From CCTV to smart home
As you could already understand from the title, this publication will discuss the so-called "Smart Houses". But first, a small lyrical digression. I heard one story from my friends. A wave of robberies passed some time ago around the holiday village where their summer house is located. Moreover, the thief was distinguished by a strange selectivity - he could not take a TV or a music center, but attach legs to a set of drills for a perforator (again, without touching the perforator itself). The most interesting thing that surprised me the most was that they climbed into one house, while the owners slept on the second floor. Uninvited guest took advantage of the refrigerator (perhaps a word of mouth takes place, but they say that he even managed to watch TV), after which he left, well fed and satisfied.
As the saying goes, "stupid people do not learn anything, smart people learn from their mistakes, but wise ones from smart mistakes." So, after this story, I decided to fall into the category of wise people and, accordingly, attended to the safety of my "country estate".
The very first thought was to get a simple DVR somewhere on 4 cameras and install it to monitor the house. All is good, but there are, in my opinion, a number of shortcomings, where each subsequent is a consequence of the previous one:
• You must take care to create wired connections between the DVR and surveillance cameras. It should be immediately noted that such a problem is not with IP cameras that support Wi-Fi;
• If an attacker notices a camera, he can track the location of the DVR via a wired connection and then disable it (or take it with him for later sale). Since the recording is carried out directly on the device itself, this circumstance can negate the whole expediency of its installation. Here you can use 3G / LTE routers, which will transmit the video stream over cellular networks and save it on a remote server. Of course, let's not rule out the option of hiding the DVR to a place where no one will ever find it;
• It is advisable to be constantly in front of the monitor in order to react in time to a potential robbery. Otherwise, the cameras will simply record the fact of the invasion, and I think this will not be much easier, although this may make it easier for our valiant police to find the thieves. In this case, the presence of a motion sensor on some cameras and the possibility of notification via SMS / MMS / email can help. Or separately purchase motion sensors and integrate them into the video surveillance system.
')
In general, in order to effectively secure your home against a potential invasion, it is necessary to take into account a number of seemingly insignificant factors. Trying to penetrate into all the nuances and get acquainted with the capabilities of modern equipment, suddenly I wanted something more than just the organization of its own video surveillance system. As they say, appetite comes with eating. For example, I was interested in the possibility of using a light and sound alarm system for a country house - when a motion sensor is triggered, a siren and a stroboscopic alarm signal are activated. After all, an additional deterrent in the event of a robbery.
And here we come to the most interesting. I think many of us in the vast expanses of the World Wide Web at least once stumbled upon such a phrase as Smart House / Smart Home. As the name implies, this is some kind of intellectual and quick-witted house or dwelling. Or the so-called "Smart Home". Personally, I don’t really like this name. In my opinion, the house should first of all be comfortable and reliable, but we will not tear the templates.
According to Wikipedia, the development of smart home technology began in the mid-1990s, the year of the last century. Thus, the market has been developing for almost 20 years, but the main problem, in my opinion, is that during this time very few people have been able to clearly articulate and offer a universal definition for a smart home. Everyone who works in this field has his own opinion on this.
So what really are all these highly intelligent systems?
In order to answer this question, I propose to go on the contrary. That is, to look for the answer is not what the various companies offer, but what the user ultimately wants to see.
Someone sees the smart home as an intelligent home video surveillance system, someone as a climate control system in the room, someone is tempted to control all the electronic devices with an infrared port from your smartphone. For someone it is important to feed pets or automatic watering of plants during the next vacation. Someone interested in minimizing energy costs and optimizing the operation of household appliances. And someone needs all of the above and plus to everything the possibility of voice commands was provided, and the system itself must respond with the voice of Jennifer Lawrence, or at least just answer.
In my opinion, it would be a popular solution for a smart home, aimed at people who want to lose weight - to install a video camera inside the refrigerator and publish photos taken after 6 pm on Instagram, as well as the latest data from floor scales, which should also be connected to this system.
