CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

The aim of this project is to develop a device which control home appliances via human
voice.
Home automated system is characterized by the ability of the system to perform tasks to
initiate or control appliances or devices in home. Nowadays, the appliance that available in the
market is getting increase as days passed. Thus, the controlling of such devices is getting more
and more attention. From long time ago mostly the controlling is done manually such as walking
to the switch and switching it on. But as time passed the arrival or remote control that give the
user alternative way to control such appliance without the need for the user to walk to the
appliance. There are some more advancement in the controlling method that been on research.
The advancement mention is using of the voice to act as the controlling medium to initiate or to
control the appliance. Taking example such as a security door is only can be activated with the
voice of the authorized personal only if then the door will be unlocked. In this project, the voice
is also used as the medium to perform the controlling of the electrical appliance in home. The
same concept applies in this project compare to the security door where the different is the
electrical appliance controlled.
This project will enable the user to control the electrical appliance in home using their
voice as the medium that will control the power system. This project also aim to allow not only
the user that have train the system with their voice to control the system but it extend to the other
user who also can use the system without do the training process again.
For example, it can includes centralized control of appliances like television, lightings,
security lock of gates and doors, fans, air conditioners, etc. The challenging part lies in simplicity
and cost of installing them in home and varies with increasing number of services to be
monitored and controlled.

Statement of the Problem

The general problem of this study is: How to save time and utilize the energy efficiently
to make our work easier and faster through controlling and monitoring appliances by using our
voice to act as the controlling medium?
Specifically this study sought answers to the following questions:
1. Are you generally interested in technological products?
2. Do you trust this kind of products?
3. Would you be interested in automating your home?
4. Why would you like to automate your home?
o For its convenience, to save time
o For security reason
o I like technological gadgets
o To save money (energy saving)
 5. What is the level of acceptability of the system in terms of the following criteria?
5.1 Functionality;
5.2 Reliability;
5.3 Efficiency;
5.4 Maintainability and
5.5 Portability?

Significance of the Study

Today, automation technology is gaining more recognition among the people not just for
home modification but in industrial and business sector too. Home automation technology is
constantly improving its flexibility by incorporating modernized features to satisfy the increasing
demand of the people. We live in a time unlike any other. With so many technological
advancements at our voices, our lives are made easier, which fortunate is considering the fast-
paced lives most of us lead.

Equipments and other electric powered gadgets, such as home appliances are all instantly
controlled and monitored and people do not need to have a hand on it.

These are many factors that are responsible for home automation’s growing importance.
Some important benefits of home automation are listed below:

a. Easy to use: You can operate and access the automation technology with ease due to its
simple procedures that are easy to learn and implement. Centralized control system is
used to control the overall operations of different equipment, which ultimately reduces
your burden and allows you to operate the devices with your voice.

b. Improves the security features: One of the important uses of home automation technology
is that its ability to enhance the security features of the home without demanding a huge
home renovation.

c. Safe: Automation systems are installed carefully and are integrated under one centralized
control unit, which ultimate secures the people.

Scope and Delimitation

In order to achieve the objective of this project, there are several scope had been
identified. The scope of this project includes the designing of a voice recognition circuit for the
voice recognition purpose.

This project aims at designing a prototype for controlling the home appliances that can be
controlled wirelessly via an application that provides the features of speech recognition, video
streaming, and switch mode. An application is run on android device. The system can be used in
wide range of areas. The system integrated with different features can be applied in the following
fields.

 The system can be used in home, small offices to the big malls
The system can be used from home to offices to control the electrical appliances.

 For remote access of appliances in internet or intranet

The home/office appliances can be controlled in intra-network or can be accessed via
internet.

 For the development of technology friendly environment

The system incorporates the use of technology and making smart home automation. By
the use of day to day gadgets we can utilize them for different prospective.

Android devices having lower API version than 16 requires internet access to convert the
speech data to string data. Currently, the application is made for Android Smart Phones; other
OS platform doesn’t support our application. During voice mode, external noises (voice) may
affect our result. The speech instruction that we command in our voice mode may not give exact
result as expected.