Current Devices Could Be Used In Dwelling

Examples of IoT devices for smart homes

Discuss About The Current Devices Could Be Used In Dwelling?

Today, in this contemporary world we are surrounded by gadgets, these are all applications of embedded systems, development of which in the last decade has led to burgeoning small hand-held devices which can again be connected to each other to synchronize data and share information with internet.

All these devices and equipment which are made to make our life easy are all together as a system known as internet of things.

These devices have penetrated the very depth of our livelihood and with the advent of applications which can be installed and run on the OS on these devices, same devices hence now can be used for multiple different applications. Let’s consider an example of a most common hand-held device a smart phone, its used to make a phone call to sending text, browsing internet, downloading and listening to our favorites genre, this device can also record our heartbeats, if used in conjunction with other portable equipment it can detect and measure diabetes in a person. A simple iPhone is also being used to monitor activity during gym exercises etc.

The climate control system in every house is another such IoT device, it uses data from local probes into its systems and decides the room temperature accordingly so that a person entering the house won’t feel an impulse. The data used to take a decision can also be taken from local meteorological department or a national system in case of some natural calamity like a cyclone, heat wave etc.

Similarly, light control systems are also trends in present day homes, they are good for saving on energy bills, the bill reduces to half of what it used to be prior to installing the feature. This can also be attached to ambience control or TV control, water motor control, ex- the motor will not run on its own when there is no one inside the house, and/or fills the tank partially when there are a few people inside the house.

Home security system is another such device used widely, people can control remotely or even locally while living in their respective homes as to who can access or get into their house, this generally has a camera, microphone and a remote to open the gates which opens when it gets the required signal. In an advanced person, automatic door lockers and a security key is featured, which then may dial the local law enforcement agency in case the system senses breach in the security. Home security system is augmented by latest in development like motion sensors, infra-red detectors, and suspicious activity detector.

Usage, control, connectivity, security, privacy

Advanced fire detection also features in the above-mentioned system which works on the logic that if 5 or more smoke and fire detectors detect fire, then the system automatically relays a message to the owner and also to the local fire department, hospitals for the emergency and also the law enforcement agencies.

Smart TVs are also a trend today, this offers you access to internet for streaming through you tube videos apart from setting reminder to your favorite shows and also recording live streams for you to watch later. Theses also have mood detection feature which then reads your face and plays a movie or a serial based on it. Smart TVs may also feature motion sensors to understand your body language and offer gesture based services, the motion or movement it captures is stored locally and can be understood as your digital gesture or a digital id based on your body language.

These systems are there to make out life easier, they are connected with each other to understand our requirements even better and hence the quality of service increases, but there systems have a set of disadvantages as well. Let’s discuss some of these issues and possibly think of some solutions.

As the human life has become easier, they try to become lethargic, this has lead to a downfall of the fitness culture among the youth. Dependence on these technologies should be for the benefit, here off course the disadvantages depends on the usage, over usage of any technology can be a bane.

Now let’s see some serious implications miss use or abuse of these IoT devices.  Since almost all of these artificially intelligent IoTs store human behavioral data, these are vulnerable to security threats like thefts, blackmailing, misuse etc. A possible solution to such an issue would be securing the data both physically and through a firewall with the most updated form of data security protocols available in the market. This security issue is serious in nature and will have to be innovative in our approach; a data security designer should always be a step ahead of schemers.

As we know that a signal which is predictable and can be controlled is used, any other signal which cannot be predicted and/or controlled is of no use to engineers. Hence there is an issue with control of these IoT devices; this section also takes care of the security aspect of the data. The basic unit or a black box as we may say is a processing device which takes a set of input and provides a set of output after processing.  The data moving in and moving out of the blackbox has to be controlled. The data has to be controlled, and the device needs to be always in our control. Consider- an example where an anonymous person has control or remote access of our security system or even cameras in auto drawing hall can be a nightmare. Hence this feature has to be controlled. Here again an appropriate firewall needs to be in place in order to control.

Table of the IoT devices

Reliability has to do with many terms like repeatability; robustness etc. repeatability is getting the same set of results or solutions for a set of input data, no matter how many times it is applied. This features increases the reliability of the system, as we can be sure that the device will be able to repeat the assignments over and over again and that the scaling factor doesn’t change depending on some unstable or changing parameters. Robustness also enforces reliability, let’s talk about physical robustness, if a device is physically robust it means that the operating range like altitude, pressure, temperature won’t affect the device much in its manufactured operation range. Hence it would be able to produce the same result every time, if the same input is given. Physical robustness also closely signifies physical strength of the device. Manufacturer has to take care of these issues.

As we has discussed about the 802.11 abgn project if the IEEE, which is mostly associated with wireless and wired communication. There are various means of communication, wifi, Bluetooth, infrared etc. for a device to connect to each other and to the internet. There are places where we are not able to use these devices effectively due to connectivity issues. As we have already seen that in order to work reliably for many of these devices, intranet or internet connectivity for data gathering for base decisions is a must. For- Example third world countries in Latin America or South East area and Africa has a weak network presence. The issue can be gradually resolved using advanced technology implementation for the unprivileged etc.

Privacy is very closely associated with security issue; data security is the key issue to be spoken about here, good firewall security, data encryption modules, data self-destruction module in case of a theft etc. can effectively solve the problem.

Functions	Manufacturer	Cost
Iphone 5S	Apple Inc.	500$
Google home: It’s a speaker with google assistant	Google	300$
Home pod smart speaker with Siri	Apple Inc.	200$
Amazon Echo show: It’s a screen which allows people to see output based on commands they give to alexa, video call facility and video stream facility available.	Amazon	150$
Awair Glow: Combination of air monitor and smart plug.	Awair	$35
TP-Link: Multicolor Light bulb + WiFi	TP- Link	$100
Google daydream: Virtual reality headset	Google	1300$
Logitech Pop: Smart Button Controller- This is a great product if you already have connected lights, speakers, etc. It makes it easy for everyone in the home to control those devices.	Logitech	500$
Nest Cam: camera for outdoor recording, both videos and stills can be taken	Nest	75$
Prodigio Connected Nespresso machine: Coffee machine with wifi- orders coffee capsules online itself	Prodigio	95$

References

Zeinab Kamal Aldein Mohammed, et al, (February 2017), Internet of Things Applications, Challenges and Related Future Technologies, World Scientific News, pp.- 126-148, EISSN 2392-2192.

Misra et al., (2016), Security Challenges and Approaches in Internet of Things, Springer Briefs in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A. Ezechina, K. K. Okwara, C. A. U. Ugboaja, (2015), The Internet of Things (Iot): A Scalable Approach to Connecting Everything, The International Journal of Engineering and Science, pp.- 09-12

M.U. Farooq, et al., (March 2015), A Review on Internet of Things (IoT), International Journal of Computer Applications, Volume 113 (Issue 1), pp.- 1.7

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