A Real time electricity usage monitoring system using smart meters for wastage detection in Kenya

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) at Strathmore UniversityElectricity utilities face dual challenges of generation and distribution. While many utilities are now migrating their operations into modern digitized platforms, most of these utilities have had to rely on old systems to carry out and monitor their commercial activities such as connectivity activity, itinerary scheduling, meter and device management, cycle billing, collections management and management reporting. This is causing utilities to reimagine customer engagements with a focus on feedback, put in place loss detection systems in their grids, use predictive models to schedule maintenance and other asset-management activities, equipping field workers with mobile devices that let them access technical instructions while in the field and deploy customized systems to help manage the extending networks. The main focus of this study was to design a real time electricity usage detection system using smart meters in Kenya, a system that would aid utility companies in providing real time feedback for service provision and anomaly detection. This research was done using smart meters to remotely record usage and record those messages manually into a web based portal. While it was not possible to replace existing old meters with the smart meters, the study made use of a test kit to simulate power consumption and usage recording. This study has put in place a model system that can be remotely connected to a smart meter and feedback generated in real tim

Interacting with Smart Environments: Users, Interfaces, and Devices

A Smart Environment is an environment enriched with disappearing devices, acting together to form an “intelligent entity”. In such environments, the computing power pervades the space where the user lives, so it becomes particularly important to investigate the user’s perspective in interacting with her surrounding. Interaction, in fact, occurs when a human performs some kind of activity using any computing technology: in this case, the computing technology has an intelligence of its own and can potentially be everywhere. There is no well-defined interaction situation or context, and interaction can happen casually or accidentally. The objective of this dissertation is to improve the interaction between such complex and different entities: the human and the Smart Environment. To reach this goal, this thesis presents four different and innovative approaches to address some of the identified key challenges. Such approaches, then, are validated with four corresponding software solutions, integrated with a Smart Environment, that I have developed and tested with end-users. Taken together, the proposed solutions enable a better interaction between diverse users and their intelligent environments, provide a solid set of requirements, and can serve as a baseline for further investigation on this emerging topic

Perspectives and approaches for the internet of things

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresThis thesis was developed based on a scenario in which a CEO of a certain company asked the author to conduct an exploratory work evaluating the potential opportunities and limitations of this emerging area described as the future of the Internet, the Internet of Things (IoT). The objective is thus to provide the reader with a wide view of the vital points for the implementation and exploitation of the IoT, a technology that promises to deliver a new and wider range of applications to the society. In this subject there is a need to gather and organize information produced by several researchers and contributors. Due to the fact of being a new area and researchers work independently of each other, the work is scattered and inconsistencies can be found among different projects and publications. As such, in a first stage some definitions are provided and an attempt to clarify concepts is made. To support and emphasize the exponential growth of IoT, a brief historical overview is provided to the reader. This overview is based on the new trends and expectations that arise every day through news, potential businesses and also in important tools such as Google Trends. Several examples of applications in the context of the IoT, illustrate the benefits, not only in terms of society, but also for business opportunities, safety, and well-being. The main areas of interest to achieve the IoT such as: hardware, software, modeling, methods of connection, security and integration are studied in this work, in order to provide some insight into current strong and weak points. As the Internet of Things become a matter of large interest, various research groups are active in exploring and organizing projects in this area. Some of these projects, namely the ones considered the most important, are also presented in this thesis. Taking into account the facts surrounding this new technology, it becomes quite important to bring them together, clarifying them and trying to open new perspectives for further studies and improvements. Finally, in order to allow a practical evaluation of the technology, a prototype is developed around the connection of an intelligent object – a small mobile robot – to the Internet. A set of conclusions and future work directions are then presented which take into account the findings of the bibliographic analysis as well as the acquired experience with the implementation of the prototype

Development of an internet of things based customer water-meter reading system at Arusha city

Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyWater management is a fundamental factor that helps to make sure that water is available and well utilized. Meter reading process is required by Arusha Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (AUWSA) so as to be able to bill the clients according to their water usage. Currently, the process of meter reading is manual which require at the end of each month, meter reading officials from AUWSA have to read all the meters in Arusha, the process which cost AUWSA time and financial resources. The objective of this project was therefore, to develop an IoT based customer water meter system where meter readings can be automated and the readings sent to the cloud. The AUWSA then receives the readings on a weekly basis and can continue with reading verification and billing. The Method used on the development of this system is a Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM) which is one of the methods in Agile methodology. The system is recommended to solve the existing challenges of reading of water meters and improve customer satisfaction in water service and management. Preliminary results of the prototype testing indicate that the system would send readings data to the server as well as the nodes receiving the instructions from the server. The developed prototype would also send weekly messages to customers about their weekly usage. This communication allows any billing issues to be resolved timely. Also, the system would highlight the readings which are doubtful for example zero readings for easily notification and verification

