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Contents
1. Features 4
1.1. Location Monitoring 4
1.2. ZigBee 4
1.3. iBeacon 4
2. Security and Safety 5
3. Convenience 6
4. Price Trend 7
5. Roadmap to an intelligent home 8
5.1. Design 8
5.2. Hardware 8
5.3. Design and Cost 8
6. CONCLUSION 9
7. Works Cited 10

List of Figures
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Features
Location Monitoring It is possible to locate people and other objects with products like Zigbee, and iBeacon. Because GPS inside buildings is limited due to limited availability of satellites, moderate performance can be achieved with low cost Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4 embedded devices. Other devices such as iBeacon utilize low energy Bluetooth connections to transmit messages. ZigBee location monitoring uses a mesh network to provide location monitoring in a variety of networks. Potentially, this technology could be utilised to track the movements of children and other family members in the house for safety. Technology like this can assist in monitoring children both inside and outside of the home. Notifications can be sent indicating that somebody has entered the home, movement within the home, or even periodic monitoring of specified rooms. These notifications can be sent to a smart phone or tablet with video and audio to provide a parent with information to conveniently monitor what is happening in many areas of the home.

ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4 is a wireless standard that is used to designed physical and medium access control layers, while ZigBee technology adds network and application layer specifications on top to create a ZigBee stack. The ZigBee mesh network provides a network of devices which communicate directly or through neighboring devices in the network. These mesh networks are decentralized with self-routing nodes that are able to connect with other nodes as needed. Static nodes are scattered around the building to ensure to help prevent blind spots by acting as reference points. A gateway node is then used to connect to the ZigBee network to an external computer or network. Lastly, mobile nodes can be used to locate people inside a building as a type of accessory that may be as small as a badge or bracelet. This type of technology would be very useful in a home monitoring system to ensure all members of the family are accounted for. With mobile nodes with unique identification numbers, a parent could easily track the position of a child from an outside network to ensure that a child has reached home safely from school, or is following directions to be in a specific area doing a task which would be specific to a particular room.

iBeacon iBeacon uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to create a beacon around regions so that an application can be alerted when users enter them. The BLE has a larger range than NFC which makes This type of technology has been proposed to direct marketing to customers as they enter stores, but the same kind of principle would allow a parent to be alerted if their child entered the house or a particular room. NFC is also presumed to have the same potential, but the range is only up to 20cm, which can pose a problem. iBeacon has a range of up to 50 meters, with a recommended range of 10 meters. This kind of software could be used with existing phones to be able to locate people within a household.
Security and Safety
Control and integration of security systems and also the potential for central locking of all perimeter doors and windows. With Home Automation, the user can select and watch cameras live from an Internet source to their home or business. Security cameras can be controlled, allowing the user to observe activity around a house or business right from a Monitor or touch panel. Security systems can include motion sensors that will detect any kind of unauthorized movement and notify the user through the security system or via cell phone.

Another home automation advantage is added safety for both your family and home. You have the ability to control the small appliances and lighting, again with the simple tap of your finger on your favourite technological device. You can always check to make sure your daughter turned off her curling iron or ensure that your oven has been flipped off from the morning family breakfast. Your home and family also enjoy an added measure of safety through your ability to control the lights in your home. Not only does this allow you to make sure lights are off when you are gone to save electricity, it also allows you to turn them on at specific times if you would like it to look like you are home. This also helps increase the safety and security of your home.

Through the home automation system, you can easily keep tabs on your children. You can ensure that they make it safely into the house each night, letting them in without getting out of bed to greet them. You can also see their comings and goings on security cameras, as well as make sure the entrance to your home is lit when they arrive home.

This helps you keep them safe, as well as helps you know what they are up to each day, which can be quite helpful for a busy parent. In sum, investing in a home automation system will benefit you in several ways. It is cost effective. It will save you time and energy, and perhaps the most important, it will keep you and your family safe and your home secure.

