sensors-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Internet of Things for Smart Homes

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2019) | Viewed by 109447

Special Issue Editors

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Kore University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy
Interests: wireless sensor networks; intelligent transportation systems; Internet of things; green communications; fuzzy logic
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Kore University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy
Interests: neural networks; automatic speech recognition
Information Security Engineering Department, Soonchunhyang University, Chungcheongnam-do, Asan-si, Sinchang-myeon, Suncheonhyang-ro, Korea
Interests: UAV communications; 5G networks; drone security; estimation and prediction theory; blockchain; statistics and data analytics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the improvement or growth of wireless protocols, the development of cloud services, the refinement of low-energy and high-performance technologies, the practice of Artificial Intelligence, and other forms of convergence solutions based the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm have begun a new era for Smart Homes. Technologies for IoT-oriented Smart Homes include sensors, interfaces, monitors, and appliances networked together to facilitate the automation and local/remote control of the domestic environment. Thanks to the latest Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and machine learning algorithms, the Smart Home environment is capable of monitoring the welfare and everyday life activities of residents, learning their distinct necessities and habits, with the aim to readjust itself to them thus enhancing their overall quality of life. Furthermore, Smart Homes can skillfully control the energy consumption of appliances and all other features related to the domestic environment, thus producing a healthier and energy-effective area for their inhabitants. While IoT-oriented Smart Homes can modify how inhabitants interact with the domestic environment, each distinct technology needs different levels of security based on the sensitivity of the controlled system and the information it manages. Smart Homes can be exposed to security threats and privacy breach that stem from current ICT and protocols.

This Special Issue solicits the submission of high-quality and unpublished papers that aim to solve open technical problems and challenges typical of IoT-oriented Smart Homes. The main aim is to integrate novel approaches efficiently, focusing on the performance evaluation and the comparison with existing solutions. Both theoretical and experimental studies for typical IoT-oriented Smart Homes scenarios are encouraged. Furthermore, also high-quality review and survey papers are welcomed.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Wireless Networks for Smart Homes
  • Green Communications for Smart Homes
  • Energy Management Systems and Networks for Smart Homes
  • Smart Environment Monitoring and Control
  • Smart Management of Home Appliances
  • Innovative Applications and Services for Smart Homes
  • Machine Learning methods applied to Smart Homes
  • Artificial Neural Networks for Smart Home automation
  • Security and Privacy in Smart Homes
  • Data integrity, Authentication, and Access Control for Smart Homes
Prof. Dr. Giovanni Pau
Prof. Dr. Valerio Mario Salerno
Prof. Dr. Ilsun You
Dr. Vishal Sharma
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Smart Homes
  • Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Green Communications
  • Security and Privacy
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning
  • Wireless Communications

Published Papers (16 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Editorial

Jump to: Research

5 pages, 165 KiB  
Editorial
Special Issue “Internet of Things for Smart Homes”
by Ilsun You, Giovanni Pau, Valerio Mario Salerno and Vishal Sharma
Sensors 2019, 19(19), 4173; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19194173 - 26 Sep 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3144
Abstract
Smart homes represent one of the principal points in the new ecosystem of the Internet of Things (IoT), both for the centrality of the home in the life of individuals and the significant potential concerning the diffusion of smart objects and innovative services. [...] Read more.
Smart homes represent one of the principal points in the new ecosystem of the Internet of Things (IoT), both for the centrality of the home in the life of individuals and the significant potential concerning the diffusion of smart objects and innovative services. While IoT-oriented smart homes can revise how inhabitants interact with the domestic environment, each well-defined piece of technology necessitates precise network performance and distinct levels of security based on the sensitivity of the controlled system and the information it handles. This editorial presents a review of the papers accepted in the special issue. The issue has focused at obtaining high-quality papers aimed at solving well-known technical problems and challenges typical of IoT-oriented smart homes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

22 pages, 11386 KiB  
Article
Mobile Code Anti-Reversing Scheme Based on Bytecode Trapping in ART
by Geonbae Na, Jongsu Lim, Sunjun Lee and Jeong Hyun Yi
Sensors 2019, 19(11), 2625; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19112625 - 10 Jun 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4247
Abstract
As interest in Internet of Things environments rapidly increases throughout the IT convergence field, compatibility with mobile devices must be provided to enable personalized services. The security of mobile platforms and applications is critical because security vulnerabilities of mobile devices can be spread [...] Read more.
