Home automation

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Room control unit
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Ring video doorbell with Wi-Fi camera
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August Home smart lock

Home automation or domotics [1] is building automation for a home. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It may also include home security such as access control and alarm systems.

Contents

The phrase smart home refers to home automation devices that have internet access. Home automation, a broader category, includes any device that can be monitored or controlled via wireless radio signals, not just those having internet access. When connected with the Internet, home sensors and activation devices are an important constituent of the Internet of Things ("IoT"). [2]

A home automation system typically connects controlled devices to a central smart home hub (sometimes called a "gateway"). The user interface for control of the system uses either wall-mounted terminals, tablet or desktop computers, a mobile phone application, or a Web interface that may also be accessible off-site through the Internet.

History

Early home automation began with labor-saving machines. Self-contained electric or gas powered home appliances became viable in the 1900s with the introduction of electric power distribution [3] and led to the introduction of washing machines (1904), water heaters (1889), refrigerators (1913), sewing machines, dishwashers, and clothes dryers.

In 1975, the first general purpose home automation network technology, X10, was developed. It is a communication protocol for electronic devices. It primarily uses electric power transmission wiring for signalling and control, where the signals involve brief radio frequency bursts of digital data, and remains the most widely available. [4]

By 2012, in the United States, according to ABI Research, 1.5 million home automation systems were installed. [5] Per research firm Statista [6] more than 45 million smart home devices will be installed in U.S. homes by the end of the year 2018. [7]

The word "domotics" is a contraction of the Latin word for a home ( domus ) and the word robotics . [1] The word "smart" in "smart home" refers to the system being aware of the state of its devices, which is done through the information and communication technologies (ICT) protocol and the Internet of Things (IoT). [8]

Applications and technologies

Home automation is prevalent in a variety of different realms, including:

Implementations

Internet enabled cat feeder Cat feeder.jpg
Internet enabled cat feeder

In 2011, Microsoft Research found that home automation could involve a high cost of ownership, inflexibility of interconnected devices, and poor manageability. [20] When designing and creating a home automation system, engineers take into account several factors including scalability, how well the devices can be monitored and controlled, ease of installation and use for the consumer, affordability, speed, security, and ability to diagnose issues. [21] Findings from iControl showed that consumers prioritize ease-of-use over technical innovation, and although consumers recognize that new connected devices have an unparalleled cool factor, they are not quite ready to use them in their own homes yet. [22]

Historically, systems have been sold as complete systems where the consumer relies on one vendor for the entire system including the hardware, the communications protocol, the central hub, and the user interface. However, there are now open hardware and open source software systems which can be used instead of or with proprietary hardware. [20] Many of these systems interface with consumer electronics such as the Arduino or Raspberry Pi, which are easily accessible online and in most electronics stores. [23] In addition, home automation devices are increasingly interfaced with mobile phones through Bluetooth, allowing for increased affordability and customizability for the user. [8]

Criticism and controversies

Home automation suffers from platform fragmentation and lack of technical standards [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] a situation where the variety of home automation devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently between different inconsistent technology ecosystems hard. [30] Customers may hesitate to bet their IoT future on proprietary software or hardware devices that use proprietary protocols that may fade or become difficult to customize and interconnect. [31]

The nature of home automation devices can also be a problem for security, data security and data privacy, since patches to bugs found in the core operating system often do not reach users of older and lower-price devices. [32] [33] One set of researchers say that the failure of vendors to support older devices with patches and updates leaves more than 87% of active devices vulnerable. [34] [35]

Concerns have been raised by tenants renting from landlords who decide to upgrade units with smart home technology. [36] These concerns include weak wireless connections that render the door or appliance unusable or impractical; the security of door passcodes kept by the landlord; and the potential invasion of privacy that comes with connecting smart home technologies to home networks.

Researchers have also conducted user studies to determine what the barriers are for consumers when integrating home automation devices or systems into their daily lifestyle. One of the main takeaways was regarding ease of use, as consumers tend to steer towards "plug and play" solutions over more complicated setups. [37] One study found that there were large gaps in the mental-models generated by users regarding how the devices actually work. [37] Specifically, the findings showed that there was a lot of misunderstanding related to where the data collected by smart devices was stored and how it was used. [37] For example, in a smart light setup, one participant thought that her iPad communicated directly with the light, telling it to either turn-off or on. [37] In reality, the iPad sends a signal to the cloud system that the company uses (in this case, the Hue Bridge) which then signals directly to the device. [37]

Overall, this field is still evolving and the nature of each device is constantly changing. While technologists work to create more secure, streamlined, and standardized security protocols, consumers also need to learn more about how these devices work and what the implications of putting them in their homes can be. The growth of this field is currently limited not only by technology but also by a user's ability to trust a device and integrate it successfully into his/her daily life.

