An internet accessible remote controlled home automation system

Abstract

Home automation systems have been in development since the late seventies. However, the home automation market has not fully reached its potential. This can be attributed to a number of factors. Remote home automation systems, however, are quickly becoming more and more popular. Users like the ability to change their home environment while not at home. The remote home automation systems in existence, however, use the telephone as a medium for communication. These telephone user interfaces, unfortunately, are crude at best and often lead to a frustrating attempt to access the system. A better system would be one that could offer a graphical user interface, such as a homepage on the internet. Thus, if the user can access a web browser, the user can access the home automation system. In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of such a system, an Internet Accessible Remote-control Home Automation System.