used for different purposes. They can be used as clocks, calendars or
controllers instead of being used just as phones. Today smart phones are
available in the market with different applications and hardware which can be
implemented without any further development or enhancement. With the help of
the GSM network, a mobile can be used to implement a smart home by controlling
devices and getting alerts on robbery and burglary.
The cost of the system can be deter-mined by the user as the cost
depends on the hardware used in the system chosen by the developer.
The
project consists of a LED light which is controlled by the mobile phone to show
the demo of controlling mechanism of the household devices such as light, fan
or television. In addition, three sensors are used as a heat detector, motion
detector and intrusion detector which trigger the alarm upon reaching the
critical limit. It also consists of a designed
control system which is based on the GSM technology that effectively allows control
from a remote area to the desired location.
This system is also designed to be
able to send information without using a PC (Personal Computer), which helps
monitor the situation the house quickly and cheaply. C programming language is
used in making this system, the program was applied to create a security system
works automatically, which can make two way communications with user mobile
phone when there is a security breach in the house. The two way communication
used to turn off the buzzer after activated when security breach occur.
Modular-in design is use to make easy expandable for more sensors to be added
to the core system - Arduino Uno open-source microcontroller platform (Subash, 2013).
Its
capability on detecting motion with a simple design at lowest cost is needed to
build an effective house security system based on motion detection.
The
system is limited to areas with GSM network available and the whole system does
not work without the network.
1.2
Statement of Problem
Crime
in Nigeria is a huge problem, and as such home and personal security threats
are something that all Nigerians experience on a daily basis.
Although
homes, businesses and people spend a significant amount of money on security
fees and systems, many problems and weaknesses still exist within the systems
that we use today.
A residence without a home security
system is approximately three times more likely to be broken into than one
without. Home owners who have home security systems loose less in valuables in
the event of a robbery. These facts prove that the installation of a home
security system dissuades intruders and protects your home.
Thus, having a smart home system may
decrease the chances of a burglary.
Even if the alarm system does not keep a
burglar from breaking in, it may cause the burglar to stay a shorter amount of
time.
Besides the existing alarm is a
dependent system which depends on the neighbours to inform the authority or the
owner about any incident regarding the house. The importance to design a GSM
based smart home system is to have a
more independent device which when it detects any movement especially
human movement, it will send an alert to the home owner and also signal to the
buzzer and timer will set time for period to trigger the alarm.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of this project is to develop short message service (sms)
based event notification system that will allow its users to remotely control
and monitor multiple home appliances and detect intrusion using a cellular
phone. (But are not limited to) security systems, lights; anything with an
electrical interface.
The objectives include;
1. To design a short message service (sms) based event notification
system
2. To implement the system using appropriate tools
1.4 Scope of the Project
This project concentrates on a
development of short message service (sms) based event notification system to
control appliances and also detect intruders in a home. To develop the whole
project, it consists of three methods which the mobile station, the
microcontroller unit with the SIM808-GPRS/GSM module, sensors and the light
system and the software programming. Arduino Uno Board is used as the
microcontroller board. The mobile phone is used as a controller to send
instructions and as a recipient to receive the responses and alerts from the
microcontroller unit, whereas the Arduino Board is the unit responsible for
controlling the different parts and acts as the brain of the system. The
SIM808-GPRS/GSM module is responsible for communication between the
microcontroller unit and the mobile station. While the software programming is
based on the microcontroller instruction sets. It contains a program in C
language designed for a security system as an interaction to operate the
electrical structure.
1.5 Limitation of Project
This
project has certain limitations and a list of such is mentioned below;
1. The
receiver must reside in allocation where
a signal with sufficient strength can be received from a cellular phone network
2. Only
devices with electrical controlling input ports will be possible targets for
control.
3. Operation
of the controlling unit is only possible through a cell phone and SIM card with
the capability of receiving messages
1.6 Definition of Terms
Automation:
this is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the
need for human work in the production of goods and services.
Microcontroller: This
is a self contained system with peripherals, memory and a processor that can be
used as an embedded system.
Led bulb/light: Light-Emitting
Diode is a two –lead semiconductor light source that emits visible light when
an electric current passes through it.
Sensor:
this is a device that detects and responds to some type of input from the
physical environment.
Smart home: Smart
home is a house equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that
can be controlled remotely by phone or computer.
Arduino: Arduino
is an open source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible hardware
and software.
Arduino Uno: Arduino Uno is one of the
microcontroller boards manufactured by the Arduino and it is a microcontroller
board based on the Atmel’s ATmega328 microcontroller.