As interest in Internet of Things environments rapidly increases throughout the IT convergence field, compatibility with mobile devices must be provided to enable personalized services. The security of mobile platforms and applications is critical because security vulnerabilities of mobile devices can be spread to all things in these environments. Android, the leading open mobile platform, has long used the Dalvik virtual machine as its runtime system. However, it has recently been completely replaced by a new runtime system, namely Android Runtime (ART). The change from Android’s Dalvik to ART means that the existing Dalvik bytecode-based application execution structure has been changed to a machine code-based application execution structure. Consequently, a detailed understanding of ART, such as new file formats and execution switching methods between codes, is required from the viewpoint of application security. In this paper, we demonstrate that an existing Dalvik-based application vulnerability can be exploited as-is in ART. This is because existing Dalvik executable files coexist in the ART executable file, and these Dalvik bytecodes and compiled machine codes have one-to-one mapping relationships. We then propose an ART-based application protection scheme to secure this by dynamically eliminating the one-to-one mapping. In addition, the proposed scheme is implemented to evaluate its reverse engineering resistance and performance through experiments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 3286 KiB  
Article
MGF-Based Mutual Approximation of Hybrid Fading: Performance of Wireless/Power Line Relaying Communication for IoT
by Zhixiong Chen, Cong Ye, Jinsha Yuan and Dongsheng Han
Sensors 2019, 19(11), 2460; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19112460 - 29 May 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2491
Abstract
Wireless and power line communications (PLC) are important components of distribution network communication, and have a broad application prospect in the fields of intelligent power consumption and home Internet of Things (IoT). This study mainly analyzes the performance of a dual-hop wireless/power line [...] Read more.
Wireless and power line communications (PLC) are important components of distribution network communication, and have a broad application prospect in the fields of intelligent power consumption and home Internet of Things (IoT). This study mainly analyzes the performance of a dual-hop wireless/power line hybrid fading system employing an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay in terms of outage probability and average bit error rate (BER). The Nakagami-m distribution captures the wireless channel fading; whereas the PLC channel gain is characterized by the Log-normal (LogN) distribution. Moreover, the Bernoulli-Gaussian noise model is used on the noise attached to the PLC channel. Owing to the similarity between LogN and Gamma distributions, the key parameters of probability density function (PDF) with approximate distribution are determined by using moment generating function (MGF) equations, joint optimization of s vectors, and approximation of LogN variable sum. The MGF of the harmonic mean of the dual Gamma distribution variables is derived to evaluate the system performance suitable for any fading parameter m value. Finally, Monte Carlo simulation is used to verify the versatility and accuracy of the proposed method, and the influence of the hybrid fading channel and multidimensional impulse noise parameters on system performance is analyzed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 2533 KiB  
Article
Security Risk Measurement for Information Leakage in IoT-Based Smart Homes from a Situational Awareness Perspective
by Mookyu Park, Haengrok Oh and Kyungho Lee
Sensors 2019, 19(9), 2148; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19092148 - 09 May 2019
Cited by 70 | Viewed by 11715
Abstract
Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a technology that is extensively being used in various fields. Companies like Samsung, LG, and Apple are launching home appliances that use IoT as a part of their smart home business. Currently, Intelligent Things which combine artificial intelligence (AI) and [...] Read more.
Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a technology that is extensively being used in various fields. Companies like Samsung, LG, and Apple are launching home appliances that use IoT as a part of their smart home business. Currently, Intelligent Things which combine artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT are being developed. Most of these devices are configured to collect and respond to human behavior (motion, voice, etc.) through built-in sensors. If IoT devices do not ensure high security, personal information could be leaked. This paper describes the IoT security threats that can cause information leakage from a hierarchical viewpoint of cyberspace. In addition, because these smart home-based IoT devices are closely related to human life, considering social damage is a problem. To overcome this, we propose a framework to measure the risk of IoT devices based on security scenarios that can occur in a smart home. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 2333 KiB  
Article
A Lightweight Three-Factor Authentication and Key Agreement Scheme in Wireless Sensor Networks for Smart Homes
by Sooyeon Shin and Taekyoung Kwon
Sensors 2019, 19(9), 2012; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19092012 - 29 Apr 2019
Cited by 49 | Viewed by 3904
Abstract
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is used for a smart home system’s backbone that monitors home environment and controls smart home devices to manage lighting, heating, security and surveillance. However, despite its convenience and potential benefits, there are concerns about various security threats [...] Read more.
