Forget Me Not Challenge Competitors

There are many elderly that prefer to be independent, not rely on others, or have a fuss made.  This doesn't suit all cultures, and countries, but certainly here in New Zealand we have an aging population, that live in their own homes, but sometimes need checking on.

In many situations the family is not in the same town, and while a phone call never goes astray, the answers to some questions will always be 'positive'. While they are capable, there is still a requirement to passively monitor them to ensure small problems don't become larger health problems.

This project is designed to provide connected control of house and security monitoring. Utilizing the energy efficient wireless network of sensors, switches and actuator outputs by EnOcean this project intends to provide a connected framework which can be remotely controlled using a mobile phone or using an internet gateway. The presence detection of the user would be a trigger to switch off all the electrical loads in the house, hence one need not worry if the user has left the geyser running or motor running or the tube-light on.

Using Raspberry Pi and EnOcean Pi & Sensors Kit as main components and Tektronix TBS1202B EDU DSO as main hardware debugging TMI, I will develop IoT Based Home Automation solution for answer following nagging questions when you are away from your home...

1. Do I have any visitor at my home? Who...?
2. Do I have new mail in my mail box?
3. Do I have any emergency at my Home? Like, is there fire or gas Leakage at my home?
4. Did I leave the door unlocked?
5. Did I water the plants?
6. Did I leave the iron on?

My proposal is to use the EnOcean Pi together with the EnOcean STM400J. The STM400J through the use of a non-contact device such as a current transformer or a hall effect sensor would measure the power going into the clothes washer. As you start a cycle valves open and close and the motor runs. These actions draw power and can be monitored as spikes and pulse via the current sensor and used as interrupts to indicate the clothes washing is still in progress. Once no more cycles are in effect and a predefined dwell time has ensued with no activity, the EnOcean Pi could notify the user that the laundry needs to be swapped over to the clothes dryer or hung out to dry.

I'd like to demonstrate the required elements and add amusing articulation such as on demand mood music, lighting and useful physical functions.

Such a system is complex and contains many main elements. The immediate elements that come to mind are:

• Master time service
• Master secure database storage service to house historical information.
• Scheduling service
• Reactivity/ response services
• Alerting services
• Data validation service

All with the necessary stability, reliability and resilience and security.

My proposal is to develop an open source, low cost, home automation hardware platform. This complements the existing (and much supported) software platforms out there and it could be really useful for a lot of people that do not have the means to afford a proprietary system. This platform needs to fulfil several criteria:

• Easy to Build
• Easy to Implement
• Easy to Maintain
• Open-Source
• Modularized
• Affordable

My initial build will consist of:

• Plant monitor (moisture, temp, and light levels) Koubachi - Wi-Fi Plant Sensor I would prefer to build my own however.
• Fish Tank (Lighting left on too long, water level, auto fish feeder)
• Room monitors (Unwanted entry, doors left open or closed, temperature, and lighting control) both with notifications being sent and lights being off when away.
• Media Center (automatically control lighting while playing movies, explore Raspbmc, Openelec and interfacing with OpenHab) This is completely unexplored as far as I can see. A BOBLIGHT would be a great addition to my entertainment center.
• Cat / Dog (feeder, water, monitor levels, auto feed, control room environment if the pet is in, lock the pet door if needed)

The project I propose is a 4-in-1 device that can report whether -

• You forgot to switch off the gas stove or any other heat-producing appliance.
• You forgot to water the plant.
• You forgot to lower the blinds

Also, you can have a real-time view of the house.

My plan is to start by making a open source Python-library for the EnOcean modules. This will greatly enhance the usage of devices for enthusiasts, providing a simple API to base programs on. Python is the “go-to” language for Raspberry Pi and this library would provide enthusiasts with the tools they need for using EnOcean Pi. As I have been coding Python for the past 5-8 years, this shouldn't pose any problems. I have made "wrappers" for C-libraries also in Python, so if this is needed, it shouldn't pose any issues.

This Python example would also include an example code for a web control, probably with Django, providing a REST API for Internet of Things.

A modern security system should be affordable, easy to install, flexible, and provide instant feedback to the home owner if suspicious activity is detected. I believe the Raspberry Pi along with Enocean Pi and OpenHAB provide an excellent platform to build such a system and I plan to use this challenge to prove it.

I would like to use the EnOcean reed switch sensors to monitor the most important (if not all) windows in our house to detect which ones are open (so I would use the budget to buy a whole lot of them). Two features are important for me: first, they are wireless so no cables are needed. Second, they run with energy harvesting, so I never have to change batteries another bonus point. So they are what is needed to equip a whole house with sensors.

The nagging questions that I will try to answer with my project are:

• Did I leave the curtain open or closed?
• Did I leave the washing machine active or not?
• Did I leave the basement door open or close?
• What are the temps near my windows?

We live in a 100+ year old Victorian house in NJ. We made some major improvements and upgrades to our home over the last 20 years in an effort to try make it more comfortable, more functional, and most importantly more energy efficient. These upgrades have included electrical, lighting, plumbing, heating, cooling, and home entertainment systems. All these systems are separate and controlled individually. The Eclipse SmartHome and openHAB design philosophy really resonates with me by allowing me to integrate many different sensor and control systems together on my local network. This approach alleviates the complexities of having to work with different sensors and controls across different cloud networks or having to deal with sensor failures when my WAN goes down.

My proposal is about building a home automation system that is super simple to use and powerful to expand. By super simple to use, I mean that even a non-technically oriented person should be able to operate, if not setup, the system. I have a seen a few home automation systems, but I can't recommend any of those to my Mom and Dad who just started to learn how to use computers. I wanted to build a system for them, which they will be able to operate with the easiness of how they use their phones.

There are a lot of mini tasks that everyone performs everyday in the house and with time the regular tasks become a part of our routine and we seldom forget them. It is the not so regular tasks that get us. The tasks that we rush through. A good example was locking the door when you leave the house. There are multiple options to solving such a problem like using a "key only door lock" or even an electronic lock

I would like to spread the word on the great potential of using OpenHAB, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino to create inexpensive wireless sensors and home automation systems that are both practical and awesome. This will also be my first exposure to Enocean products, so I will be using the budget to try to simplify my home automation projects with wireless EnOcean sensors.

The objective of my Road Test tutorials will be to show off a flexible wireless Arduino-OpenHAB integration scheme as well as show how Enocean products can be used to simplify projects.

The hardest thing to arrange is for someone to look after our cats. Even though Belgium is a small country, we live far away from our family members. So even if they can look after our cats, they will only check on them every couple of days rather than every single day. That usually means filling both food and water bowls to the top, to bridge the gap until the next visit.

But what if the cats decide to eat everything the first day ? It would not only be bad for them to eat that much at once, but they would remain without food for the coming days.

The "IoT Pet Care System” and “Master Switch” are meant to solve both issues.

I want to tie the whole system with your smartphone, you leave your home and your phone pings the system, and asks "Hey, have I forgot anything?" the Raspberry Pi queries the EnOcean and other sensors and checks out everything on their "checklists" and reports back to the smart phone with a Yay or Nay along with a report of the status of the house. If the response is "Nay" the system stops right there. If the response is "Yay" then the smartphone will notify the user with a message along the lines of "Hey, have you have forgotten to turn the heating off?”

The system will be an expandable collection of sensors and control modules to provide remote status information about a home and permit remote control of appropriate subsystems.

The initial set of features that will be implemented for this challenge include a smart mailbox, a smart doorbell, a smart door lock, a smart window and a smart coffee maker.

My proposed monitoring and automation system has three major components:

1. Air Conditioning
2. Plant Watering
3. Medication Reminder