A wide variety of home automation solutions are being developed – but most of them require professionals and skilled staff to install and/or operate them. Furthermore, most of these solutions lack the potential for seamless integration into an already functioning home environment. To bridge the gap between consumer and expert, and to allow integration into any existing home environment without physical alteration to the building, a modular home automation solution with seamless integration potential is required.
The proposed system uses open source software and hardware, allowing for development to continue within the existing open source community. This type of system can be installed and configured without professional skills or physical alteration of the environment itself, due to its modular design and flexibility.
A smart home automation system, by definition, is the integration of electrical devices (including actuation of non-electrical devices such as blinds) and the monitoring and control of the home environment through an intelligent system or by a user over a communication medium, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and coordinated by a computer.
Within this connected environment, tasks can be made more intuitive and effective. The home network handles all communication and a user is given access to the system via a personal computer, smartphone, or tablet from either within the home or from a remote location over the Internet. The integration of information technologies into the home environment allows systems and appliances to function with convenience, energy efficiency, and safety benefits. The overall smart home architecture therefore consists of the devices and appliances within the home connected to the home network, the user, and the industry service providers.
Existing smart home automation systems are uniquely designed to suit specific consumers home environments and requirements. These systems are complex in design, not flexible enough to meet the custom requirements, and are often embedded into the physical structures of the home – they are also expensive, which prevents adoption by the average consumer and limits the potential for reconfiguration and expansion in order to satisfy the changing needs of the consumer. In addition, the exclusion of open source software also prevents the growth and expansion of smart home automation system.
To solve these problems, a seamlessly integratable, open-source-software-based, reconfigurable and expandable smart home automation system is proposed. To serve as a platform upon which research can continue, it should make maximum use of open source hardware and software. It should also allow for multiple configurations of sensors and actuators and be easy to modify, resulting in a modular design. This will allow the third party community and every customer to reconfigure the system such that it suits the requirements of each unique household.
More detail can be found On Embedded Computing Design
http://www.embedded-computing.com/iot/a-home-automation-solution
Sanjeev Sharma Blog 