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is used for a smart home system’s backbone that monitors home environment and controls smart home devices to manage lighting, heating, security and surveillance. However, despite its convenience and potential benefits, there are concerns about various security threats that may infringe on privacy and threaten our home life. For protecting WSNs for smart homes from those threats, authentication and key agreement are basic security requirements. There have been a large number of proposed authentication and key agreement scheme for WSNs. In 2017, Jung et al. proposed an efficient and security enhanced anonymous authentication with key agreement scheme by employing biometrics information as the third authentication factor. They claimed that their scheme resists on various security attacks and satisfies basic security requirements. However, we have discovered that Jung et al.’s scheme possesses some security weaknesses. Their scheme cannot guarantee security of the secret key of gateway node and security of session key and protection against user tracking attack, information leakage attack, and user impersonation attack. In this paper, we describe how those security weaknesses occur and propose a lightweight three-factor authentication and key agreement scheme in WSNs for smart homes, as an improved version of Jung et al.’s scheme. We then present a detailed analysis of the security and performance of the proposed scheme and compare the analysis results with other related schemes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 3745 KiB  
Article
Enabling Efficient Communications with Resource Constrained Information Endpoints in Smart Homes
by Diego Sánchez-de-Rivera, Borja Bordel, Ramón Alcarria and Tomás Robles
Sensors 2019, 19(8), 1779; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19081779 - 13 Apr 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4062
Abstract
Smart Homes are one of the most promising real applications of Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems. Devices and software components are deployed to create enhanced living environments where physical information is captured by sensors, sent to servers and finally transmitted to information [...] Read more.
Smart Homes are one of the most promising real applications of Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems. Devices and software components are deployed to create enhanced living environments where physical information is captured by sensors, sent to servers and finally transmitted to information endpoints to be consumed after its processing. These systems usually employ resource constrained components in dense architectures supported by massive machine type communications. Components, to adapt to different scenarios, present several configuration options. In machine type communications, these configuration options should be selected dynamically and automatically. Many works have addressed this situation in relation to sensor-server communications but endpoints are still mostly manually configured. Therefore, in this paper it is proposed an automatic and dynamic configuration algorithm, based on the idea of “efficiency,” for information endpoints in the context of Smart Homes. Different costs associated to endpoint-server communications in Smart Homes are identified and mathematically modelled. Using this model and real measurements, the most efficient configuration is selected for each endpoint at each moment, not only guarantying the interoperability of devices but also ensuring an adequate resource usage, for example, modifying the endpoints’ lifecycle or the information compression mechanism. In order to validate the proposed solution, an experimental validation including both real implementation and simulation scenarios is provided. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 2109 KiB  
Article
A Context-Aware Accurate Wellness Determination (CAAWD) Model for Elderly People Using Lazy Associative Classification
by Farhan Sabir Ujager and Azhar Mahmood
Sensors 2019, 19(7), 1613; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19071613 - 03 Apr 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3129
Abstract
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based smart homes are proving to be an ideal candidate to provide better healthcare facilities to elderly people in their living areas. Several currently proposed techniques have implementation and usage complexities (such as wearable devices and the charging of [...] Read more.
