Design of Smart Home using Internet of Things

Y. Prem Sudheer T. Bealuah Rani R.K. Madhuri

Guided by Dr. D. Rajan Babu (HOD, Professor)
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Lendi Institute of Engineering and Technology
Affiliated by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada

Abstract: Internet of Things (IOT) conceptualizes the safety and IOT security.IOT is transformational forces that can
idea of remotely connecting and monitoring real world objects help companies improve performance through IOT analytics and
(things) through the Internet. When it comes to our house, this IOT Security to deliver better results. Businesses in the utilities, oil
concept can be aptly incorporated to make it smarter, safer and
& gas, insurance, manufacturing, transportation, infrastructure and
automated. This IOT project focuses on building a smart wireless
home security system which sends alerts to the owner by using retail sectors can reap the benefits of IOT by making more
Internet in case of any trespass and raises an alarm optionally. informed decisions, aided by the torrent of interactional and
Besides, the same can also be utilized for home automation by transactional data at their disposal represent.
making use of the same set of sensors. The leverage obtained by
preferring this system over the similar kinds of existing systems is
that the alerts and the status sent by the Wi-Fi connected micro-
controller managed system can be received by the user on his
phone from any distance irrespective of whether his mobile phone
is connected to the internet. The microcontroller used in the current
prototype is the ESP8266 Wi-Fi SOC which comes with an
embedded micro-controller and an onboard Wi-Fi shield making
use of which all the electrical appliances inside the home can be
controlled and managed. Here we may use digital image
processing for human detection in the home as an extension to it.
Electrical appliances can be controlled by the presence of the
human; the input can be a message and also control with the help
of an app which results in the switching.

Keywords: Internet of things, Mobile App, Blynk

Arduino, ESP8266, Octabrix

1. Introduction

Internet of Things (IOT) is an ecosystem of connected physical

2. Related Works
objects that are accessible through the internet. The ‘thing’ in IOT
could be a person with a heart monitor or an automobile with built- [1]. System consists of three main components; web server, which
in-sensors, i.e. objects that have been assigned an IP address and presents system core that controls, and monitors users’ home and
have the ability to collect and transfer data over a network without hardware interface module(Arduino PCB (ready-made),Wi-Fi shield
PCB, 3 input alarms PCB, and 3 output actuators (PCB.), which
manual assistance or intervention. The embedded technology in the
provides appropriate interface to sensors and actuator of home
objects helps them to interact with internal states or the external automation system.
environment, which in turn affects the decisions taken. An article
by Ashton published in the RFID Journal in 1999 said, “If we had [2]. An interface card has been developed to assure communication
computers that knew everything there was to know about things - between the remote user, server, raspberry pi-card and the home
using data they gathered without any help from us - we would be Appliances. The application has been installed on an android
able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss Smartphone, a web server, and a raspberry pi card to control the
shutter of windows.
and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing
or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best. We [3].It has been implemented with Raspberry Pi through reading the
need to empower computers with their own means of gathering subject of E-mail and the algorithm. Raspberry Pi proves to be a
information, so they can see, hear and smell the world for powerful, economic and efficient platform for implementing the
themselves, in all its random glory.” This is precisely what IOT smart home automation
platforms do for us. It enables devices/objects to observe, identify
and understand a situation or the surroundings without being [4]. Raspberry pi-based home automation is better than other home
automation. Methods are several ways. For example, in home
dependent on human help. Internet of Things can connect devices automation through DTMF (dual tone multi-frequency) [11], the
embedded in various systems to the internet. When devices/objects call tariff is a huge disadvantage, which is not the case in their
can themselves digitally, they can be controlled from anywhere. proposed method.
The connectivity then helps us capture more data from more
Shih-Pang et al. [5] proposed Smart House Monitor &Manager
places, ensuring more ways of increasing efficiency and improving (SHMM), based on the Zig-Bee, all sensors and actuators are

