Smart Home for the Abled and Disabled Aged Persons in Africa: Design and Development

Abstract

Smart home is an intelligent home network whose services and infrastructure are based information and communication technology. It is an intelligent use of wireless technology for the implementation of automated home electrical/electronic appliances and devices, domestic tasks, and security devices, for the wellbeing of the occupant. However, the development of smart homes has focused mainly on building for the young and able-bodied persons for the purpose of enhancing home comfort, energy saving, and security, without considering the aged and disabled persons in Africa. The Smart Home System were implemented in existing home environments, with the automation focusing on recognition of voice commands and uses low-power RF wireless communication modules along with a microcontroller for message passing. The system consists of voice recognition module for voice input and recognition. The control signal of the recognized command is transmitted to the microcontroller, and the microcontroller uses this signal to control home appliances. The designed system was tested and the result showed that the level of system response is higher in dead home than in a live home, hence, the system performance is affected by the environmental noise and the accents of untrained aged persons are not supported by it. This system is most suitable for the aged and the disabled persons living alone and is intended to control all lights and electrical appliances inside a house using voice commands. In this work a home automation control system based on voice recognition was designed, implemented and experimental tests done and results were obtained.