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based smart homes are proving to be an ideal candidate to provide better healthcare facilities to elderly people in their living areas. Several currently proposed techniques have implementation and usage complexities (such as wearable devices and the charging of these devices) which make these proposed techniques less acceptable for elderly people, while the behavioral analysis based on visual techniques lacks privacy. In this paper, a context-aware accurate wellness determination (CAAWD) model for elderly people is presented, where behavior monitoring information is extracted by using simple sensor nodes attached to household objects and appliances for the analysis of daily, frequent behavior patterns of elderly people in a simple and non-obtrusive manner. A contextual data extraction algorithm (CDEA) is proposed for the generation of contextually comprehensive behavior-training instances for accurate wellness classification. The CDEA presents an activity’s spatial–temporal information along with behavioral contextual correlation aspects (such as the object/appliance of usage and sub-activities of an activity) which are vital for accurate wellness analysis and determination. As a result, the classifier is trained in a more logical manner in the context of behavior parameters which are more relevant for wellness determination. The frequent behavioral patterns are classified using the lazy associative classifier (LAC) for wellness determination. The associative nature of LAC helps to integrate spatial–temporal and related contextual attributes (provided by CDEA) of elderly behavior to generate behavior-focused classification rules. Similarly, LAC provides high accuracy with less training time of the classifier, includes minimum-support behavior patterns, and selects highly accurate classification rules for the classification of a test instance. CAAWD further introduces the ability to contextually validate the authenticity of the already classified instance by taking behavioral contextual information (of the elderly person) from the caregiver. Due to the consideration of spatial–temporal behavior contextual attributes, the use of an efficient classifier, and the ability to contextually validate the classified instances, it has been observed that the CAAWD model out-performs currently proposed techniques in terms of accuracy, precision, and f-measure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 11257 KiB  
Article
HABITAT: An IoT Solution for Independent Elderly
by Elena Borelli, Giacomo Paolini, Francesco Antoniazzi, Marina Barbiroli, Francesca Benassi, Federico Chesani, Lorenzo Chiari, Massimiliano Fantini, Franco Fuschini, Andrea Galassi, Gian Andrea Giacobone, Silvia Imbesi, Melissa Licciardello, Daniela Loreti, Michele Marchi, Diego Masotti, Paola Mello, Sabato Mellone, Giuseppe Mincolelli, Carla Raffaelli, Luca Roffia, Tullio Salmon Cinotti, Carlo Tacconi, Paola Tamburini, Marco Zoli and Alessandra Costanzoadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Sensors 2019, 19(5), 1258; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19051258 - 12 Mar 2019
Cited by 75 | Viewed by 10775
Abstract
In this work, a flexible and extensive digital platform for Smart Homes is presented, exploiting the most advanced technologies of the Internet of Things, such as Radio Frequency Identification, wearable electronics, Wireless Sensor Networks, and Artificial Intelligence. Thus, the main novelty of the [...] Read more.
In this work, a flexible and extensive digital platform for Smart Homes is presented, exploiting the most advanced technologies of the Internet of Things, such as Radio Frequency Identification, wearable electronics, Wireless Sensor Networks, and Artificial Intelligence. Thus, the main novelty of the paper is the system-level description of the platform flexibility allowing the interoperability of different smart devices. This research was developed within the framework of the operative project HABITAT (Home Assistance Based on the Internet of Things for the Autonomy of Everybody), aiming at developing smart devices to support elderly people both in their own houses and in retirement homes, and embedding them in everyday life objects, thus reducing the expenses for healthcare due to the lower need for personal assistance, and providing a better life quality to the elderly users. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 6240 KiB  
Article
Cabin as a Home: A Novel Comfort Optimization Framework for IoT Equipped Smart Environments and Applications on Cruise Ships
by Massimiliano Nolich, Daniele Spoladore, Sara Carciotti, Raol Buqi and Marco Sacco
Sensors 2019, 19(5), 1060; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19051060 - 02 Mar 2019
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 4425
Abstract
The international tourism competition poses new challenges to the cruise sector, such as the achievement of the tourists’ satisfaction and the increase in on board comfort. Moreover, the growing sophistication of tourists’ needs leads to a more user-centric touristic offer. Consequently, a personalized [...] Read more.
