Elements for developing

an integrated smart home

Definitions, tools & insight for integrated smart home solutions
 Smart lighting

Smart security

Building
tomorrow’s
smart home
today
Homes today are filling up with smart
devices that control everything from
lighting to appliances to home security. Smart appliances
However, these devices are often disparate, Smart devices
lacking the interconnectivity to provide
integrated smart home experiences.
There is a trend towards smart home as a
service (SHAAS) where a provider installs, Smart metering
manages, and supports an integrated set
of smart home devices. This is driven by
a demand for context-aware, intelligent,
and personalized experiences in the home.
Implementing a complete solution requires
the right connectivity, ease of management,
and intelligence at or near the edge.

This eBook outlines key considerations

and resources for developing integrated
smart home solutions.
Requirements & goals
Smart home devices and applications have unique requirements:
Personalized experiences facilitated by intelligence and automation.
Always-on and always-connected experiences allowing two-way
interactions between users and devices, anytime and from anywhere.
Power efficiency to avoid needless power drain, while allowing devices
to work during power outages or without hardwired connections. 1 0:1 0 AM 5G

Smart Home
Secure data that starts at the hardware level to maintain users'
privacy. A hardware root of trust, secure communication protocols,
and avoiding unnecessary communication with the cloud are basic
security elements that developers should embrace.
Ambient experiences that make the system simple to use. Devices
should provide intuitive user interfaces and work in the background
with little interference on day-to-day life.
72˚ F
Easy set-up and management giving SHAAS providers easy
installation tools and simple administration procedures.
1 3 4
Personalized experiences
The opportunities to incorporate personalized experiences and
intelligence at the edge in the smart home are virtually endless. Key use
cases include:
Facial recognition: Powered by mobile machine learning (ML)
frameworks, and combined with high-res cameras, facial recognition
can identify occupants in the house. Devices can then act accordingly
to allow entry or communicate the identity to other IoT devices.
Voice recognition: Powered by audio frameworks and hi-fidelity
microphones or existing personal assistants, voice recognition can
process voice commands at the edge and also provide a user interface
for personalized experiences.
Biometrics: Characteristics such as fingerprints, voice, iris, etc., provide
a rich set of information. Smart door locks can identify someone by their
fingerprint and provide access accordingly, while wearables can
monitor an occupant’s health and call for help through the smart
home’s telephony system.
Sensing: Sensors measuring everything from temperature to motion can
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development
https://developer.qualcomm.com/blog/making-sense-out-sensors-iot-development

control devices ranging from lights to thermostats. ML can also use sensor
data to learn users’ preferences and automatically control these devices.
Presence: Location technologies such as beacons, signal strength
triangulation, sensors, etc., can identify where occupants are in a home.
Using this information, systems can personalize lighting, sound, and
other experiences.
Smart home at a glance
Voice Commands: Voice
intentions (e.g. “warm the
Energy Management: Unlike a single energy measurement provided by a power meter, house” or “dim the lights”) that
smart IoT devices can provide more granular information about energy usage, and work allow the on-device artificial
together to help reduce energy consumption. intelligence (AI) to decide how
to fulfill these requests based
on past personal preferences
and trends.
Audio Video: Listen to
music or watch TV anytime,
anywhere via mobile Home Automation: Control
devices and other and monitor functionalities of
over-the-top media devices. the smart home through
two-way communications
between mobile devices and
Security: Let devices like
on-premise assistants.
cameras with facial
recognition or smart door
locks with fingerprint
detection provide checks
and balances for visitors.