Many people mistakenly believe that the “smart home” system is mainly decorative, for example, without turning on the light from the couch, turn on / off the lights, open / close the door, etc. Not certainly in that way. Lighting and power subsystems can significantly reduce energy consumption. As a standard example, some systems can automatically turn off the light to a room when a person leaves it and vice versa. When sharing electric heaters and air conditioners with temperature and humidity sensors, you can achieve a comfortable indoor climate, minimizing the cost of electricity. The system itself will turn on or turn off the device responsible for the climate when a certain value of the temperature in the room is reached. On average, you can achieve a reduction in energy costs by 30%, for heating by 40%.
Some advanced users who have sufficient knowledge can, with their own hands (in some cases even from improvised means) create a house that will be able to fulfill almost any of their whims. Unfortunately, there are not so many such people and the mass release of such decisions is quite difficult.
At the moment, the Internet is a fairly large number of different companies offering you to create the smart home of your dreams. For the most part these are complete turnkey solutions of varying complexity, from one-room apartments to country houses from the adjacent territory. Companies use products from various manufacturers, specializing in the design of equipment for a smart home. When creating a transmission network, both wired (Ethernet, PLC) and wireless (Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-wave) technologies are used (we will try to understand each of the pros and cons of the following articles).
By the way, the current year 2014 is also notable for the fact that many giants producing household appliances have announced their desire to find a niche in this emerging market. Among the main players are Samsung and LG. Even Apple has expressed a desire to take part in this race. The latter, in my opinion, may lead to even more disagreements about what the smart home system should include. It means that the proposed functionality is needed because it is really necessary, or simply because it is offered by a top and fashion brand.
So, the market already now offers the user a wide range of equipment for building smart homes to suit their own needs. These can be as complex solutions, where the system is integrated into the existing infrastructure of the dwelling, as well as individual devices that will operate in parallel with each other and, if necessary, interact with each other. The user can contact a specialized company and get a turnkey turnkey solution, or independently acquire sensors and controllers and customize them with their own hands. The market is developing quite dynamically, but if we take into account the economic situation in Russia, the demand for such solutions is likely to decline. Still, people, first of all, it is important that their refrigerator was full, but, in fact, not the refrigerator itself, which is able to make diets and order food.
In subsequent articles, we will try to figure out which basic functionality is preferable for a smart home. If possible, we will analyze the proposals on the domestic market for such services.
As the saying goes, "stupid people do not learn anything, smart people learn from their mistakes, but wise ones from smart mistakes." So, after this story, I decided to fall into the category of wise people and, accordingly, attended to the safety of my "country estate".
The very first thought was to get a simple DVR somewhere on 4 cameras and install it to monitor the house. All is good, but there are, in my opinion, a number of shortcomings, where each subsequent is a consequence of the previous one:
• You must take care to create wired connections between the DVR and surveillance cameras. It should be immediately noted that such a problem is not with IP cameras that support Wi-Fi;
• If an attacker notices a camera, he can track the location of the DVR via a wired connection and then disable it (or take it with him for later sale). Since the recording is carried out directly on the device itself, this circumstance can negate the whole expediency of its installation. Here you can use 3G / LTE routers, which will transmit the video stream over cellular networks and save it on a remote server. Of course, let's not rule out the option of hiding the DVR to a place where no one will ever find it;
• It is advisable to be constantly in front of the monitor in order to react in time to a potential robbery. Otherwise, the cameras will simply record the fact of the invasion, and I think this will not be much easier, although this may make it easier for our valiant police to find the thieves. In this case, the presence of a motion sensor on some cameras and the possibility of notification via SMS / MMS / email can help. Or separately purchase motion sensors and integrate them into the video surveillance system.
')
In general, in order to effectively secure your home against a potential invasion, it is necessary to take into account a number of seemingly insignificant factors. Trying to penetrate into all the nuances and get acquainted with the capabilities of modern equipment, suddenly I wanted something more than just the organization of its own video surveillance system. As they say, appetite comes with eating. For example, I was interested in the possibility of using a light and sound alarm system for a country house - when a motion sensor is triggered, a siren and a stroboscopic alarm signal are activated. After all, an additional deterrent in the event of a robbery.