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of an automated system in your home is automated door locks. Many have often left for work in the morning only to realise that they forgot to lock their front door. With an automated system, you can lock your doors with the tap of your finger. This quickly eases your mind, so you can focus on your day’s work rather than who may or may not be entering your home. This is also a great benefit for you if you have to leave to work before your children leave for school. Often, children run out the house and forget to lock the door. You can easily have control of the situation by locking the door from your office each day. The fact that you can be alerted each time someone enters your home also allows you to monitor who is entering your home at all times, even when you are not there.

Unfortunately, we just cannot be everywhere at once. This means that we often miss things that happen, perhaps even in our own home or yard. With a home automation system, you can easily see what is happening. Now you can make sure no unwelcome guests arrive unbeknownst to you or your family. Security cameras increase family safety by recording clips when detecting movement or at specific times of the day or night.

Convenience
Imagine walking into your home and the lights and temperature adjusts to your comfort level; open the curtains, and the music starts playing. Sounds like somewhat of a Sci-Fi movie? However, with home automation or a “Wired Home”, this kind of ease can become a reality. Home automation is generally defined as technology that enables remote or automatic control of appliances and devices in your home. An automated home comprises of security checks, temperature adjustments, audio and video distribution, lighting control and more. It offers the opportunity for energy conservation and safety. Whether you automate a little or a lot, turning your home into a smart home provides many benefits to individuals and families who enjoy a technologically advanced home.

The most obvious advantage of home automation is convenience. Having your home programmed to perform routine functions automatically saves time and effort for the homeowner. You can control multiple components of your home from an easy to use touch panel, remote, custom keypad, tablet, personal computer or Android device. Full control of your home is at all times at your fingertips. Imagine getting into bed every night and all you have to do is push a button to turn off all lights, close the curtains, arm your security system, and lower the thermostat of the air-conditioning unit. This type of comfort makes home automation an attractive option for many homeowners.

Often, we leave for work early in the morning and forget to adjust the ambient temperature, especially in winter when we are using heaters and underfloor heating for comfort. As a result, we come home to a house that is severely too hot or too cold. This is inconvenient, as it usually takes a good amount of time for the household temperature to increase or decrease after being adjusted. However, with a home automation system, you can simply adjust the temperature from the convenience of your office a few hours before heading home. This is both cost effective and saves on energy, and it helps you stay “on top of” your life when you have run out the door first thing in the morning without considering much else besides arriving to work on time and beating the Johannesburg traffic.

Price Trend New technologies will help to lower the price on creating an intelligent home. With lower prices, and increasing demand, it is possible to predict a decrease in prices across the board in technologies that increase home intelligence. One property developer in Johannesburg explained that customers were asking about the possibilities in home automation more often, but were reluctant on implementation. With the correct guidance, homeowners in South Africa will be able to slowly integrate technology into their lives, creating demand, lowering prices, and increasing the need for new technology. The cycle begins with a proper design base for a homeowner to understand the potential benefits of increasing the usage of technology in the home.

The early adoption of home automation regarded a telephone point in the hall, a TV socket in the living room, automated garage doors and gates, and two way lighting switches were a means of convenience for homeowners. Today, home automation encompasses the integration of every aspect of home living from entertainment, security and under-floor heating to pool filters, lighting, watering, online networking and general communications systems. The key attraction of home automation is that it affords users a certain lifestyle, the core benefits of which are simplicity, convenience and security.

Different levels of automation are available and range from the most basic, entry level set-ups which, for example, control the lights and cost a few thousand rand to install, to all-out systems which will practically manage your entire household. These include grind your coffee beans and heat up your water for your early morning coffee, or warm your milk for your bowl. These systems can cost anything from R50 000 to a few hundred thousand rand for the “make your coffee” variety which, according to those in the know, is significantly less than what they used to cost, in the region of a million rand.

Another growing trend is home entertainment systems, this has reached a high degree of sophistication. With fully integrated home cinemas all elements such as the projectors, screens, blinds, lights and temperature can all be automatically set to a homeowner’s preferences. All a homeowner need do is select the movie they want to watch from their mobile touch screen and the system will do the rest.

