International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology E-ISSN 2277 – 4106, P-ISSN 2347 – 5161

©2017 INPRESSCO®, All Rights Reserved Available at http://inpressco.com/category/ijcet

Research Article

Home Automation using Raspberry Pi controlled via an Android

Application

Kalyani Pampattiwar#*, Mit Lakhani#, Rinisha Marar# and Rhea Menon#

#Department of Computer Engineering, SIES Graduate School of Technology, Nerul, Navi Mumbai, India

Accepted 06 May 2017, Available online 11 May 2017, Vol.7, No.3 (June 2017)

Abstract

The overall design of Home Automation System (HAS) implements low cost wireless communication between a
Raspberry Pi module and an android based application to the IP appliances present at home. This paper provides a
combination of these two components--security and ease of lifestyle for people. This paper is designed to assist and
provide support for all demographic. It introduces a smart home concept that improves the standard of living at
home. The paper is intended to control electrical appliances in a home or office using an android application. The
main control system implements wireless technology to provide remote access from raspberry pi. The paper mainly
focuses on the monitoring and control of smart home remotely and providing security, when the user is away from
home. The paper is intended to control electrical appliances and devices in the house with relatively low cost design,
user-friendly interface and ease of installation. This paper differentiates itself from others as it has its own software
level application to control the home appliances. In this paper android phone is used to control the various
parameters. Android phone proves to be the main advantage compared to personal computer, as it is portable.

Keywords: Home Automation System, Raspberry Pi, Android Application, Smart Security Door Bell

1. Introduction For the security aspect of the home automation system,

we have implemented a smart doorbell. Entertainment
1 Home automation is the use of one or more computers system includes speakers connected to the Raspberry
to control basic home functions and features Pi via bluetooth. The lighting functionality, alarms,
automatically and sometimes remotely. An automated reminders and entertainment system can be remotely
home is sometimes called a smart home. Home controlled via an android application present on an
automation can include the scheduling and automatic android device. The android application controls the
operation security systems, lighting, reminder systems Raspberry Pi wirelessly to perform the necessary
and entertainment appliances. Home automation may function. This project can be customized as it has
also allow many vital home functions to be controlled multiple GPIO ports that can be programmed and they
remotely from anywhere in the world using a device can give the user control over various utilities from his
connected to the Internet. The fundamental smart phone like security, surveillance, lighting, energy
components of a well-designed home automation management, access control, entertainment etc. These
system (HAS) include a computer (or computers) with interfaces are all possible by the help of the GPIO ports
the appropriate programming, the various devices and in the Raspberry Pi 3 board.
systems to be controlled, interconnecting cables or Section 2 consists of the Concept Review. The
wireless links, a high-speed Internet connection and concept review, provides with the basic idea on
essential home systems. existing systems and the proposed system. The
The Home Automation project is based on a hardware components required for the project have
Raspberry Pi 3 processor, which is supported by 1GB been listed with a detailed description. Section 3
RAM and running at 900 MHz CPU which is over provides us with the Product Description. A detailed
clocked at 1 GHz without damaging the board. This explanation has been given about the modules present
paper comprises of the following functionalities: in the project. Section 4 comprises of System Testing.
controlling the lighting, setting alarms and reminders, Test cases of the project have been displayed with
smart security system and an entertainment system. emphasis on each module. The Conclusion has been
phrased in section 5 which throws light on the
*Corresponding author Kalyani Pampattiwar is working as
Assistant Professor; Mit Lakhani, Rinisha Marar and Rhea Menon overview and inferences of the project. Section 6 states
are Students the References.
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Kalyani Pampattiwar et al Home automation using Raspberry Pi controlled via an android application