Communications: Utilize an Environmental Control: Home Intelligence: A truly “smart”

IP-based phone system through Program thermostats to home can become self-sustaining. For
which voice and video calls can control temperature and example, a smart fridge can detect
be made with devices throughout humidity or smart bulbs when it’s out of milk, and automatically
the home. and shades. order more via a digital grocery list.
Connectivity
Reliable, ambient, and integrated smart home solutions require good
connectivity and the right kind of connectivity. Standards for wireless IoT
communications in a smart home include: Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi: Commonly used by consumer-oriented smart devices and allows
for TCP/IP-based connectivity through Wi-Fi routers found in most homes
today. For optimal coverage, a Wi-Fi mesh network is recommended.
Bluetooth: Traditionally used for peer-to-peer communications, Bluetooth 5G Bluetooth
“mesh” networks can cascade messages from one IoT device to the next.
This provides comprehensive coverage and the potential to segment
devices into zones.
Zigbee: A low-power, interoperable, and reliable wireless protocol
designed for mesh networks consisting of lower-powered devices. Zigbee
is commonly found in home automation products such as thermostats.
Thread: A simple, secure, and reliable protocol that can carry IPv6 data.
Designed for IoT devices, Thread allows devices to operate at extremely
Thread Zigbee
low power levels.
5G: Promising big changes to connectivity, its design includes many
smaller cellular stations to support low latency, reliable connectivity,
and optimized coverage. 5G and cellular can open the door to new
services and serve as a backup to a house’s wired Internet connection.
Given the number of standards and the lack of interconnectivity between
them, developers should focus on hub-based solutions that support multiple
connectivity options, along with devices and applications that integrate.
Developer considerations
Key considerations for developing integrated smart home devices and
applications include:
Power: Device may not be hardwired, especially when retrofitting them
into existing structures. Developers should build energy-efficient devices
and applications that can be powered by batteries for long periods.
Hubs and connectivity: True seamless smart home integration should
be built around a hub supporting multiple communication protocols.
Intelligence: Developers should utilize existing frameworks to
implement AI. AI allows for complex actions such as identifying users’
preferences and schedules, and contextual awareness such as
automatically balancing environmental settings or re-ordering supplies.
Security: Secure communications that limit how much information is
sent to the cloud, and protect users’ privacy.

Key developer resources

Qualcomm® Heterogeneous Compute SDK:
https://developer.qualcomm.com/software/heterogeneous-compute-sdk
programmatically select
https://developer.qualcomm.com/software/heterogeneous-compute-sdk
the optimal processors on devices based on Qualcomm® Snapdragon™
Mobile Platform.
https://developer.qualcomm.com/software/snapdragon-power-optimization-sdk
Qualcomm Power Optimization SDK: programmatically balance
®
https://developer.qualcomm.com/software/snapdragon-power-optimization-sdk
https://developer.qualcomm.com/software/snapdragon-power-optimization-sdk
performance and power consumption.
Qualcomm Home Hub Platforms: system-on-modules to build IoT
https://developer.qualcomm.com/vertical-platforms/home-hub-platforms
®
https://developer.qualcomm.com/vertical-platforms/home-hub-platforms
https://developer.qualcomm.com/vertical-platforms/home-hub-platforms
devices for the home.
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/vision-intelligence-400-platform
Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform:
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/vision-intelligence-400-platform
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/vision-intelligence-400-platform develop visual computing
login on edge devices.
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/smart-audio-platform
Qualcomm® Smart Audio Platform:
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/smart-audio-platform
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/smart-audio-platform develop smart, connected speakers.
TensorFlow, Caffe2, and ONNX: popular ML frameworks that are
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_tensorflow.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_tensorflow.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_tensorflow.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_tensorflow.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_tensorflow.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_tensorflow.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html
https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_caffe.html https://developer.qualcomm.com/docs/snpe/setup_onnx.html

supported by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. platforms.

Qualcomm Heterogeneous Compute SDK, Qualcomm Snapdragon, Qualcomm Power Optimization SDK, Qualcomm Home Hub
Platforms, Qualcomm Vision Intelligence Platform and Qualcomm Smart Audio Platform are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
and/or its subsidiaries.
Innovate together
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©2019 Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Other products or brand names may be
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