With home automation becoming more common across individuals, people looking to invest in the basic automation in their home are opting for the DIY model. Many, with the basic skills, can used retail solutions to upgrade their homes and automate certain aspects of them. Home entertainment is quick win for most and in some cases very easy to accomplish. The cost for professional services in SA still don’t meet the price breaks of the average income earner, but with more retail solutions becoming available the cost of a professional install will be more affordable in the months or years to come.
Some argue that dedicated hardware, dedicated home automation controllers, dedicated home automation touch panels, and in some cases, dedicated home automation network cables are necessary to create a stable, high-quality installation. While on the surface this argument holds true, it does ring a bit hollow. It rings hollow because we tend to be very good at defending a point of view where our income depends on it.
The truth is that these dedicated home automation instruments are extremely expensive to the end-user and the business model of many a home automation company depends on the fat hardware margins. So it makes one wonder if the established automation vendors have a true interest to see alternatives from mass-volume consumer electronics industry to work in the field of home automation?
Roadmap to an intelligent home
Design
In designing an intelligent home, the South African homeowner should decide their price range, and some of the most important functions they would want for their home. There are several products on the market at this time which could be paired with existing devices, and for more extensive needs the homeowner may need to upgrade or purchase new equipment. A proper design plan is vital to creating a functional, useable, and reliable system. Hardware
Network
In most homes today, internet access is standard convenience. This is because many families rely on the internet for their kids to have access to information for learning purposes. This may be in the form of home DSL or mobile connectivity solutions. The cost of bandwidth is reducing, thus allowing more home to have connectivity to the internet. This connectivity can be easily integrated to home automation systems and devices. In my view a minimum requirement for an automated home and for families to access their automated home or to be in a position to control access, devices and other conveniences remotely is internet access in the home. There are many vendors that provide devices and solutions for home automation that also provide web access portals as a value added service to their solutions to enable their customers to access these devices from a easy to use front end system, and provide the convenience so that a user does not have to worry about building these systems and maintaining them in the home.
Access
More and more individuals are becoming entrusted in the digital age and investing in devices such as smart phones and tablets, which have internet access. In the past one would only access the internet via a personal computer and/or laptop from the home or office, but tablets and smart phones enable them to access the internet and in turn creating the convenience to access their home via the internet from anywhere at any time. Some can go further and create small VPNs to their home, and in turn securing their access to the automated home to a closed user group.

Design and Cost There are different design models for many different price ranges. From a design perspective if one is building a new house they should consider per-wiring the home for home automation, there is nothing stopping individuals from retrofitting the home if the opt for buying instead of building. With new technologies, there are less barriers to be connected at lower prices. It is up to the homeowner to decide on their budget to have a system designed for them. With the integration of many services into portable devices such as smart phones, tablets, and laptops, it is possible to implement a cheaper more affordable system but lower functionality. For instance, for a lower cost, one might be able to track individuals utilizing iBeacon technology, but with the limitation that individuals need to have a particular application installed and must be carrying their phone. Other technologies may also need users to have a device to be tracked. Sensors could also be used to track user positions, though this type of technology limits identification. Cameras would be a more expensive addition, but this could cross lines of privacy in all areas of the house.

CONCLUSION

The ever increasing pace of new consumer electronic devices capable of acting as sophisticated automation controls are being added to homes. In the last couple of years we've seen the introduction of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. A huge amount of Android devices is about to hit the market. The pace at which these control devices need to be integrated will increase in the future. IP networks will eventually be de-facto communication infrastructure at homes. Whether it is voice over IP, video over IP or control over IP, the importance of managing IP networks as well as the IP security at home will increase in the future. Media is already distributed in homes using IP network and is used to control media centres. The most important integration of home automation protocols is to this IP backbone.

These two trends add up to a more dynamic nature of a home automation installation. This requires a new take on tools, on monitoring and diagnostics, on quality assurance and certification. At the same time, the industry needs to find a better growth model and expand to wider markets which will inevitably add additional requirements to both integrators and installers in terms of customer management.

The key to manage these changes is through open systems which will lower cost of integration, to create ecosystems of hardware and software vendors, of integrators and installers. Proprietary and closed technology stumps growth and brings with it high cost of integration which limits us to small segment of luxury market. It is possible to bring a complete home automation solution to a larger audience, by retailing more of the solutions and/or devices through our faithful Builders Warehouse or equivalent.

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