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connected by a ZigBee wireless network. They designed a simple Connection to Blynk with NODE-MCU
smart socket, which can remote control via Zig-Bee.
Step-1: Create Blynk account
[6]. This system followed smart task scheduling with a heuristic for
the Resource-constrained-scheduling problem (RCPSP). The - After you download the Blynk App, you’ll need to create a
mobile device can be either wired to the central controller through New Blynk account. This account is separate from the
USB cable or communicates with it wirelessly, within the scope of accounts used for the Blynk Forums, in case you already
the home.
have one. We recommend using a real email address because
[7]. The proposed system has good modularity and configurability it will simplify things later.
characteristics with very low power consumption in cost efficient
way. Application developed using the Android platform controlled Step-2: Create a new project
and monitored from a remote location using the smart home app
and an Arduino Ethernet based micro web-server - After you’ve successfully logged into your account, start by
creating a new project.
[8]. the sensors and actuators/relays are directly interfaced to the
main controller. Proposed design offers are the control of energy Step-3: Choose our hardware
management systems such as lightings, heating, air conditioning,
security, fire detection and intrusion detection with siren and email Step-4: Auth token
notifications.
3. Implementation Details - It is a unique identifier which is needed to connect your
hardware to your Smartphone. Every new project you create
Blynk Server is a remote server which is set up and ran by Blynk. will have its own Auth Token. You’ll get Auth Token
Every user will have access to it for free. In an unlikely case when
amount of requests will become enormously high, we might automatically on your email after project creation. You can
consider sharing costs with our users or limiting frequency of also copy it manually. Click on devices section and selected
requests per user. Local Blynk Server is Open-Source software that required device
you can install on your local machine. It's written on Java which - NOTE: Don’t share your Auth Token with anyone,
means that it can be run anywhere where Java works. Even on unless you want someone to have access to your
Raspberry Pi. Running Local Blynk Server is for more experienced hardware.
users, but we will provide step-by-step guidance for everyone. In
- It’s very convenient to send it over e-mail. Press the e-mail
order to update the app and get new widgets, you will be required
to connect to Blynk Server from time to time. If input variables are button and the token will be sent to the e-mail address you
represented by A and B then the logical expression for output is used for registration. You can also tap on the Token line and
given by Blynk was designed for the Internet of Things. It can it will be copied to the clipboard.
control hardware remotely, it can display sensor data, it can store - Now press the “Create” button.
data,
Step-5: Add Widgets and Run Project

- Widgets are interface modules. Each of them performs a

specific input/ output function when communicating with the
hardware.

There are 4 types of Widgets:

- Controllers - used to send commands that control your

hardware
- Displays - used for data visualization from sensors and other
sources;
- Notifications - send messages and notifications;
- Interface - widgets to perform certain GUI functions;
- Other - widgets that don’t belong to any category;
- When you are done with the Settings - press
There are three major components in the platform: the PLAY button. This will switch you from EDIT mode to
PLAY mode where you can interact with the hardware.
Blynk App - allows to you create amazing interfaces for your
projects using various widgets we provide.
Interfacing equipment with NODE MCU:
Blynk Server- responsible for all the communications between
the Smart phone and hardware. You can use our Blynk Cloud or - As all components involving here are brutally consumes
run your private Blynk server locally.. huge current and voltage that is why we taken relay module
as core part for intermediate between controller and
Blynk Libraries - for all the popular hardware platforms - enable appliances
communication with the server and process all the incoming and
out coming commands.
 surprise you to know that automatic doors have been around
for almost half a century. Over time, these doors have become
more technologically sophisticated, but the idea has been around
for quite a while! All automatic doors, irrespective of their type or
design, consist of sensors that help trigger the opening/closing of
doors when the need arises. Automatic door opens when the door
controller receives an activation signal by the sensor and activates
the gear motor to drive the belt and pulley. When no one is
detected inside the activation area, the door starts closing after a
designated period of time.

All the appliances are controlled by the variable called count; In

general the count of the members going inside and outside the
house is calculated by the front and end sensors facing opposite
direction towards each other. But in the reality no one goes in
straight path and it really causes a slight variance in calculation of
count as the sensors may activate by misleading direction by the
passers. This is solved by our algorithm as it perfectly counts the
inside and outside members.

Temperature Recording through Blynk:

Circuit for observing temperature and humidity

The DHT11 is a commonly used Temperature and humidity

sensor. The sensor comes with a dedicated NTC to measure
temperature and an 8-bit microcontroller to output the values of
temperature and humidity as serial data. The sensor is also factory
calibrated and hence easy to interface with other Processors.

