Smart Home Background Introduction
The conception of smart home comes out very earlier, but there was no specific architectural case until 1984. In 1984, United Techno1ogies Building System applied the construction equipment informatization and integration conception to the City-Place-Building in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Then the first “Intelligent Building” appeared and it opened the prelude of smart home which made the whole world start to scramble for.
At present, it is usually defined the smart home as using computer, network and comprehensive wiring technology to integrate various subsystems related to daily life into one system through the household information management platform.
Specifically speaking, firstly, a communication network needs to be established in the household to provide necessary access for the information. Under the control of the home network operating system, it can achieve the controlling and monitoring the home appliances and equipments through corresponding hardware and actuating mechanism. Secondly, a network platform is needed to provide channel to communicate with outside and meet the demand of the controlling, monitoring and exchanging message. Lastly, it satisfies people’s need of safety, comfort, convenience and environmental protection.
Not only the change of social-economic structures, population structures and information technology but also the raising demand of safety, comfort and efficiency for home environment greatly increase the market needs for smart home. At the same time, more and more family not just require smart home product to meet the basic needs, they focus and require more for simplicity, convenience and safety of the smart home, especially on functional expansion, extension and service.
Introduction and Comparison of Smart Home
Technology
Though the conception of smart home comes out very earlier and the market for smart home exists for a long time, it is restricted by technology breakthrough and it hasn’t been popular. The technologies for Smart Home in the existing market are as follows:
1. Wired Mode
All the control signals are transferred by wired mode and the signal wires in controlling end are too many to check when problems happened. This mode has lots of prominent disadvantages such as complex cabling, high workload, high-cost, difficult to maintenance and difficult to build network. All of these make the smart home stayed in the conception and pilot level, thus it is very hard for smart home to be widely popularized.
2. Wireless Mode
The wireless system applied to Smart home should have the following characteristics:
1) low power consumption
2) Stabilization
3) easy to expand grid
As for the transmission speed, it is obvious not the key point for this application.
For now, there are several wireless modes for smart home as below:
Bluetooth:
Bluetooth is kind of wireless technology supporting equipments short distances communication (in the range of 10 meters). In this mode, information can be transferred between devices such as mobile phones, PDA, wireless earphone and laptop etc. While, this communication distance is too short and this communication mode is the point-to-point, so this kind of technology can’t meet the requirements for Smart home.
WIFI:
WIFI is another name of IEEE 802.11b which was released by the WECA（Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance）. It is kind of short distance transmission technology which supports the radio signals within several hundreds meters to connect with the Internet. The biggest feature of WIFI is that it is very easy for people to access the Internet at any time and any where. Thus, WIFI is widely spread. However, to Smart home system it has obvious disadvantages such as high-consumption and strong professional networking. High-consumption is a fatal weakness to map out the low-consumption sensors in the network. So, it can only play the auxiliary role in Smart home.
315M/433M/868M/915M：
These wireless RF technologies are widely used in vehicle monitoring, remote control, telemeter, small wireless network, industry data acquisition system, wireless label, identity recognition and non-contact RF places etc. It has been applied to the smart home system by some companies, however, because of bad anti-jamming ability, hard networking and general reliability, the application effect in Smart home is not good and it was abandoned at last by the main manufacturers.
Zigbee:
Zigbee is based on the IEEE 802.15. Because IEEE only deals with the protocol of MAC layer and physical layer, Zigbee Alliance expand the IEEE and standardize the network layer protocol and API. Zigbee is a new wireless network technique with short range, low-speed rate and low -power consumption, and it mainly applies to short distance communication.
The characteristics of Zigbee are low-complexity, low-power consumption, low-speed rate, low-cost, Ad hoc network, high reliability and BVR. It mainly applies to the field of the automatic control and remote control, besides, it can be embedded into many types of equipments. In a word, Zigbee is a wireless short distance communication technology with convenience、low-power consumption、Ad hoc network.
To understand the smart home under the background of the IOT
The initially application fields of Zigbee technology mainly include consumer electronics, energy management, Healthcare, home automation, building automation and industrial automation. With the rise of IOT, Zigbee gets new application opportunities again. At the edge of the IOT network what are most applied are sensors and the control modules which are the basis, core and most widely used units constitute in IOT. Under the Zigbee network, thousands of tiny sensing transmission units mutually coordinate to communicate. These units need very little energy and the data will relay from a network node to another through radio wave, so it has very high communication efficiency. The characteristics of Zigbee technique is low-power, anti-jamming, high reliability, easy to network, easy to expand, easy to apply, easy to maintain. So Zigbee products can deployed on a large scale which conforms to the request and trend of IOT development. As it is, IOT and Zigbee technology have huge fusions in the aspect of smart home, industry monitoring and Healthcare.