Impact

Utilizing home automation could lead to more efficient and intelligent energy-saving techniques. [38] By integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) with renewable energy systems such as solar power or wind power, homes can autonomously make decisions about whether to store energy or expend it for a given appliance, [38] leading to overall positive environmental impacts and lower electricity bills for the consumers using the system. To do this, researchers propose using data from sensors regarding consumer activity within the home to anticipate consumer needs and balance that with energy consumption. [39]

Furthermore, home automation has a large potential regarding family safety and security. According to a 2015 survey done by iControl, the primary drivers of the demand for smart and connected devices are first "personal and family security", and second "excitement about energy savings". [40] Home automation includes a variety of smart security systems and surveillance setups. This allows consumers to monitor their homes while away, and to give trusted family members access to that information in case anything bad happens.

While there are many competing vendors, there are increasing efforts towards open source systems. However, there are issues with the current state of home automation including a lack of standardized security measures and deprecation of older devices without backwards compatibility.

Home automation has high potential for sharing data between family members or trusted individuals for personal security purposes and could lead to energy saving measures with a positive environmental impact in the future.

The home automation market was worth US$64 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow to over $163 billion in 2028.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and other low-power low-bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection. Hence, Zigbee is a low-power, low-data-rate, and close proximity wireless ad hoc network.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) refer to networks of spatially dispersed and dedicated sensors that monitor and record the physical conditions of the environment and forward the collected data to a central location. WSNs can measure environmental conditions such as temperature, sound, pollution levels, humidity and wind.

Building automation (BAS), also known as building management system (BMS) or building energy management system (BEMS), is the automatic centralized control of a building's HVAC, electrical, lighting, shading, access control, security systems, and other interrelated systems. Some objectives of building automation are improved occupant comfort, efficient operation of building systems, reduction in energy consumption, reduced operating and maintaining costs and increased security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edge computing</span> Distributed computing paradigm

Edge computing is a distributed computing model that brings computation and data storage closer to the sources of data. More broadly, it refers to any design that pushes computation physically closer to a user, so as to reduce the latency compared to when an application runs on a centralized data centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart transducer</span>

A smart transducer is an analog or digital transducer, actuator, or sensor combined with a processing unit and a communication interface.

Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The Internet of things encompasses electronics, communication, and computer science engineering. "Internet of things" has been considered a misnomer because devices do not need to be connected to the public internet; they only need to be connected to a network and be individually addressable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart grid</span> Type of electrical grid

The smart grid is an enhancement of the 20th century electrical grid, using two-way communications and distributed so-called intelligent devices. Two-way flows of electricity and information could improve the delivery network. Research is mainly focused on three systems of a smart grid – the infrastructure system, the management system, and the protection system. Electronic power conditioning and control of the production and distribution of electricity are important aspects of the smart grid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time switch</span>

A time switch is a device that operates an electric switch controlled by a timer.

A smart object is an object that enhances the interaction with not only people but also with other smart objects. Also known as smart connected products or smart connected things (SCoT), they are products, assets and other things embedded with processors, sensors, software and connectivity that allow data to be exchanged between the product and its environment, manufacturer, operator/user, and other products and systems. Connectivity also enables some capabilities of the product to exist outside the physical device, in what is known as the product cloud. The data collected from these products can be then analyzed to inform decision-making, enable operational efficiencies and continuously improve the performance of the product.

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are integrations of computation with physical processes. In cyber-physical systems, physical and software components are deeply intertwined, able to operate on different spatial and temporal scales, exhibit multiple and distinct behavioral modalities, and interact with each other in ways that change with context. CPS involves transdisciplinary approaches, merging theory of cybernetics, mechatronics, design and process science. The process control is often referred to as embedded systems. In embedded systems, the emphasis tends to be more on the computational elements, and less on an intense link between the computational and physical elements. CPS is also similar to the Internet of Things (IoT), sharing the same basic architecture; nevertheless, CPS presents a higher combination and coordination between physical and computational elements.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is an approach to network management that enables dynamic and programmatically efficient network configuration to improve network performance and monitoring in a manner more akin to cloud computing than to traditional network management. SDN is meant to improve the static architecture of traditional networks and may be employed to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets from the routing process. The control plane consists of one or more controllers, which are considered the brains of the SDN network, where the whole intelligence is incorporated. However, centralization has certain drawbacks related to security, scalability and elasticity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of home automation articles</span>

This is a list of home automation topics on Wikipedia. Home automation is the residential extension of building automation. It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC, appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HomeKit</span> Software framework by Apple for home automation

HomeKit, also known as Apple Home, is a software framework and communication protocol developed by Apple Inc. that lets users configure, communicate with and control smart-home appliances using Apple devices. It provides users with a way to automatically discover such devices and configure them. By designing rooms, items and actions in HomeKit, users can enable automations in the home through a voice command to Siri or through Apple's Home app or third party apps. With HomeKit, developers are able to create complex applications in order to manage accessories at a high level.

