Smart Home Systems

I Smart Home Systems Smart Home Systems Edited by Mahmoud A. Al-Qutayri In-Tech intechweb.org Published by In-Teh In-Teh Olajnica 19/2, 32000 Vukovar, Croatia Abstracting and non-profit use of the material is permitted with credit to the source. Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published articles. Publisher assumes no responsibility liability for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained inside. After this work has been published by the In-Teh, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are an author or editor, and the make other personal use of the work. © 2010 In-teh www.intechweb.org Additional copies can be obtained from: publication@intechweb.org First published February 2010 Printed in India Technical Editor: Zeljko Debeljuh Cover designed by Dino Smrekar Smart Home Systems, Edited by Mahmoud A. Al-Qutayri p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-050-6 V Preface The tremendous developments that continue to evolve in the field of information communication technology (ICT) are affecting nearly all aspects of human lives. Mobile phones currently support many applications and deliver services that go well beyond basic voice communication. Wireless sensor networks with ubiquitous embedded processors can sense various parameters and generate the appropriate responses. These are some examples of systems that are being driven by advancements in ICT. Another important ICT driven field is the smart home. This field has been the subject of concerted research effort for some time and is beginning to develop practical products for a market that is expected to grow substantially in the relatively near future. Smart homes are intelligent environments that interact dynamically and respond readily in an adaptive manner to the needs of the occupants and changes in the ambient conditions. The realization of systems that support the smart homes concept requires the integration of technologies from different fields. Among the challenges that the designers face is to make all the components of the system interact in a seamless, reliable and secure manner. Another major challenge is to design the smart home in a way that takes into account the way humans live and interact. This later aspect requires input from the humanities and social sciences fields. The need for input from diverse fields of knowledge reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the research and development effort required to realize smart homes that are acceptable to the general public. The applications that can be supported by a smart home are very wide and their degree of sophistication depends on the underlying technology used. Some of the application areas include monitoring and control of appliances, security, telemedicine, entertainment, location based services, care for children and the elderly… etc. This book consists of eleven chapters that cover various aspects of smart home systems. Chapter 1: Smart Home Systems introduces pervasive computing in the context of smart homes and then presents a vision of the home environment, and how devices, networks and applications should be organized. It also describes the use of a home gateway to support the home applications execution. Chapter 2: Integrated Wireless Technologies for Smart Homes Applications describes some of the key wireless communication, smart sensors, and context-aware computing technologies used to design smart homes. It then presents various smart homes applications and describes the design and implementation of an integrated secure application that enables monitoring and control of multiple devices with multiple settings at a remote home using a mobile phone. Chapter 3: Selected Home Automation and Home Security Realizations: An Improved Architecture presents a study on the control of some appliances, ... - tailieumienphi.vn