Remarkable, the rise of IOT will bring a wide market to Zigbee. The purpose of IOT is combining a huge network by connecting various information sensing transmission units with the Internet. In this huge network, taking the data transmission into consideration, Zigbee has lots of advantages in investment, construction and maintenance when comparing to other wireless technologies, so Zigbee will be certainly widely applied to the Smart home.
Solution Selection
As a standard Smart home, it needs to cover a wide range of applications, but there is a precondition that any of general consumers can easily install the system, even expand the system without qualified installation person installing on-site. A typical Smart home system usually requires the following devices/equipments:
No.
|
Product Name
|
Model
|
Remark
|
1
|
Wireless Internet Communication Gateway
|
WL-GW-A
|
|
2
|
Wireless Dimmer Switch
|
WL-DS-A01
|
|
3
|
Wireless Temperature Sensor
|
WL-TH-01
|
|
4
|
Current Detection Socket
|
WL-ICS-A01
|
|
5
|
Wireless IR Transmitter
|
WL-ZRFC-01
|
|
6
|
Wireless IR Motion Detector
|
WL-MD-A
|
|
7
|
Carbon Dioxide Sensor
|
WL-AQD-A01
|
|
8
|
Wireless doorbell
|
|
|
9
|
Wireless Drawer Lock
|
WL-DWS-01
|
|
10
|
Wireless flammable gas valve
|
|
|
11
|
Wireless Flammable Gas Detector
|
WL-GD-A01B
|
|
12
|
Wireless Automatic Curtain System
|
WL-WCC-01
|
|
Simple Diagram
Simple Diagram
a. Tablet PC
b. Mobile phone
c. Mobile Internet
d. Internet
e. Wireless IR anti break in detector
f. Wireless air quality sensor
g. Wireless smoke detector
h. Wireless gas leakage sensor
i. Wireless intellectual dimmer
j. Wireless IR repeater
k. Wireless magnetic door
l. Wireless magnetic window
m. Wireless temperature and humidity sensor
n. Wireless sleeping button
o. Wireless air pollution sensor
p. Wireless solar radiation sensor
q. Wireless temperature and humidity sensor
r. Wireless doorbell
s. Solar wireless emergency sound and light alarm
t. Family Internet equipment
u. wireless gateway
v. Solar wireless IR electronic fence
w. Solar wireless intellectual valve
x. Wireless soil humidity sensor
y. Lawn
z. Solar wireless intellectual valve
Brief Description of Related appliances
Wireless gateway:
Wireless gateway is the control terminal for information collection of all wireless sensors and wireless linkage devices. All the information collected by sensors and detectors will be sent to the supervisory units (such as authorized mobile phone, tablet PC etc.), then these supervisory units will send the control commands to these linkage appliances through the wireless gateway.
If someone is opening the door when you are out, the door magnetic detector will send the alarm signal to your mobile phone through the wireless gateway, you can check what happened and send out the control command, the electromagnetic door will close automatically and trigger the wireless the acousto-optic device to alarm.
Wireless intelligent light-dimmer switch
This switch can instead of the usual metope-switch and it has already formed the wireless sensor control network together with home IOT appliances that you can easily send out the control command such as light-adjusting and turning on/off through the wireless gateway. Its realistic significance is that when you are out there is no need to worry about whether you have turned off all the lights, because all the lights will turn off automatically when you go out. Before you get to sleep, there is no need to check the rooms one by one to see if all the lights are off, what you need to do is just to press the sleep-button beside the bed; when you get up during the night, the light will automatically turn soft to ensure your sleep quality.
Wireless temperature and humidity sensor
It is mainly used to detector the temperature and humidity in and out rooms. Though most of AC can detect the temperature, it can only detect the temperature near the air outlet because it is limited by itself, and this is why lots of customers feel the temperature is not very exact. With the wireless temperature and humidity sensor, you can exactly know the temperature and humidity of the room. The realistic significance is that it can start to work in advance to make sure the temperature of the room won’t be too high or too low. For example, when you are on the way of going back home, if the wireless temperature and humidity detector detects that the temperature of the room is too high, it will start work automatically. When you get home, it is already a very comfortable temperature. Moreover, this wireless device can also tell you the temperature outside when you are in the AC-Room, then you won’t feel embarrass whether you ware more or ware less when you get out in the morning.
Wireless intelligent socket
It is mainly used to control the switches. You can use it to start the exhaust fan which is really a very interesting application on airtight garage in hot summer. Besides, if you want to control some other appliances like fountain and electric water heater, just connect this wireless device with it and that will be very easy for you to realize the controlling.
