Home Automation Lighting Systems for a Handicapped House - Literature review Example

Literature review Home automation lighting systems for a handicapped house The implementation of home automation becoming very common in many homes,especially for the handicapped and the elderly with the aim of maintaining their safety and independence. The homes fitted with smart facilities allows the handicapped to comfortably stay in their homes rather than to expensive health care facilities. Home automation is also referred to as smart home. The word smart home was given a definition in 2003 by Housing Learning & Improvement network, which stated that a smart home is “a dwelling incorporating a communications network that connects the key electrical appliances and services, and allows them to be remotely controlled, monitored or accessed.” 1 Home automation can prevent the handicapped from becoming anxious when transiting to a health care facility (Cheek 2005). Most importantly, smart homes offer the handicapped the opportunity to enjoy their independence, which boosts their determination and confidence. Automated homes offer the handicapped a variety of types of emergency services including automated timers, alerts, lighting systems, security features and fall prevention. House automation ensures that the disabled can feel secure while in their houses and also control their home’s lighting system from anywhere with the help of an internet connection. A home automation lighting system is a centralized control of lighting system, which provides comfort and convenience and hence increasing the quality of life for the handicapped persons. Recently, home automation lighting has gained popularity due to higher affordability and simplicity of tablet and smart phone connectivity. Also, the increased use of the internet to perform a variety of automation tasks has popularized home automation lighting system. A home automation lighting system incorporates electrical gadgets in a house with each other. Devices can be linked to an internet connected computer or phone network to make it possible for a user to remotely control the system through the internet. Through linking of the home environment with information technology, appliances and systems are capable of articulate in an integrated model, which results in energy efficiency, convenience as well as safety benefits.2 In modern constructions in most homes from the industrialized nations, wiring for electrical purposes is common, which is done by developing of specialized appliances with the aim of automating majority of the household tasks. A case in point is whereby an automatic lighting system was developed to increase the efficiency of lighting appliances in a house. As the number of controllable appliances in the homes increase, communication and integration become an advantageous and valuable feature. In an automated lighting system, a heating system can, for example, send an alert message when lighting is required. This means that the room for the handicapped will become “intelligent” and signals will be conveyed to the controller when lighting for a particular purpose is needed. If the handicapped person is not at home and the lighting systems requires to be put on or off, the system can be controlled online from a remote location.3 In a more advanced installations, the room can detect the presence of a certain person in the house and send signals to the lighting system, as appropriate, while at the same time taking into account factors such as the time of the day, the day of the week and so on. An ideal example of a case where the remote controller can come in handy is whereby the home automation is triggered whenever a smoke sensor discovers a smoke or fire, hence alerting the occupants of the house of possible emergencies. If the house is outfitted with home theater, an automation system can power cut all video and audio aspects to shun commotion, or produce a loud pronouncement. Yet still, the system could alert the home occupants through email supported by their smart phones or send make a distress call to the fire department. An automated lighting system is expected to save the homeowner a lot of power energy because the lighting sensors integrated into the system can send power shut down signals when they identify that the power is not needed. The following is a list of a number of home automation lighting systems available in the market and their description. Home automation was mostly started during the 1970s, but by then this technology failed to enhance the lifestyles of user because of a number of reasons. First, it is very difficult to estimate the economic benefits of home automation. This is because, the expenses incurred during smart home implementation must be defensible in comparison with the impact resulting from installation of smart home technology. 4 As such, it is very important to ensure that home automation installation is easy to install, cost effective and compatible with many appliances and network infrastructure. In 1995, an experiment of a smart house was conducted in Japan, in what was referred to Welfare Techno-Houses [7].5 These experiments were aimed at providing health control services for the frail and handicapped by use of entirely mechanical measurements to sustain daily health care and enhance the quality of life. Over the past 7 years, the University of Texas at Arlington has been performing the MavHome task. 6 The MavHome, is a home setting that recognizes the ecological status via intelligent actions and sensors by use of controllers. In order to make suitable decisions, the sensors in the home form interconnect to form an ad-hoc network. In the University of McGill in Canada, SAP laboratories came up with a wireless solution for controlling people in need of medical care.7 This model used inexpensive sensors and cell phones and was very appropriate for the home-bound and elderly people. The aim of the project was to use wireless sensor network to collect signals by means of protocols such as Bluetooth and ZigBee as well as examination of data via an adaptive platform that generates real-time health-controlling system to enhance health for people in assisting living conditions and those in their homes. Given than different people have different needs, then homes should be designed to provide custom-made assistance to each person. Many researchers throughout the world have tackled this topic. For example in the USA, an ‘Aware Home’ founded on computing that recognizes possible disaster to find behavior trends and to assist declining elderly memory has been developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology.8 Elsewhere, a smart home for the elderly and the disabled been developed by the University of Florida. This home is founded on ecological sensors that offers the residents that guarantees, fall detection systems, a safety reminder/prompting, technologies, comfort, activity/mobility monitoring, smart devices and appliances, and energy efficiency among other benefits. 9 Part of the house includes PlaceLab, which is a project of MIT or rather ‘the house of the future’. It controls the vital signs and the activities of the residents and also monitors the energy usage and provides communication, learning, and entertainments using using wearable systems and ubiquitous [11]. There are also a lot of automated homes in Europe, including the UK assisted interactive dwelling house, which has been developed for the disables and the frail elderly. The vital signs and the activity are evaluated by the sensor system, which provides security response and control including ecological control technologies such as curtains, windows, and doors [12]. In order to study individual activities with infrared (IR) sensors, the University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic has come up with a hi-tech residence [13]. Elsewhere in France enabling of sound alarms during emergencies and support of autonomous living has been achieved through contrition of PROSAFE project in Toulouse. In Japan, there are a number of constructions that are built to purposely make the best use of assistive technology, making it possible for the elderly to live independently at home by making the environment comfortable and and smart. Matsuoka in Osaka has developed a high-tech house that mechanically identifies strange events caused by accident of disease through its 167 sensors [18]. Also fitted with sensors includes the seventeen electrical appliances whereby the electrical appliances that make use of this system includes TV set, air conditioning, and rice cooker among others. Each sensor is related to a number of activities including having a meal, working in an area, having a wash, and preparing a meal among many others. To translate raw data into behavioral data, Matsuoka uses mathematical models. An extensive research has been undertaken by a number of groups, regarding the use of smart home appliances for the support of handicapped and elderly people. In Germany, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg [5] investigated the challenges faced during the design of smart homes , especially those supporting handicapped and elderly people. The implementation of smart homes was done using a number of sub-networks including Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, Internet (TPC/IP), Radio Frequency ID (RFID) as well as a telephone network. Transportation of sensor data over the network and interconnection of the nodes is done by Bluetooth network. The RFID system enables transmission of data from RFID tags, which are charged with the role of recording the occupancy locations. In this method, the Bluetooth modules on the nodes is used to deliver the messages. Therefore, no extra cost or additional hardware is required. References Gerhart, J, Home Automation and Wiring, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York, 1999. Gerhart, J, Home Automation and Wiring. McGraw-Hill ProfessionaL, New York, 1999. Harper, R, Inside the Smart Home, Springer, London, 2003. Mann, W, Smart technology for aging, disability and independence : the state of the science, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 2005. Tesla, N, U.S. Patent 613809: Method of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vessels and vehicles, United States Patent and Trademark Office, NewYork, 1898. Read More