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Smart Home Systems: Components, Benefits, and Real-Life Implementations
Smart home systems have risen to popularity over the last few years and they have been received with open arms due to the comfort and accessibility it offers in leading a better life.
It just simplifies life within the four walls of a home!
Microcontrollers and smartphones are used by the majority of smart home systems to control them. Wireless communication techniques are used to control and monitor home functions through a mobile application on a smartphone device.
Microcontrollers and smartphones are used by the majority of smart home systems to control them. Wireless communication techniques are used to control and monitor home functions through a mobile application on a smartphone device.
The concept of a smart home has been brought to life by the integration of cloud computing and IoT services. This is done while imbibing intelligence to actuators and sensors, improving the efficiency of data exchange, having better storage space, increasing computation power, using corresponding technology to achieve networking of smart things, and using cloud computing to let smart things have interactions while located at different places.
Here in this post, we will take a look at the different parts of a smart home system, benefits, and practical implementations.
The very first requirement of setting up a smart home system using IoT is to have the “thing” first. Now it can be anything from a robot to a computer, human to animal. Many technology experts believe that there will come a day when you will have the Internet of Things applied even to bits and particles. In the general case, the “thing” that we have referred here is something that can be tracked, monitored or measured. It can be you, your pet, your family member, a device, your home, etc.
It will let you know more about the object rather than when it is in the network for a certain time, just by identifying it. It is possible to collect some real information when the object comes with built-in sensors. For the same reason, automatic sensors that can keep on automatically collecting and transmitting information comes with the Internet of Things. In short, any electronics like reed switches to strain gauges to thermometers can have any type of sensor wired to it.
It is important for you to understand the “things” and tell them apart, moreover, you should be able to connect them, measure them, or monitor them. People can be easily identified as they have distinctive names and faces. They all have their unique identifiers. The products you buy from the store can be easily identified as they come with unique Universal Product Codes. Such products come with barcodes that offer them uniqueness but then, you need someone to scan them. However, such codes can store a small amount of information only. Using RFID technology is a better thing here and it can help to easily identify the items using radio waves automatically and this can be achieved by having no or little human role.
Once you have started to collect data from different sources in millions, you could learn to see some patterns by analyzing it and this will help you to move ahead in a smarter way. Cloud computing systems are said to play a crucial role in the Internet of Things because of the huge amount of data collected from different devices.
Just like computers are connected over the internet and can communicate with each other, it will make sense if the objects or things can communicate with each other over the network. The exchange of information and communication between the devices takes place over the Internet Protocol, a standard agreed communication method. Everything is said to have a unique address in case of IP, and here data is exchanged in the form of packets in little bits. If the objects communicate with each other through a Wi-Fi network or using IP then it means that you have the chance of controlling from a web browser. This is the reason why now we have the monitoring systems and home security systems getting controlled from anywhere using smartphone apps.
The smart home is a concept of building automation within the residential limits. It involves automation and control of all the technology present within. The technology here is defined by the appliances, air conditioning, heating, lighting, entertainment systems, TVs, security cameras, big home appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, and others that can communicate well with each other and can be controlled remotely through smartphone apps or through the internet. Such systems consist of sensors and switches which are connected to a central system. The system will be used by the resident of the house and will be controlling them through a device that will be a mobile unit or a wall-mounted device, which will be connected to the cloud services through the internet.
Public access doors mostly make use of home access technologies. Here you will have a common database that will have the identification attributes listed of authorized people. The access control system collects the attributes of a person when he or she approaches it and then the information is compared to the database. If the information matches the data in the database, the person is allowed to process or else, access denied. In the case of huge enterprises, cloud services can be used centrally in order to collect the data of people and then process it. Some use fingerprint, RFID, face recognition systems, or even identification cards.
It helps you have a cloud service hosted on cloud infrastructure for managing home appliances. Using this you can control the user who will be connected with the appliances in the network through smart actuators. Smart actuators are nothing but the switches and valves which are said to have a role in operating things. Such actuators are said to have different roles to play like emergency shutdown, on/off valve service, control to modulating flow condition changes, positioning to percentage open. The actuator is issued with a digital write command to activate it.
The general smart home system comes with a set of sensors that lets you measure different parameters like humidity, temperature, proximity, and light. Every sensor in this system is made to capture one or more kinds of parameter measurements. The sensors are said to store and visualize data in a way that users can view them anytime and anywhere. In order to work this way, it comes with a communication interface, a signal processor, and a cloud infrastructure with a host.
A large variety of IoT devices, services, and tools have been used in order to build home automation systems. Some of the IoT companies are focused on developing solutions that can be called a ‘Hub’ and work toward building a complete smart home that comes with various touchpoints and is connected over varied smart devices. Some of such examples can be Google Home assistants, Amazon Alexa, etc. Then there are others that are focused on IoT development solutions for a specific part of the household setup. This can be like temperature regulation, controlling lights, etc.
Here we will take a look into a few examples which cover both the aspects of the home automation system.
One of the first IoT devices which came into existence and quickly entered the market was then sensational smart locks. This IoT-based technology has been adopted by many homeowners widely as a part of smart home automation. The kind of product compatibility and user experience it delivers, August Locks has been able to build a place of its own in the market. Such smart locks come with some of the best outstanding features like easy access, excellent security features, integration with leading virtual assistants, etc.
Sensor Strips are a multi-purpose solution and can be called as a good example of a one-size-fits-all IoT tool. Sensative, a Swedish company works toward creating magnetic strips having different sensors and is used in the home environment to create smart spaces or devices. Such Sensor Strips will then alert the homeowner regarding any unusual activity at the bedroom window, when the backdoor of the home is open if you have any leakage in your bathroom, etc.
Electricity consumption monitoring and control is one of the complex smart systems developed for maintaining smart home concepts. Such a system helps the homeowners to remotely track power consumption, control the sockets in the homes as well as calculate the spending on electricity. The energy supplying companies will get a clear idea of energy consumption in this manner. Such information can then be used by such Utility companies to develop a demand-based pricing model.
Sunpartner Technologies is in the business of developing smart surfaces. In the real sense, they are the smart glasses that you can use to collect solar power and then turn to energy to be used. Such smart surfaces can be used in places of doors, windows, rooftops, and even on the surface of appliances and devices to get energy and even to self-charge the devices which are not inside the grid.
Ossia’s Cota is a technology that is popular in its sphere for offering remote power transmission and connectivity within the smart spaces. Cota is said to have the power of building a single unified environment by charging a large number of IoT sensors and devices which are the part of smart objects in a go. This way Cota is said to resolve issues like lack of standardization and connectivity, and fragmentation of the market through their solutions when it comes to IoT and smart home.
Smart home systems make life easier for people and this has been the main reason why more people are ready to spend in this area. Keeping the demand of consumers in mind, new technology advancements are now seen in this arena. IoT-based smart home systems help to boost the security of the homes while increasing the efficiency of the applications and devices present in there. There are some evident benefits of such systems and in the coming time, more such devices will pop-up in the market.
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