Wireless IR repeater
This product is mainly used on the appliances which can be controlled by IR, such as AC, electronic curtain and TV etc. By using the wireless IR repeater, you can easily close the curtain to realize the remote control without getting up. This is a very meaningful product because it can change these traditional appliances to be intelligent appliances immediately.
Wireless Infrared Intrusion Detector
This product is mainly used to protect your home from illegally being broke in. For example, when you press down the wireless-sleep-button, all the lights will be turned off. At the same time, the wireless IR intrusion-detection units will get in to the fortification state. Once someone enters into your home, it will automatically alarm and open the light to scare away the intruder; when you are out, it can automatically set up the defense. Once someone illegally breaks in, this device will send out the alarm to you mobile phone through the wireless gateway and deal with the affairs according to your control command.
Wireless air quality sensor
This is a very meaningful device that it can detect the air quality of the sleeping room, especially important for a baby’s family. It can tell you the air quality of the rooms in time and you can control this device to start work through the wireless gateway.
Wireless doorbell
This kind of doorbell is very valuable for spacious mode apartment and big house. Taking the safety into consideration, most of the people will close the door during the night, it will very difficult to hear the ring when someone presses the doorbell during the sleeping time. The wireless doorbell will transfer the signal to your sleeping room which means that someone comes to visit. If you are out, your mobile phone will receive information which is very important for you to know the safety and visiting conditions well.
Wireless magnetic door and magnetic sensor
This kind of device is mainly used in Anti-Intrusion. When you are at home, they are in the status of disarming and won’t trigger the alarm; when you are out, they will be in the status of protection status, once someone opens the door or window, it will send the alarm to you mobile phone. Comparing with the traditional doors and windows, there is no need to do the wiring work for these wireless devices, just install the batteries and it will start to work. The installment is very easy and 2 minutes is enough for the installment. Moreover, for these families which have safety box, this kind of sensor will detect and record the time when the safe box is opened/closed, at the same time your authorized mobile phone will be informed.
Solar energy wireless intelligent valve
This is applied to the wireless watering system powered by solar power. The general flow is that the soil humidity sensor sends the soil condition to the wireless gateway, if the soil needs water, the wireless gateway will send the control command to the wireless watering valves to supply water. The data of watering time and water supplied will be sent to the Internet communication gateway then all the data on will be recorded in mobile phone or other devices.
Wireless bed-sleeping-button
The power is supplied by battery for this device, and it can be fixed or pasted on the bed, it is mainly used to help you to turn off all the appliances and start the protection system into protection status such as starting the wireless IR anti-intrusion detector, magnetic windows and magnetic doors into warning protection. Besides, it can also help you start the night mode of lights when you get up during the night, and the light will be very soft which is different from being bright during the dinner time, even that is the same light.
Wireless Flammable Gas Detector
Wireless Flammable Gas Detector is mainly used to detect the gas leakage condition, it doesn’t need to be fixed up with lines. Once the gas leakage happens, alarm will be sent to the authorized mobile phone through wireless gateway.
Wireless solar radiation sensor and Wireless air pollution sensor
To these people who are sensitive to the solar radiation, these sensors are very meaningful. You can know exactly whether you need to take steps of radiation protection and air pollution protection. What you need to do is only to check your mobile phone because the data has already been sent to your mobile phone through the wireless gateway.
Above is a very typical Smart home system based on IOT, the magical thing about IOT is that you can make up the system according to you need or DIY (details refer to www.wulian.cc ). The entire installment can be done without professionals and the time needed for installment of the whole system is half an hour at most, this is also a very significant difference between the IOT smart home system and traditional intelligent appliances.
About Nanjing IOT Sensor Technology Co., Ltd (extracted from www.wulian.cc )
Nanjing IOT Sensor Technology Co., Ltd is the Chinese leading supplier for IOT devices products and solutions. We keep sustainable innovation based on customers’ needs to have determined the industry leader in several major areas such as sensors, IOT modules, mobile IOT and cloud computing etc. The company has become leader of IOT time with the comprehensive advantages in such areas as objects perception and data transfer etc. Till now, our products and solutions have been applied to several focused IOT demonstration projects, which have made us become important technical support force for IOT city construction all over the country. We have good wish to make people sense the true world, using various types of sensors to enable people from different area and industry to get information more directly, freely and equally and eliminate information bias. For dealing with the increasingly severe climate change and all kinds of geological disasters, by our advanced low carbon solution, we have helped customers use the green way to create the optimal social, economic and environmental benefit, and to realize long-term maintenance of human development and security.
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