1. WHAT MEANS " DOMOTICS " ?
Domotics represents a technological science which studies all the things employed in the houses or the buildings facilitating the work of peoples and increasing the comfort in their environment.
The term DOMOTICS is a contraction of the words:
DOMUS (lat.= home or house) and
INFORMATICS (=the science concerned with the collection, transmission, storage, processing and display of information).
Domotics will become of importance to any application in the domestic environment where electricity and electronics are involved and also on recent developments such as: tele-shopping, tele-banking, tele-working, remote control of household and utilities in house, and tele-metering.
All these new evolutions will also have influence on social live improving the "quality of life" for all the peoples, including peoples with disabilities or sick peoples too.
Elements of a domotic system
Domotics come to reach three targets:
- More comfort
- Higher convenience
- Better peace of mind.
Often the researchers and engineers from this domain, try to define an ideal solution for all the requirements that contribute at the target above mentioned. They use the term “Dream House” for an ideal domotic system, which could present features, presented bellow:
- Would be an integrator system of all the component systems existing in house, such as: Lighting system, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), Security and Access System, Audio-Video and entertainment systems, and the Motorized systems.
- The lighting system would offer an optimal illumination of rooms adequate with their destination. Must be a system, which will feel the presence of the people in the rooms and will order automatically commutation on/off of bulbs.
- Lighting control systems can be controlled without having to reach or push small toggle switches on the wall.
- The security of seeing and talking to the person at the door or gate before opening it.
- Electronic door locks can provide security as well as the ability to lock the building or allow emergency access with one command.
- The HVAC system will save energy by controlling automatically the inside air parameters by knowing when you are home adjusting it accordingly.
- The media room where the family can spend time together in a less formal entertainment setting. The primary difference between dedicated home theaters, and media rooms/entertainment centers is our ability to control the environment
- Voice recognition will provide the ability to control systems without having to press buttons or touch screens.
- Motorized door and windows and blind windows openers allow ventilation and access.
- Motorized window treatments can automatically open and close to allow sunlight and privacy as needed.
- Driveway ice melting systems can be automated to provide ice-free driveways and walks without shoveling.
- Remote vehicle starters provide a warm vehicle in the colder climates, and can open doors and ramps if the vehicle is so equipped.
2. WHICH ARE THE STRETCHES OF AUTOMATION'S IN HOUSE ?
A home automation system automates your whole house, triggering events and routines involving light fixtures, security components and the heating/cooling system based on the time of day, temperature or any other condition that you select.
As an example, when a sensor of presence detects a vehicle, it can recognize it by using specific codes, and your automation system could open your door automatically.
A DOMOTIC system controls a collection of sub-systems. A sub-system is a system that —even when operating by it— provides benefits to a homeowner. Common sub-systems include lighting, security and access, audio-video and entertainment, HVAC systems, household appliances, as well as devices like motorized drapes.
A home automation system puts under control of a central controller all or the majority of systems above mentioned.
The controlled sub-systems or elements that are controlled centralized we mention: the light systems, the temperature and humidity in house, the ventilation system, the power generation system, if it exist in house or around, the video-audio and entrainment systems, the communication systems existing in house, such as: fix phone and mobile phone, the TV/news cable system, the satellite antenna, the computers that can assure the Internet link, the voice controlled systems and the access and security systems.
Some important facilities are generated by the integration of house systems:
- An integrated control system can provide very simple one touch control of all systems in your home or office.
- An automatic and integrated system can easy implement optimal strategies and control for a lot of devices and parameters in house.
- The aesthetics of your home.
- Remote location control and automated control. With an integrated control system you can call your house from any touch-tone or cellular telephone anywhere in the world, enter a simple pass code and your home will be ready for you to relax in when you arrive.
- Safety and security. Providing control over indoor and outdoor lighting and control gate access, as well as other key systems, can prevent injuries, as well as making them secured areas.
- Energy conservation and environmental controls. An integrated control system can both save energy and wear on these systems by detecting when areas of the home are vacant, and reduce the environmental control effort needed in those areas.
Home appliances are becoming ever more sophisticated, and increasing numbers of devices can be controlled across a home network. Automatic curtains, security systems and integrated, distributed audio/visual systems are already available and can be controlled from a "master controller" such as a home computer or dedicated remote control.
However, these interfaces are not a radical improvement on existing home-control devices (e.g. a TV remote control) and may be more complicated to use since they control many devices.
The smart home of the future could be a place where all your computing and entertainment components and appliances connect to a single network and integrate seamlessly to provide applications and services.
Home Automation has been evolving as technologies converge and new communication, interoperability and wiring standards are implemented. Home Automation involves the management and operation of smart appliances, devices and systems in a Home Network, and the application of converging technologies in a Home Network.
A home network has also evolved beyond the connection and communication between computers to mean the connection and communication between all appliances, devices, and systems in a home. This extension of the home networking term is possible since control and status information can be sent along the power line or other structured wiring of the home (including audio/video and IR) and even through wireless means. This implies that the wiring and communication infrastructure in the home is included with the term home network.
A voice interface allows users, including the elderly and disabled, to exploit the benefits of sophisticated devices in a networked and programmable home. Once we have spoken dialogue-based control of devices from within the home, remote control via the telephone is a natural extension.
We can phone up the house to ask if we have left the oven on, and then ask the house to turn it off. Spoken dialogue is just as well suited for interactions initiated by the user and by the house: it may be as important for the devices to contact us (e.g. the burglar alarm) as vice versa.
It is possible to have a network of intelligent devices, which are controlled by a central dialogue manager, which contains speech capabilities. Alternatively, each device in the home could have its own on-board speech technology. A third approach would be some hybrid of the two in which speech resources on some devices are shared across the network.
Using smart devices in house that are interconnected by network, the resources of house can be remotely controlled can be shared between applications. The embedded software of home appliance system can be updated over the Internet without needing any physical change to the appliance.
Ideally stand-alone, dedicated, and robust devices, residential gateways make it possible for different home devices to talk to and share information with each other at the same time. So whether one, two, or several people in the house are using your broadband connection to trade stocks, play games, or watch videos, everyone can experience a faster, more secure, and more reliable connection.
The devices interconnected through the network could be controlled simultaneously from a single centre. Additional advantages can be detected, such as: uniform interfaces for all the devices present in house, many of them could be friendly interfaces, like as: voice recognition interface, or video interfaces.