A Review on Brain-Controlled Home Automation

A "smart home" employs ambient intelligence to keep tabs on things around the house so that the owner may get services tailored to their specific needs and control their home appliances from afar. Home automation for the elderly and handicapped focuses on enabling older persons and those with disabilities to live safely and comfortably at home. Additionally, the integration of this technology with a brain-computer interface (BCI) is perhaps of tremendous usefulness to those who are either old or disabled. These BCI-based brain-controlled home automation (BCHA) systems have emerged as a viable option for people with neuro disorders to remain in their homes rather than move to assisted living facilities. To summarize, BCI-based BCHA for the elderly and handicapped people is transforming people's lives every day. Most individuals prefer a simple approach to save time and effort. Automating the house is the simplest way for individuals to save time and effort. The brain-computer interface, often known as a BCI, is an innovative method of human-computer connection that does not rely on conventional output channels (muscle tissue and peripheral nerve). Over the course of the last three decades, it has attracted the attention of industry experts and developed into a thriving centre for research. Brain-controlled home automation (BCHA), as a typical BCI application, may provide physically challenged people with a new communication route with the outside world. However, the primary challenge that BCHA faces is to rapidly decipher multi-degree-of-freedom control instructions extracted from an electroencephalogram (EEG). The BCHA's research has made significant headway in a short amount of time during the last fifteen years. This study investigates the BCHA from several viewpoints, including the pattern of instructions for the control system, the type of signal acquisition, and the operational mechanism of the control system itself. This paper a concise description of the building blocks of smart homes and how they may be used to construct BCI-controlled home automation to assist disabled individuals. It is a compilation of information pertaining to communication protocols, multimedia devices, sensors, and systems that are often used in the process of putting smart homes into action. A comprehensive strategy for developing a functional and sustainable BCI-controlled home automation system is laid out in this paper as well, which could be useful to researchers in the future

Scenario-based techno-economic analysis of digital homes

Kotitalouksien laitemäärät kasvavat ja kodit muuttuvat vähitellen digitaalisiksi. Uusissa laitteissa on yhä useammin mahdollisuus verkkokäyttöön yhdessä muiden laitteiden kanssa. Laitteiden lukumäärän kasvaessa niiden hallinta ja yhteensovitus kuitenkin monimutkaistuu ja vain harvat suoriutuvat näistä vaativista tehtävistä. Monet joutuvat turvautumaan ulkopuoliseen apuun. Tässä diplomityössä pyritään arvioimaan keskivertokodin kautta Suomen digitaalisten kotien markkinoita sekä tietoliikenneoperaattoreiden roolia näillä markkinoilla. Kirjallisuustutkimuksen ja asiantuntijahaastattelujen perusteella laadittiin arviot laitteiden hankinta- ja ylläpitokustannuksista digitaalisten kotien kasvun arvioimiseksi. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin neljää erilaista jo aiemmin määriteltyä skenaariota kuvaamaan markkinoiden mahdollisia kehityssuuntia; paikallisesti keskittynyt, globaalisti keskittynyt, globaalit spesialistit ja paikalliset huoltomiehet sekä tee-se-itse-skenaario. Tutkimuksen tulokset viittaavat siihen, että mullistavaa yhtäkkistä muutosta kulutustavoissa ja sitä kautta digitaalisten kotien markkinoiden kasvussa ei ole odotettavissa seuraavan viiden vuoden aikana. Digitaalisiin laitteisiin ja palveluihin käytettävä raha puolestaan kuitenkin kasvaa, kun perinteiset hyödykkeet digitalisoituvat. Digitaalisten kotien markkinat jatkavat kasvuaan ja ne tulevat todennäköisesti olemaan kombinaatio kahdesta tai useammasta tässä työssä käytetystä skenaariosta. Tutkimuksen aikana löytyi myös puutteita käytetyistä skenaarioista, jotka piti ottaa huomioon tässä työssä.Households are slowly turning into digital homes as consumers are filling up their homes with a vast number of digital devices. As the number of devices grows, management of the devices and their interoperability is becoming increasingly complex so that only tech enthusiasts are able to handle the task. For many, the installation and maintenance of the devices is often too difficult to take care of by themselves and outside help is required. By assessing an average Finnish household, this thesis aims to evaluate the digital home market of Finland and the possible roles of telecom operators in the market. The costs of purchasing and maintaining the devices were estimated to predict the possible growth of the market based on literature analysis and expert interviews. Four predefined scenarios were used for the analysis to depict the potential development paths of digital homes: the locally centralized, the globally centralized, the global specialists and local janitors, and the do-it-yourself-scenario. The results of the study indicate that a sudden change in consumption habits and thus the overall growth of the digital home market is unlikely during the next five years. However, as the amount of money spent on digital homes is expected to increase due to the digitalization of more traditional services, the number of devices in an average household most likely keeps steadily growing and the entire market along with it. The digital home market will most likely be a combination of two or more of the scenarios and their attributes. During the analysis also some deficiencies were found in the scenarios used and had to be taken into consideration in this thesis

Análise tecno-económica das casas digitais

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesA presença de equipamentos digitais nas habitações tem vindo a crescer gradualmente. As casas estão a digitalizar-se! Com este crescimento contínuo, cresce também a complexidade da sua gestão e interoperabilidade de tal forma que apenas os utilizadores entusiastas são capazes de lidar com esta tarefa. A instalação e configuração dos equipamentos é frequentemente difícil de ser efectuada pelos próprios utilizadores, surgindo assim a necessidade de ajuda externa. Analisando aquilo que se imagina poder vir a ser habitação típica portuguesa num horizonte de 5 anos, esta dissertação tem como objectivo avaliar o mercado de casa digital de Portugal e os possíveis papéis dos possíveis actores desse mercado. A evolução temporal dos custos de aquisição e operação dos equipamentos foram estimados para prever o possível crescimento do mercado, tendo por base alguma literatura existente. Foram estudados cenários de potenciais caminhos para a evolução do mercado da casa digital, considerando duas hipóteses: globalmente centralizado e do-it-yourself (o próprio utilizador), e os respectivos resultados são comparados. Com este trabalho procurou adquirir-se uma melhor compreensão dos factores que podem condicionar o desenvolvimento do mercado da casa digital e do seu peso relativo.The presence of digital devices in houses has been gradually increasing. The houses are getting digital. Along with this continual growth, also the complexity of its management and the interoperability increase, in such a way that only the enthusiastic users are able to handle this task. The installation and configuration of the equipment is usually difficult to be performed by the users themselves, thus resulting in the need for outside help. Analysing what one might think to be a typical Portuguese house within 5 years, this dissertation aims to assess the market of digital home of Portugal and the possible roles of eventual performers in this market. The temporal evolution of acquisition costs and operation of equipment were estimated to predict the possible growth of the market, based on some literature. Scenarios of potential paths for the evolution of digital home market were studied, considering two cases: globally centralised and do-it-yourself (the user himself), and the results are compared. This work aimed to gain a better understanding of factors that may influence the development of the digital home market and its relative weight