And here we come to the most interesting. I think many of us in the vast expanses of the World Wide Web at least once stumbled upon such a phrase as Smart House / Smart Home. As the name implies, this is some kind of intellectual and quick-witted house or dwelling. Or the so-called "Smart Home". Personally, I don’t really like this name. In my opinion, the house should first of all be comfortable and reliable, but we will not tear the templates.
According to Wikipedia, the development of smart home technology began in the mid-1990s, the year of the last century. Thus, the market has been developing for almost 20 years, but the main problem, in my opinion, is that during this time very few people have been able to clearly articulate and offer a universal definition for a smart home. Everyone who works in this field has his own opinion on this.
So what really are all these highly intelligent systems?
In order to answer this question, I propose to go on the contrary. That is, to look for the answer is not what the various companies offer, but what the user ultimately wants to see.
Someone sees the smart home as an intelligent home video surveillance system, someone as a climate control system in the room, someone is tempted to control all the electronic devices with an infrared port from your smartphone. For someone it is important to feed pets or automatic watering of plants during the next vacation. Someone interested in minimizing energy costs and optimizing the operation of household appliances. And someone needs all of the above and plus to everything the possibility of voice commands was provided, and the system itself must respond with the voice of Jennifer Lawrence, or at least just answer.
In my opinion, it would be a popular solution for a smart home, aimed at people who want to lose weight - to install a video camera inside the refrigerator and publish photos taken after 6 pm on Instagram, as well as the latest data from floor scales, which should also be connected to this system.
Many people mistakenly believe that the “smart home” system is mainly decorative, for example, without turning on the light from the couch, turn on / off the lights, open / close the door, etc. Not certainly in that way. Lighting and power subsystems can significantly reduce energy consumption. As a standard example, some systems can automatically turn off the light to a room when a person leaves it and vice versa. When sharing electric heaters and air conditioners with temperature and humidity sensors, you can achieve a comfortable indoor climate, minimizing the cost of electricity. The system itself will turn on or turn off the device responsible for the climate when a certain value of the temperature in the room is reached. On average, you can achieve a reduction in energy costs by 30%, for heating by 40%.
Some advanced users who have sufficient knowledge can, with their own hands (in some cases even from improvised means) create a house that will be able to fulfill almost any of their whims. Unfortunately, there are not so many such people and the mass release of such decisions is quite difficult.
At the moment, the Internet is a fairly large number of different companies offering you to create the smart home of your dreams. For the most part these are complete turnkey solutions of varying complexity, from one-room apartments to country houses from the adjacent territory. Companies use products from various manufacturers, specializing in the design of equipment for a smart home. When creating a transmission network, both wired (Ethernet, PLC) and wireless (Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-wave) technologies are used (we will try to understand each of the pros and cons of the following articles).
By the way, the current year 2014 is also notable for the fact that many giants producing household appliances have announced their desire to find a niche in this emerging market. Among the main players are Samsung and LG. Even Apple has expressed a desire to take part in this race. The latter, in my opinion, may lead to even more disagreements about what the smart home system should include. It means that the proposed functionality is needed because it is really necessary, or simply because it is offered by a top and fashion brand.
So, the market already now offers the user a wide range of equipment for building smart homes to suit their own needs. These can be as complex solutions, where the system is integrated into the existing infrastructure of the dwelling, as well as individual devices that will operate in parallel with each other and, if necessary, interact with each other. The user can contact a specialized company and get a turnkey turnkey solution, or independently acquire sensors and controllers and customize them with their own hands. The market is developing quite dynamically, but if we take into account the economic situation in Russia, the demand for such solutions is likely to decline. Still, people, first of all, it is important that their refrigerator was full, but, in fact, not the refrigerator itself, which is able to make diets and order food.
In subsequent articles, we will try to figure out which basic functionality is preferable for a smart home. If possible, we will analyze the proposals on the domestic market for such services.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/239947/
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