The international tourism competition poses new challenges to the cruise sector, such as the achievement of the tourists’ satisfaction and the increase in on board comfort. Moreover, the growing sophistication of tourists’ needs leads to a more user-centric touristic offer. Consequently, a personalized cabin environment, which fits the users’ activities and their characteristics, could be a plus value during the cruise vacation. These topics, however, are strictly connected with the diffusion of digital technologies and dynamics, which represent the tools to achieve the goal of a customized on-cruise experience. This paper presents E-Cabin, a novel Internet of Things (IoT) framework architecture that has at its core a reasoning system tuned on data gathered from the environment and from each specific passenger and the activities he/she performs. The framework leverages on knowledge representation with ontologies and consists of a publisher–subscriber communication framework that allows all of the IoT applications to use the reasoner and the provided ontologies. The paper demonstrates the proposed system in a demo cruise cabin where, by using the E-Cabin application, it is possible to set various atmospheres based on the users and activities occurring in the cabin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 7639 KiB  
Article
PLUG-N-HARVEST Architecture for Secure and Intelligent Management of Near-Zero Energy Buildings
by Rafael Marin-Perez, Iakovos T. Michailidis, Dan Garcia-Carrillo, Christos D. Korkas, Elias B. Kosmatopoulos and Antonio Skarmeta
Sensors 2019, 19(4), 843; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19040843 - 18 Feb 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4425
Abstract
Building Automation (BA) is key to encourage the growth of more sustainable cities and smart homes. However, current BA systems are not able to manage new constructions based on Adaptable/Dynamic Building Envelopes (ADBE) achieving near-zero energy-efficiency. The ADBE buildings integrate Renewable Energy Sources [...] Read more.
Building Automation (BA) is key to encourage the growth of more sustainable cities and smart homes. However, current BA systems are not able to manage new constructions based on Adaptable/Dynamic Building Envelopes (ADBE) achieving near-zero energy-efficiency. The ADBE buildings integrate Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Envelope Retrofitting (ER) that must be managed by new BA systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) through secure protocols. This paper presents the PLUG-N-HARVEST architecture based on cloud AI systems and security-by-design IoT networks to manage near-zero ADBE constructions in both residential and commercial buildings. To demonstrate the PLUG-N-HARVEST architecture, three different real-world pilots have been considered in Germany, Greece and Spain. The paper describes the Spain pilot of residential buildings including the deployment of IoT wireless networks (i.e., sensors and actuators) based on Zwave technology to enable plug-and-play installations. The real-world tests showed the high efficiency of security-by-design Internet communications between building equipment and cloud management systems. Moreover, the results of cloud intelligent management demonstrate the improvements in both energy consumption and comfort conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 6271 KiB  
Article
An Approach to Share Self-Taught Knowledge between Home IoT Devices at the Edge
by Ingook Jang, Donghun Lee, Jinchul Choi and Youngsung Son
Sensors 2019, 19(4), 833; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19040833 - 18 Feb 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4055
Abstract
The traditional Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has evolved towards intelligent IoT applications which exploit knowledge produced by IoT devices using artificial intelligence techniques. Knowledge sharing between IoT devices is a challenging issue in this trend. In this paper, we propose a Knowledge [...] Read more.
The traditional Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has evolved towards intelligent IoT applications which exploit knowledge produced by IoT devices using artificial intelligence techniques. Knowledge sharing between IoT devices is a challenging issue in this trend. In this paper, we propose a Knowledge of Things (KoT) framework which enables sharing self-taught knowledge between IoT devices which require similar or identical knowledge without help from the cloud. The proposed KoT framework allows an IoT device to effectively produce, cumulate, and share its self-taught knowledge with other devices at the edge in the vicinity. This framework can alleviate behavioral repetition in users and computational redundancy in systems in intelligent IoT applications. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept, we examine a smart home case study and build a prototype of the KoT framework-based smart home system. Experimental results show that the proposed KoT framework reduces the response time to use intelligent IoT devices from a user’s perspective and the power consumption for compuation from a system’s perspective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 5314 KiB  
Article
Single-Equipment with Multiple-Application for an Automated Robot-Car Control System
by Saleem Ullah, Zain Mumtaz, Shuo Liu, Mohammad Abubaqr, Athar Mahboob and Hamza Ahmad Madni
Sensors 2019, 19(3), 662; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19030662 - 06 Feb 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 13320
Abstract
The integration of greater functionalities into vehicles increases the complexity of car-controlling. Many research efforts are dedicated to designing car-controlling systems that allow users to instruct the car just to show it what it should do; however, for non-expert users, controlling the car [...] Read more.