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

The survey on Near Field Communication

PubMed ID: 26057043Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging short-range wireless communication technology that offers great and varied promise in services such as payment, ticketing, gaming, crowd sourcing, voting, navigation, and many others. NFC technology enables the integration of services from a wide range of applications into one single smartphone. NFC technology has emerged recently, and consequently not much academic data are available yet, although the number of academic research studies carried out in the past two years has already surpassed the total number of the prior works combined. This paper presents the concept of NFC technology in a holistic approach from different perspectives, including hardware improvement and optimization, communication essentials and standards, applications, secure elements, privacy and security, usability analysis, and ecosystem and business issues. Further research opportunities in terms of the academic and business points of view are also explored and discussed at the end of each section. This comprehensive survey will be a valuable guide for researchers and academicians, as well as for business in the NFC technology and ecosystem.Publisher's Versio

Security Frameworks for Machine-to-Machine Devices and Networks

Attacks against mobile systems have escalated over the past decade. There have been increases of fraud, platform attacks, and malware. The Internet of Things (IoT) offers a new attack vector for Cybercriminals. M2M contributes to the growing number of devices that use wireless systems for Internet connection. As new applications and platforms are created, old vulnerabilities are transferred to next-generation systems. There is a research gap that exists between the current approaches for security framework development and the understanding of how these new technologies are different and how they are similar. This gap exists because system designers, security architects, and users are not fully aware of security risks and how next-generation devices can jeopardize safety and personal privacy. Current techniques, for developing security requirements, do not adequately consider the use of new technologies, and this weakens countermeasure implementations. These techniques rely on security frameworks for requirements development. These frameworks lack a method for identifying next generation security concerns and processes for comparing, contrasting and evaluating non-human device security protections. This research presents a solution for this problem by offering a novel security framework that is focused on the study of the “functions and capabilities” of M2M devices and improves the systems development life cycle for the overall IoT ecosystem

The Experimental Application of an Occupant Tracking Technology in Domestic Post-Occupancy Evaluation

From 1971 to 2004, the UK population increased by 6.5% to 59.8 million while the number of homes increased by 30% to 24.2 million. Despite this growth, the industry is still accused of delivering homes that are overly expensive, environmentally unsustainable and deficient in number. The wish of the Government is that by 2016 the number of annual new additions in England will have increased by a third to 200,000, though there is little planned to assess how they meet the changing lifestyle needs of consumers. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has proposed that post-occupancy evaluation (POE) should be regarded as the preferred means of assessment; though a standard approach has yet to be developed for housing. Parallel to this, consumer surveys, including those carried out in this thesis, consistently report that 70% or more of buyers would pay more for an energy efficient home, which is generally regarded as one of the most important characteristics of a good home. However, the vast majority of existing homeowners are unable or unwilling to pay for the modifications that their homes require. In this thesis the connection is made that POE is also the most appropriate tool to investigate whether the supposed roader benefits of sustainability, such as improved comfort, lifestyle and energy security, can be evidenced in a quantifiable way so that they could be promoted to motivate homeowners to collectively improve the performance of the sector. The efficiency of space use is emerging as an aspect of sustainability of special importance, and the density of new developments increased from 25 to 40 homes per hectare in the years 1997 to 2004. The culmination of this thesis is therefore a substantial experiment undertaken to inform interior layout designers, whereby the daily movements of a household of 4 were remotely tracked using a radio frequency identification (RFID) system. This application of RFID for space use POE was a novel one, and the data was collected in a more discreet and objective way than is possible using the preferred sociology techniques of interviews or ethnography. Although some technical concerns developed during the experiment, an estimated 94% of the desired data was accurately collected. The demonstrated conclusion was that recognisable patterns within the tracking data are insightful and can assist house designers to arrange spaces more effectively. Also that tracking systems could affect building energy efficiency directly if comfort heating, cooling and lighting are targeted to only those areas that are known to be occupied by a building management system. These conclusions were then expanded upon by a survey that demonstrated how a portfolio of household behaviours could be beneficial as a tool for designing efficient and sustainable interior spaces in the future

Smart Monitoring and Control in the Future Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) and related technologies have the promise of realizing pervasive and smart applications which, in turn, have the potential of improving the quality of life of people living in a connected world. According to the IoT vision, all things can cooperate amongst themselves and be managed from anywhere via the Internet, allowing tight integration between the physical and cyber worlds and thus improving efficiency, promoting usability, and opening up new application opportunities. Nowadays, IoT technologies have successfully been exploited in several domains, providing both social and economic benefits. The realization of the full potential of the next generation of the Internet of Things still needs further research efforts concerning, for instance, the identification of new architectures, methodologies, and infrastructures dealing with distributed and decentralized IoT systems; the integration of IoT with cognitive and social capabilities; the enhancement of the sensing–analysis–control cycle; the integration of consciousness and awareness in IoT environments; and the design of new algorithms and techniques for managing IoT big data. This Special Issue is devoted to advancements in technologies, methodologies, and applications for IoT, together with emerging standards and research topics which would lead to realization of the future Internet of Things