Smart Home Systems
When initially deciding on what would be a good project to design and implement, the group tried to pick something that would be useful. The ability to control different features of a house came as an interesting idea that the group thought should be common for most households with today's technology. However most of these types of systems were very expensive and the market was unexpectedly small. It was decided that the project should be to design a low cost system for controlling features in a household. Research was done in several possible features to add to the smart home system, such as light control, sensors, audio systems and video monitoring systems. Objectives were set up in a prioritized order to complete the easier tasks first within the limited time and budget given. Many unseen challenges were encountered as the group began to set up a system that would allow the user control through an Android smartphone. A microcontroller based webserver was employed as a base station at the household to allow the smartphone application to control the home through the internet. Wireless technology was also decided necessary to make installation and setup of the system easier. A PCB was designed to be attached to the power outlets, to control the power, read sensor data, and support wireless communication with the base station. First control of the power outlets was completed. Then the sensor data reading was completed. The group began to work on other features such as audio and video features. The current microcontroller web server proved not to be powerful enough to handle audio and video features. A more powerful processor was obtained from Alcorn-Mcbride as a loan. Initial testing and setup of the OMAP processor began but unfortunately there was not enough time to fully setup and implement audio and video with the new processor. In summary the group was able to complete half of its initial objectives, but still considered the project a success because the initial objectives were quite ambitious. This website contains all documentation and information from the Smart Home System project.