The integration of greater functionalities into vehicles increases the complexity of car-controlling. Many research efforts are dedicated to designing car-controlling systems that allow users to instruct the car just to show it what it should do; however, for non-expert users, controlling the car with a remote or a switch is complicated. So, keeping this in mind, this paper presents an Arduino based car-controlling system that no longer requires manual control of the cars. Two main contributions are presented in this work. Firstly, we show that the car can be controlled with hand-gestures, according to the movement and position of the hand. The hand-gesture system works with an Arduino Nano, accelerometer, and radio-frequency (RF) transmitter. The accelerometer (attached with the hand-glove) senses the acceleration forces that are produced by the hand movement, and it will transfer the data to the Arduino Nano that is placed on hand glove. After receiving the data, Arduino Nano will convert it into different angle values in ranges of 0–450° and send the data to the RF receiver of the Arduino Uno, which is placed on the car through the RF transmitter. Secondly, the proposed car system is to be controlled by an android based mobile-application with different modes (e.g., touch buttons mode, voice recognition mode). The mobile-application system is the extension of the hand-gesture system with the addition of Bluetooth module. In this case, whenever the user presses any of the touch buttons in the application, and/or gives voice commands, the corresponding signal is sent to the Arduino Uno. After receiving the signal, Arduino will check this against its predefined instructions for moving forward, backward, left, right, and brake; then it will send the command to the motor module to move the car in the corresponding direction. In addition, an automatic obstacle detection system is introduced to improve the safety measurements to avoid any hazards with the help of sensors placed at the front of the car. The proposed systems are designed as a lab-scale prototype to experimentally validate the efficiency, accuracy, and affordability of the systems. The experimental results prove that the proposed work has all in one capability (hand-gesture, touch buttons and voice-recognition with mobile-application, obstacle detection), is very easy to use, and can be easily assembled in a simple hardware circuit. We remark that the proposed systems can be implemented under real conditions at large-scale in the future, which will be useful in automobiles and robotics applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 6168 KiB  
Article
A Self-Powered, Threshold-Based Wireless Sensor for the Detection of Floor Vibrations
by Byung C. Jung, Young Cheol Huh and Jin-Woo Park
Sensors 2018, 18(12), 4276; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18124276 - 05 Dec 2018
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4204
Abstract
Smart buildings will soon be a reality due to innovative Internet of Things (IoT) applications. IoT applications can be employed not only for energy management in a building, but also for solving emerging social issues, such as inter-floor noise-related disputes in apartments and [...] Read more.
Smart buildings will soon be a reality due to innovative Internet of Things (IoT) applications. IoT applications can be employed not only for energy management in a building, but also for solving emerging social issues, such as inter-floor noise-related disputes in apartments and the solitary death of an elderly person. For example, acceleration sensors can be used to detect abnormal floor vibrations, such as large vibrations due to jumping children or unusual vibrations in a house where an elderly person is living alone. However, the installation of a conventional accelerometer can be restricted because of the sense of privacy invasion. In this study, a self-powered wireless sensor using a threshold-based method is studied for the detection of floor vibrations. Vibration levels of a bare slab in a testbed are first measured when a slab is impacted by a bang machine and an impact ball. Second, a piezoelectric energy harvester using slab vibration is manufactured to generate electrical power over a threshold. Next, the correlation among harvested energy, floor vibration, and impact noise is studied to check whether harvested energy can be employed as a condition detection threshold. Finally, a prototype of a self-powered wireless sensor to detect abnormal conditions in floor vibrations is developed and its applicability is demonstrated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 923 KiB  
Article
Cooperative Jammer Selection for Secrecy Improvement in Cognitive Internet of Things
by Ping Xie, Ling Xing, Honghai Wu, Jung Taek Seo and Ilsun You
Sensors 2018, 18(12), 4257; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18124257 - 04 Dec 2018
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2569
Abstract
Smart homes can improve the quality of life and be implemented by Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. However, security is a very important issue in smart homes. For this reason, we propose a secrecy transmission protocol for primary user (PU) by selecting friendly [...] Read more.