2. Concept Review

2.1 Existing System Our project focuses on the automation of appliances

with the help of an application. In today’s world, the
Existing systems have used voice recognition to main goal for any system is optimisation. Any system
implement home automation. This methodology of developed aims at streamlining the human efforts to a
implementation is not advisable as it contains many minimal and our system aims at doing the same. The
loopholes. Voice recognition may show variation in the concept of home automation, using a simple android
output due to the arbitrary nature of human voices. application, is directed to achieve the same goal.
The different pitches, loudness and accents have to be In the previous studied models, the concept of
taken into account and the system is unable to do so home automation has been implemented several times
most of the time. The complexity of the system based on different functionalities. But with today’s
increases due to this irregularity. The proximity of progressive times, all the appliances are IP based and
All the figures must be placed in the column wise, there is a need for a system as advanced to
however the authors can use single column to place big accommodate these changes. Hence the development
figures provided that the template formatting must not of an application to control these functionalities proves
change. The title of the figure is to be placed below the to be an optimal solution to overcome the drawbacks.
figures as shown. The user to the microphone also
needs to be taken under consideration. These clauses Home automation systems, give homeowners the
put the feasibility of the system under speculation. power to fuse together their entertainment, lighting,
Earlier, home automation projects were performed temperature control, and security into a single console.
on Arduino kits or zigbee. Our project has been It bestows the power upon the user, to perform specific
developed using a Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is the functions without the need to physically do them.
latest technology and has huge advantages over the
latter two. Raspberry Pi is much more powerful than Home automation can be extremely helpful for the
an Arduino. Unlike an Arduino, Raspberry Pi is capable elderly/disabled. They can perform
of performing multiple tasks at the same time thereby household activities with much more ease. The
making it much more suitable for our complex project. automation of appliances can reduce the need to
The RPi is 40 times faster than an Arduino and it does perform physical labour for these set of people who are
not require any external hardware for most of the not able to perform functions
functions. It can be accessed via SSh and files are
transferred using FTP. The RPi has been provided with The project aims at implementing the following:
the facility of an Ethernet port thereby making network
connections easier than in an Arduino. Raspberry Pi is 1) Smart DoorBell: When the bell is rung, a text
easier to handle and does not require deep electronics message is sent to the owner of the house along
knowledge making RPi the most preferred and best with an email containing the picture of the visitor.
choice for our project. The system ensures the user is informed about the
The security doorbell simplemented in current entrant.
systems contains complete functionality of a single 2) Regulating Appliances: The appliances that fall
utility but does not provide an overall outlook for under this category include fans and lights. The
complete home automation. The doorbell system is a appliances mentioned above can be switched on
separate security feature which does not integrate any and off by using the android application.
other functionality. There are separate systems 3) Reminders: The system can also be used to save
existing to control the home appliances and a separate reminders that help us with our important
system to control the security. This has been integrated appointments or daily routines.
into a single entity within our proposed system to 4) Alarms: Alarms can be set on the requested date
provide a complete home automation experience.[1] and time in the system.
5) Wireless Speakers : The system also can act as
2.2 Proposed System wireless speakers which can be put to use for
multiple purposes

Detailed steps with reference to the block diagram

Smart DoorBell - The doorbell button is connected to

the Raspberry Pi Board. On pressing this doorbell, a
command is initiated at the raspberry pi to run the
python scripts. These scripts in turn commands the
webcam to click a picture and the message as well as
the email is sent via the LAN port connected to the
Fig.1 Block Diagram of Proposed System Raspberry Pi.
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Kalyani Pampattiwar et al Home automation using Raspberry Pi controlled via an android application

Regulating Appliances - The appliances such as lights  4 USB ports

and fans are connected to the Raspberry Pi Board via  40 GPIO pins
GPIO Pins. The Android Application present on the  Full HDMI port
mobile phone wirelessly communicates to the  Ethernet port
Raspberry Pi through the internet. The Raspberry Pi  Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video
connected to the LAN port receives these commands  Camera interface (CSI)
and runs the scripts which control the appliances to  Display interface (DSI)
take action accordingly.  Micro SD card slot (now push-pull rather than
Reminders - The Android Application provides for push-push)
an interface to the user to set a reminder. These
 VideoCore IV 3D graphics core
reminder settings are sent to the raspberry pi via the
internet. The Raspberry Pi runs the scripts and when We have inserted a 32GB SD card mounted with the
the time of the reminder and Raspberry Pi matches, the
Raspbian OS Jessie.
raspberry pi plays an audio note via the speakers
connected to the Raspberry Pi. 2.3.2 Webcam
Alarms - The Android Application is used to set an
alarm by the user and this alarm timing is sent to the
Raspberry Pi through the internet. The Raspberry Pi
runs a script which then compares the time of the
alarm with the current time present in the system and
when the time matches the alarm goes off to play an
audio clip for 30 seconds via the connected speakers.
Wireless Speakers - The Raspberry Pi is connected
to the speakers via auxiliary port. The speakers are
responsible for the sound output wirelessly. The music
is selected from the existing audio clips present within
the phone. Upon connecting the phone to the
Raspberry Pi via bluetooth, these audio clips can be Fig.3 Webcam with microphone
played wirelessly.
We have used a webcam to be set up in front of the
2.3 Hardware Description main door of the user. The webcam is used to provide
the user with a picture to be sent via email when the
In this system there are various hardware devices used doorbell is rung. The webcam used by us for this
which are given below: project is a basic webcam with a microphone. The
microphone helps the user to talk to the visitor when a
2.3.1 Raspberry Pi Board call is initiated.

2.3.3 Android Mobile Device

Fig.2 Raspberry pi 3
The Raspberry Pi 3 is the third generation Raspberry
Pi.Raspberry Pi 3 has:
Fig.4 Android Device
 802.11n Wireless LAN The android application is downloaded on the android
 A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU device to provide the user with an interface to interact
 Bluetooth 4.1 with the Raspberry Pi.This application allows the user
 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to control the lighting, connect to the speakers via
 1GB RAM bluetooth, set alarms and reminders.
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Kalyani Pampattiwar et al Home automation using Raspberry Pi controlled via an android application

2.3.4 Speakers 3. Email Via SMTP module

Fig.5 Wired Speakers

We connect the Raspberry Pi to the wired speakers.
This enables the reminder, alarm and audio speaker
functionality. Fig.8 Email sent from the RPi

