Smart Home for beginners

Designing and building a smart house

Alaa Gaied

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9782322205868
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

With the diversity of human means of communication, information and telecommunication technologies have become a sufficient condition to ensure unlimited communication with all the inhabitants of the planet. We can then ask ourselves what will be the next step?Human-machine or machine-to-machine communication can be seen as a new type of possible dialogue. Indeed, for about ten years now devices have been becoming intelligent, act according to the profile of users and are able to make decisions autonomously.Thinking about GSM telecommunication technology, it immediately comes to mind voice communication, sending and receiving SMS and MMS, mobile internet, and everything else that works using this modern technology introduced in our daily life.We can therefore imagine, using these services provided through GSM technology, that the intelligent home will be part of our future. Who would not want a house that takes care of domestic tasks, that provides its occupants with more comfort, security and well-being, that makes life easier for them and meets their needs and desires even before they have been formulated? All this is the domain of home automation. By home automation, it is possible to control and command systems remotely using the GSM network. Applications can be used in various fields such as the remote monitoring and control of machines, alarm and surveillance systems, to control doors and windows or to switch on lights...It is in this context that my book entitled "Designing and building a smart house" is situated. The aim of this project is to develop a system or platform to help in the administration of household equipment. This system allows the piloting and control of the different devices available in the house as well as the description of the services provided and the actions that can be invoked.My book contains three chapters. Firstly, we began with a general presentation in which we will present the project framework and the objectives to be achieved. Then, in the second chapter, we made a detailed design of the system we adopted for its implementation. The realization of our application will be presented, in the third chapter, in which we will present the working environment and the various components implemented in the architecture of our system.We will finish this book with a general conclusion summarizing the different phases of our work, pointing out the beneficial aspects of this book.

 

CHAPTER I: Preliminary study

I.1 Introduction

I.2 Home automation

I.2.1 Definition

I.2.2 Objectives of home automation

I.3 The Smart House

I.3.1 Definition

I.3.2 State of the art

I.4 Project background

I.4.1 Problems

I.4.2 Proposed solution

I.4.3 Specifications

I.4.3.1 Required work

I.4.3.2 Work environment

I.5 Conclusion

I.1 Introduction

The house is a particularly important place for everyone, etymologically it is the place where one stays, where one comes back, the place of sedentarization. The majority of people, especially the elderly, spend a lot of their time at home, hence the considerable influence of habitat on the quality of life. Improving the sense of security and comfort in the home is therefore a task of great social importance. In recent years, information technology has been applied to the creation of intelligent houses with the aim of improving people's living conditions when they are at home. A smart house is defined as a residence equipped with ambient computing technologies that aims to assist the inhabitant in the various situations of domestic life. Smart houses have the capacity to increase the comfort of the inhabitant through, for example, natural interfaces to control light, temperature or various electronic devices.

The aim of this introductory chapter is to put our work in its general context. First of all, we begin with a brief presentation of the subject, detailing its framework and functionalities. Next, we present the problem and the proposed solution. Finally, we detail the proposed specifications.

I.2 Home automation

I.2.1 Definition

Home automation is the technological field that deals with the automation of the home, hence the etymology of the name which corresponds to the contraction of the terms "house" (in Latin "domus") and "automatic".

Domotics is the set of electronic, automatic, computer and telecommunications techniques used in a building to carry out functions ensuring security (intrusion alarms, fire detection, etc.), comfort (heating, household appliance management, lighting optimisation, etc.), energy management (lighting programming, etc.) and communication (sending instructions and receiving information remotely). Figure I.1 illustrates this concept.

We can therefore distinguish two fields of application of home automation:

- Household functions such as heating, lighting, ventilation, appliance control. This involves the management of energy flows (water, gas, electricity).

- Management of data flows: telephone, radio/television, computers, etc.

I.2.2 Purpose of home automation

In the context of technological evolution, the need for improvement in everyday life has arisen. Home automation offers the possibility of having an intelligent and communicating house that ensures important utility functions such as security, comfort and energy management.

• Security

To ensure the protection of property and persons. Thanks to the various sensors installed, a warning will be sent in case of incident (gas leak, fire, intrusion...) and an adequate automatic management will be established (call of the authorities, activation of the extinguishing system...).

• Comfort

Ensure daily living comfort for the elderly by installing home automation for people with reduced mobility. Various functions are remotely controlled such as opening/closing blinds, opening/closing doors, air conditioning...

• Energy management
  

Facilitate energy saving thanks to the controlled reactivity of a smart house (put the heating in "economy" mode if no one is present...).

In short, home automation allows :

The automation of a building; To control your home with the tip of your fingers; To program and coordinate tasks and services in the home; To receive and give information

Figure I.1: Goals of home automation

I.3 Smart Home

The intelligent home is the application area in which we conduct our work, and it's an area that has attracted a lot of attention in t...