Fog computing or fog networking, also known as fogging, is an architecture that uses edge devices to carry out a substantial amount of computation, storage, and communication locally and routed over the Internet backbone.

Transactive energy refers to the economic and control techniques used to manage the flow or exchange of energy within an existing electric power system in regards to economic and market based standard values of energy. It is a concept that is used in an effort to improve the efficiency and reliability of the power system, pointing towards a more intelligent and interactive future for the energy industry.

The industrial internet of things (IIoT) refers to interconnected sensors, instruments, and other devices networked together with computers' industrial applications, including manufacturing and energy management. This connectivity allows for data collection, exchange, and analysis, potentially facilitating improvements in productivity and efficiency as well as other economic benefits. The IIoT is an evolution of a distributed control system (DCS) that allows for a higher degree of automation by using cloud computing to refine and optimize the process controls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Home Assistant</span> Home automation software

Home Assistant is free and open-source software used for home automation. It serves as an integration platform and smart home hub, allowing users to control smart home devices. The software emphasizes local control and privacy and is designed to be independent of any specific Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Its interface can be accessed through a web-based user interface, by using companion apps for Android and iOS, or by voice commands via a supported virtual assistant, such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Home Assistant's own "Assist" using natural language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Develco Products</span> Danish wireless technology producer

Develco Products is a B2B wireless technology producer, headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark. The company was established in 2007 and develops white label devices for B2C solution providers and has over 3,500,000 devices deployed worldwide... Their main business areas are home care, security, and smart energy. They are a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance as their main technological expertise lies in Zigbee-based devices that communicate through a mesh network. The company claims their most popular product is the Squid.link gateway.

Internet of vehicles (IoV) is a network of vehicles equipped with sensors, software, and the technologies that mediate between these with the aim of connecting & exchanging data over the Internet according to agreed standards. IoV evolved from Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks, and is expected to ultimately evolve into an "Internet of autonomous vehicles". It is expected that IoV will be one of the enablers for an autonomous, connected, electric, and shared (ACES) Future Mobility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IoT forensics</span> Branch of digital forensics

IoT Forensics or IoT Forensic Science, a branch of digital forensics, that deals with the use of any digital forensics processes and procedures relating to the recovery of digital evidence which originates from one or more IoT devices for the purpose of preservation, identification, extraction or documentation of digital evidence with the intention of reconstructing IoT-related events. These events may reside across one or more configurable computing resources that are within close proximity to the location where the event has taken place.

References

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  2. ↑ Chakraborty, Arindom; Islam, Monirul; Shahriyar, Fahim; Islam, Sharnali; Zaman, Hasan U.; Hasan, Mehedi (2023). "Smart Home System: A Comprehensive Review". Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering . 2023: 1–30. doi: 10.1155/2023/7616683 .
  3. ↑ Home Automation & Wiring (1 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics. 1999-03-31. ISBN   978-0-07-024674-4.
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  5. ↑ "1.5 Million Home Automation Systems Installed in the US This Year". ABI Research. November 19, 2012. Retrieved 2016-11-22.
  6. ↑ "Smart Home - United States | Statista Market Forecast". Statista. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  7. ↑ Caccavale, Michael (September 24, 2018). "The Impact Of The Digital Revolution On The Smart Home Industry". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
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  18. ↑ "Sure Flap - Smart Cat Flap Coming Soon! - News - Smart Home Geeks". Smart Home Geeks. 2017-04-06. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
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  20. 1 2 Brush, A. J.; Lee, Bongshin; Mahajan, Ratul; Agarwal, Sharad; Saroiu, Stefan; Dixon, Colin (2011-05-01). "Home Automation in the Wild: Challenges and Opportunities". Microsoft Research.
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  36. ↑ Ng, Alfred (March 7, 2019). "Your landlord turns your apartment into a smart home. Now what?". CNET. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  37. 1 2 3 4 5 Kaaz, Kim J.; Hoffer, Alex; Saeidi, Mahsa; Sarma, Anita; Bobba, Rakesh B. (October 2017). "Understanding user perceptions of privacy, and configuration challenges in home automation". 2017 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC). Raleigh, NC: IEEE. pp. 297–301. doi:10.1109/VLHCC.2017.8103482. ISBN   978-1-5386-0443-4. S2CID   36313196.
  38. 1 2 Risteska Stojkoska, Biljana L.; Trivodaliev, Kire V. (January 2017). "A review of Internet of Things for smart home: Challenges and solutions". Journal of Cleaner Production. 140: 1454–1464. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.006. S2CID   53696817.
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  40. ↑ Kaaz, Kim J.; Hoffer, Alex; Saeidi, Mahsa; Sarma, Anita; Bobba, Rakesh B. (October 2017). "Understanding user perceptions of privacy, and configuration challenges in home automation". 2017 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC). Raleigh, NC: IEEE. pp. 297–301. doi:10.1109/VLHCC.2017.8103482. ISBN   978-1-5386-0443-4. S2CID   36313196.
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