3. Product Description When the doorbell is rung for the __ time, the webcam
captures an image of the visitor and this image is sent
1. Smart Door Bell Module to the user along with the time and date via SMTP. This
module plays an important role as it provides the user
with critical information about the visitor depending
on which, the user may take desired action.
4. Bluetooth music streaming module
Bluetooth module allows the user to connect his phone
wirelessly to the Raspberry Pi via Bluetooth. Bluetooth
module uses a utility called bluetoothctl which enables
the connection between a phone and the Raspberry Pi.
This bluetooth connection allows dynamic streaming of
audio to the speakers.
5. Regulating Appliances Module
An android application has been built which allows
Fig.6 Raspberry Pi Terminal Output Window remote access to the Raspberry Pi via Pubnub. Pubnub
The Smart Doorbell is a functionality that strengthens is a globally distributed, real-time streaming network
which enables the application to send commands to the
the security quotient. When the doorbell is rung, a text
Raspberry Pi. The Pi upon receiving these commands
message is sent to the owner’s mobile phone. The
performs certain regulating actions such as switching
webcam connected at the door clicks a picture of the on and off the lights.
visitor and this picture is sent to the designated email
address provided by the user. The text message as well 6. Alarms and Reminders Module
as the email consists of the time and date details of
when the doorbell was rung. This module allows the user to set alarms and
reminders on their mobile phones via the android
2. Messaging Via API module. application. This alarm or reminder is transferred as a
command and sent to the Raspberry Pi via Pubnub.
We use the API of a messaging website to send a When the alarm or reminder goes off, the speakers are
message to the user’s mobile phone when the doorbell activated and preset audio is played by the Raspberry
is rung which alerts the user about the visitor, so he Pi.
can take appropriate action. 4. System Testing

Fig.7 Messaging Via API Fig.9 (a) Connections for lights and doorbell
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Kalyani Pampattiwar et al Home automation using Raspberry Pi controlled via an android application

Fig.9 (b) Connections made on the Raspberry Pi

Figure 9 (a) describes the connections to regulate
appliances like lights which is tested by connecting an
LED on a breadboard .While testing the shorter leg of
the LED is connected to the ground on the Raspberry Pi
whereas the longer one is connected to the GPIO
output pins of Raspberry Pi as shown in Figure 9(b).A Fig.11 Reminder module
resistor is also connected so that the current flow is in Case 3:
control. Fig 9(a) shows a Doorbell Button which is also
tested by fixing it on the breadboard wherein one of its When the Lights slider is clicked on the app, the
end is connected to the ground and the other one is activity containing the lighting controls are displayed.
connected to the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO input pin which The page consists of an array of buttons which can be
provides the input when the Doorbell Button is selected to control the lighting of the particular area by
pressed. The following are the test cases performed on
a simple click.
the system:
Case 1:
Upon clicking on the Alarm slider within the
application, the alarm activity opens where the input is
provided. Upon the time matching the alarm time, the
output is produced as an audio clip played via the
speakers.

Fig.10 Alarm module

Fig.12 Lights module
Case 2:

The slider for the reminder is clicked to reach the 5. System Functionalities
interface of the reminder activity. The page displays
options to set the time and the date along with a
validation check that prevents the user from selecting  Security using smart doorbell.
past dates. Once the reminder is set, the time is  Music streaming mode via Bluetooth.
compared and when the time matches, the speakers  Appliance regulation mode.
play an audio file which is a text to speech conversion  Using smtp server to send image to the user to
of the text provided when the reminder is set. check.
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Kalyani Pampattiwar et al Home automation using Raspberry Pi controlled via an android application

Conclusions References

The proposed system permits the owner or the Aldrich D’mello,Gaurav Deshmukh,Manali Murudkar and
controller, all the rights to take decisions and to Garima Tripathi,2016,Home Automation using Raspberry
Pi 2,International Journal of Current Engineering and
regulate the home appliances with the help of an
Technology.E-ISSN 2277 – 4106
android application. It provides effortless as well as Theodore Ramli ,Natashia Nabiha Dabimel, Mazlina Mamat,
varied ways to control the devices in the house, thus Norfarariyanti Parimon, Rosalyn R. Porl,2016,Simple
making one’s life comfortable and at the same time speech controlled home automation system using android
remotely accessible through portable devices like devices,Journal of Scientific Research and Development 3
android phones. (1): 33-38 ,ISSN 1115-7569
In the future extensions to the project, the smart Subhajit Dey,Tamaghna Kundu, Sourav Mukherjee,Mili
Sarkar,2015Web based real-time Home automation and
DoorBell can be made by implementing voice and video Security System,Int. J. Elec & Electr. Eng & Telecoms.ISSN
calls with the person standing right outside the door 2319 – 2518
and the owner remotely. Thereby increasing the safety Raspberry Pi Foundation Raspberry Pi Model B
quotient of the system. https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-
model-b/

967| International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.7, No.3 (June 2017)