Doors and Window Controlling By Node MCU

B1 B2 B3 B4 Action

1 0 0 0 Window
close
0 1 0 0 Window open
Circuit for Controlling via server is:
0 0 1 0 Partition
Door The relay module is an electrically operated switch that allows you
0 0 0 1 Front door to turn on or off a circuit using voltage and/or current much higher
than a microcontroller could handle. There is no connection
Control
between the low voltage circuit operated by the microcontroller
and the high power circuit. The relay protects each circuit from
each other. The each channel in the module has three connections
Most automatic doors use motion detection sensors or optical named NC, COM, and NO. Depending on the input signal trigger
sensors, which are installed on the sides of the door, to trigger the mode, the jumper cap can be placed at high level effective mode
opening/closing of doors. Many people tend to believe that which ‘closes’ the normally open (NO) switch at high level input
automatic doors are an invention of the modern world, but it may and at low level effective mode which operates the same but at low
level input.
 tremendous attention recently and its various applications are
growing, changing the way we live and work. This project’s main
focus was on security and safety perspective of smart home
automation, which is a small part of what can be automated and
controlled inside a smart home. Future work focus would be
working on actual AC devices to implement what was simulated in
the model in a real house, developing a more advanced motion
detection algorithm on surveillance cameras, and surveillance car
moving autonomously avoiding obstacles. As there are various
appliances that can be controlled and automated while being away
from home, the same approach used in implementing this project
will be used to enable control over various appliances before
reaching home, saving time and effort; Such application examples
can be, monitoring temperature and humidity, and being able to
control them, controlling stoves and microwaves, locking and
unlocking doors autonomously depending on the visitor face
recognition and confidence and level, surveillance car moving
4. Experimental Results autonomously reaching for a security breach or safety issue to live
This paper demonstrated smart home automation concept using stream what happens so that the user can act accordingly and many
low cost Arduino board for controlling various electrical appliances others that would combine IoT with smart appliances autonomy.
using an Android smart phone. Since loT is one of the upcoming
technologies that can be used for home automation, there are many 6. References
challenges that are associated with it. One of the major challenges
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and other existing intelligent embedded devices. Providing unique Implementation of a WiFi Based Home Automation System”,
IP addresses for connected devices and privacy & security in a
International Journal of Computer, Electrical, Automation, Control
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storing and securing the data. In future, data analytics and [2] HayetLamine and HafedhAbid , ”Remote control of a domestic
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[3]YunCui, MyoungjinKim, YiGu, Jong-jinJung, and HankuLee,

“Home Appliance Management System for Monitoring Digitized
Devices Using Cloud Computing Technology in Ubiquitous Sensor
Network Environment”,Hindawi Publishing Corporation
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[4] Jain Sarthak,VaibhavAnant and Goyal Lovely ,“Raspberry Pi

based Interactive Home Automation System through E-
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[5] Shih-Pang Tseng, Bo-Rong Li, Jun-Long Pan, and Chia-

JuLin,”An Application of Internet of Things with Motion Sensing
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[6] Kim Baraka, Marc Ghobril, Sami Malek, RouwaidaKanj,

AymanKayssi “Low cost Arduino/Android-based Energy-Efficient
5. Conclusion and Future work Home Automation System with Smart Task Scheduling” , 2013
Fifth International Conference on Computational Intelligence,
Home Automation is one of the important applications of IoT. Communication Systems and Networks.
It provides easier and leisure living for every person. In this project,
an approach for developing an IoT software-based smart home [7] Kim Baraka, Marc Ghobril, Sami Malek, RouwaidaKanj,
automation system was implemented and tested through the built AymanKayssi ,”Smart Power Management System For Home
model. The technologies used in implementing this project are: The Appliances And Wellness Based On Wireless Sensors Network
NODE-MCU, Minicomputer, was used as the main control unit of And Mobile Technology”, ,2015 XVIII AISEM Annual
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connection between the two NODE-MCU’s from an end, and the
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USING ANDROID APPLICATION “, International Journal of
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satisfying results with infrequent and acceptable lag, which maybe
caused as a reason of the usage of 3G connection. IoT is having