Smart homes can improve the quality of life and be implemented by Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. However, security is a very important issue in smart homes. For this reason, we propose a secrecy transmission protocol for primary user (PU) by selecting friendly jammer in cognitive IoT model. In particular, a secondary transmitter (ST) is selected to transmit secondary signals by the PU’s frequency spectrum, while another ST is chosen to transmit artificial noise to protect the transmission confidentiality of the PU against eavesdropping. Moreover, two selection schemes are presented to confirm the former and the latter ST, and the goal is to optimize the secondary transmission performance and the primary security performance, respectively. For the non-security model and the proposed protocol, we derive the closed-form expressions of the intercept probability and the outage probability for the PU. We also obtain the closed-form expression of outage probability for the secondary user. The numerical results show that the security performance of the PU is significantly enhanced in our protocol compared to the non-security model. In addition, the outage performance of the secondary users is also improved in high secondary transmit SNR region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 2516 KiB  
Article
An Automation System for Controlling Streetlights and Monitoring Objects Using Arduino
by Zain Mumtaz, Saleem Ullah, Zeeshan Ilyas, Naila Aslam, Shahid Iqbal, Shuo Liu, Jehangir Arshad Meo and Hamza Ahmad Madni
Sensors 2018, 18(10), 3178; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18103178 - 20 Sep 2018
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 14490
Abstract
We present an Arduino-based automation system to control the streetlights based on solar rays and object’s detection. We aim to design various systems to achieve the desired operations, which no longer require time-consuming manual switching of the streetlights. The proposed work is accomplished [...] Read more.
We present an Arduino-based automation system to control the streetlights based on solar rays and object’s detection. We aim to design various systems to achieve the desired operations, which no longer require time-consuming manual switching of the streetlights. The proposed work is accomplished by using an Arduino microcontroller, a light dependent resistor (LDR) and infrared-sensors while, two main contributions are presented in this work. Firstly, we show that the streetlights can be controlled based on the night and object’s detection. In which the streetlights automatically turn to DIM state at night-time and turn to HIGH state on object’s detection, while during day-time the streetlights will remain OFF. Secondly, the proposed automated system is further extended to skip the DIM condition at night time, and streetlights turn ON based on the objects’ detection only. In addition, an automatic door system is introduced to improve the safety measurements, and most importantly, a counter is set that will count the number of objects passed through the road. The proposed systems are designed at lab-scale prototype to experimentally validate the efficiency, reliability, and low-cost of the systems. We remark that the proposed systems can be easily tested and implemented under real conditions at large-scale in the near future, that will be useful in the future applications for automation systems and smart homes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

42 pages, 10384 KiB  
Article
Design, Implementation and Practical Evaluation of an IoT Home Automation System for Fog Computing Applications Based on MQTT and ZigBee-WiFi Sensor Nodes
by Iván Froiz-Míguez, Tiago M. Fernández-Caramés, Paula Fraga-Lamas and Luis Castedo
Sensors 2018, 18(8), 2660; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18082660 - 13 Aug 2018
Cited by 160 | Viewed by 16274
Abstract
In recent years, the improvement of wireless protocols, the development of cloud services and the lower cost of hardware have started a new era for smart homes. One such enabling technologies is fog computing, which extends cloud computing to the edge of a [...] Read more.
In recent years, the improvement of wireless protocols, the development of cloud services and the lower cost of hardware have started a new era for smart homes. One such enabling technologies is fog computing, which extends cloud computing to the edge of a network allowing for developing novel Internet of Things (IoT) applications and services. Under the IoT fog computing paradigm, IoT gateways are usually utilized to exchange messages with IoT nodes and a cloud. WiFi and ZigBee stand out as preferred communication technologies for smart homes. WiFi has become very popular, but it has a limited application due to its high energy consumption and the lack of standard mesh networking capabilities for low-power devices. For such reasons, ZigBee was selected by many manufacturers for developing wireless home automation devices. As a consequence, these technologies may coexist in the 2.4 GHz band, which leads to collisions, lower speed rates and increased communications latencies. This article presents ZiWi, a distributed fog computing Home Automation System (HAS) that allows for carrying out seamless communications among ZigBee and WiFi devices. This approach diverges from traditional home automation systems, which often rely on expensive central controllers. In addition, to ease the platform’s building process, whenever possible, the system makes use of open-source software (all the code of the nodes is available on GitHub) and Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware. The initial results, which were obtained in a number of representative home scenarios, show that the developed fog services respond several times faster than the evaluated cloud services, and that cross-interference has to be taken seriously to prevent collisions. In addition, the current consumption of ZiWi’s nodes was measured, showing the impact of encryption mechanisms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Internet of Things for Smart Homes)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop