International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)

Volume 3 Issue 2 (March 2013)

Home Automation and Security System Using

Android ADK
Deepali Javale Mohd. Mohsin Shreerang Nandanwar Mayur Shingate
Assistant Professor Student Student Student
Dept. of Computer Engg Dept. of Computer Engg Dept. of Computer Engg Dept. of Computer Engg
MAEER's MITCOE MAEER's MITCOE MAEER's MITCOE MAEER's MITCOE
Pune, India Pune, India Pune, India Pune, India

Abstract—Today we are living in 21st century where itself, via telephone line, wireless transmission or the internet,
automation is playing important role in human life. Home to provide control and monitoring via a smart phone or web
automation allows us to control household appliances like browser. This paper will describe the approach which we are
light, door, fan, AC etc. It also provides home security and implementing to control various home appliances with Android
emergency system to be activated. Home automation not smart phone.
only refers to reduce human efforts but also energy
efficiency and time saving. The main objective of home II. LITERATURE SURVEY
automation and security is to help handicapped and old As per our survey currently there exists no system at cheaper
aged people which will enable them to control home rates. Various systems are hard to install, difficult to use and
appliances and alert them in critical situations. maintain. Current systems are generally proprietary and closed,
not very customizable by the end user.
This paper put forwards the design of home automation
and security system using Android ADK. The design is N. Sriskanthan [1] explained the model for home
based on a standalone embedded system board Android automation using bluetooth via PC. But unfortunately the
ADK(Accessory Development Kit) at home. Home system lacks to support mobile technology.
appliances are connected to the ADK and communication Muhammad Izhar Ramli [2] designed a prototype electrical
is established between the ADK and Android mobile device control system using Web. They also set the server with
device or tablet. The home appliances are connected to the auto restart if the server condition is currently down.
input/output ports of the embedded system board and
Hasan [5] has developed a telephone and PIC remote
their status is passed to the ADK. We would develop an controlled device for controlling the devices pin check
authentication to the system for authorized person to algorithm has been introduced where it was with cable network
access home appliances. The device with low cost and but not wireless communication.
scalable to less modification to the core is much important.
It presents the design and implementation of automation Pradeep G [4] proposed home automation system by using
system that can monitor and control home appliances via bluetooth which saves lot of power and time using mechanism
android phone or tablet. to save the preloaded list by not making it to setup connection
all the time when required.
Keywords-Home Automation and Security; Arduino; Al-Ali and Al-Rousan [3] presented a design and
Embedded Systems; Android ADK; Android phone; Tablet implementation of a Java-based automation system through
World Wide Web. It had a standalone embedded system board
I. INTRODUCTION integrated into a PC-based server at home.
Home automation is automation of the home, housework or Amul Jadhav [6] developed an application in a universal
household activity. Home automation may include centralized XML format which can be easily ported to any other mobile
control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air devices rather than targeting a single platform.
conditioning), appliances, and other systems, to provide
improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and
security. The concept of home automation has been around for
a long time and products have been on the market for decades,
though no one solution has broken through to the mainstream
yet. Home automation for the elderly and disabled can provide
increased quality of life for persons who might otherwise
require caregivers or institutional care. It can also provide a
remote interface to home appliances or the automation system

Figure 1.Home automation system block diagram by R. Piyare[8]

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International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 2 (March 2013)

status of a particular device. If user wishes, he can enable or

disable intended device.
The system is smart enough to activate alarm when smoke
is detected or it is programmed to auto on/off lights during late
night hours. If room temperature goes very high or low it can
automatically adjust fan/AC as per the temperature. It has voice
navigation which is specifically beneficial to blind people.

C. Android ADK
ADK stands for Accessory Development Kit. Android
accessory is a physical accessory that can be attached to your
Figure 2.Cell Phone GUI for controlling the home appliances by R Piyare[8] Android device. [12] These particular devices perform specific
actions. For USB accessories to be supported on a particular
R.Piyare [8] have introduced design and implementation of device, there must be support for the accessory-mode, a special
a low cost, flexible and wireless solution to the home means of connecting over the USB port. This allows data
automation. transfer between devices and external peripherals.
Jitendra R. [7] showed that with the ZigBee network how to
eliminate the complication of wiring in case of wired
automation. There is also considerable amount of power saving
possible, operating range is more than Bluetooth.
Google and Microsoft have recently entered the home
automation domain. At 2011 I/O conference, [9] Google
announced Android@Home. Google’s first standard for
Android devices to communicate with external hardware. The
Android Open Accessory Standard and the Accessory
Development Kit (ADK) is the key for communicating with
hardware and building external accessories for Android
devices. Android powers hundreds of millions of mobile
devices in more than 190 countries around the world. [10] It's Figure 3 Arduino Mega ADK
the largest installed base of any mobile platform and growing
fast every day another million users.
Microsoft is similarly working on a project called
HomeOS, [11] an operating system for the home.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

A. Android
For this home automation and security system we are
targeting Android platform since it has huge market and open
source. Android is a software stack for mobile devices that
includes an operating system, middleware and key
applications. The Android OS is based on Linux. Android
Applications are made in a Java-like language running on a
virtual machine called ‘Dalvik’ created by Google. The
Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin
developing applications on the Android platform using the Java Figure 4 Block Diagram of Home Automation and Security System using Android
ADK
programming language. Accessory mode is a feature of
Android OS since version 2.3.4 Gingerbread and 3.1 The Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK) is a
Honeycomb and above. reference implementation of an Android Open Accessory,
based on the Arduino [15] open source electronics prototyping
B. Software Design platform. The accessory's hardware design files are provided as
part of the kit to help hardware builders get started building
As discussed earlier we are developing Android
their own accessories.
application. The application consists of main function like
Light controlling, Door controlling, Smoke detection and The Arduino ADK [15] is a microcontroller board based on
Temperature sensing. When the application starts user is first the ATmega2560. It has a USB host interface to connect with
authenticated, if user is authorized he will be navigated to main Android based phones, based on the MAX3421e IC. The main
screen. The main screen has a list of all functions among which hardware and software components of the ADK include
user can select any one function which he want to control. ‘Arduino Mega ADK’, which was designed to work with
After selecting a function he would be able to see a current Android. The ‘Arduino Mega ADK’ board is a derivative of
the ‘Arduino Mega 2560’. The host chip allows any USB

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International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 2 (March 2013)

device to connect to the Arduino which we will later  Smoke detector can detect a fire or smoke condition,
implement as an Android USB accessory. The ADK board causing all lights in the house to blink to alert any person of
provides input and output pins that you can implement through the house to the possible emergency.
the use of attachments called "shields." With an Android  The system can call the home owner on their mobile phone
device and the ‘Mega ADK’, you can use whatever sensors and to alert them, or call the fire department or alarm
actuators you require to create your own accessories. This may monitoring company.
include a LED outputs, and temperature and light sensors.  In terms of lighting control, it is possible to save energy
when hours of wasted energy in both residential and
D. Android Open Accessory Protocol commercial applications by auto on/off light at night time
Android Open Accessory [13] support allows external USB in all major city office buildings, say after 10pm.
hardware (an Android USB accessory) to interact with an  Control and integration of security systems and also the
Android-powered device in a special accessory mode. When an potential for central locking of all perimeter doors and
Android-powered device is in accessory mode, the connected windows.
accessory acts as the USB host (powers the bus and enumerates  Security cameras can be controlled, allowing the user to
devices) and the Android-powered device acts in the USB observe activity around a house or business right from a
accessory role. Android Open Accessory Protocol, [14] allows Monitor or touch panel.
to detect Android-powered devices that support accessory  Security systems can include motion sensors that will detect
mode. Accessory mode is ultimately dependent on the device's any kind of unauthorized movement and notify the user
hardware and not all devices support accessory mode. through the security system or via cell phone.
 An intercom system allows communication via a
Android Open Accessory support is included in Android
microphone and loud speaker between multiple rooms.
3.1 (API Level 12) and higher, and supported through an Add-
On Library in Android 2.3.4 (API Level 10) and higher. VI. FUTURE WORK
Android 4.1 and higher has support for audio output over a
USB connection or Bluetooth An Android USB accessory must Looking at the current situation we can build cross platform
adhere to Android Accessory Protocol, which defines how an system that can be deployed on various platforms like iOS,
accessory detects and sets up communication with an Android- Windows. Limitation to control only several devices can be
powered device. [14] In general, an accessory should carry out removed by extending automation of all other home
the following steps: appliances. Security cameras can be controlled, allowing the
1. Wait for and detect connected devices user to observe activity around a house or business. Security
2. Determine the device's accessory mode support systems can include motion sensors that will detect any kind
3. Attempt to start the device in accessory mode if needed of unauthorized movement and notify the user. Scope of this
4. Establish communication with the device if it supports the project can be expanded to many areas by not restricting to
Android accessory protocol. only home. It will be flexible to support various wired as well
The Android Open Accessory Protocol 2.0 [16] adds two new as wireless technologies like Bluetooth, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, World
features: audio output (from the Android device to the Wide Web.
accessory) and support for the accessory acting as one or more VII. CONCLUSION
Human Interface Devices (HID) to the Android device.
This is an ongoing project. Our prime objective is to assist
IV. BLOCK DIAGRAM handicapped/old aged people. This paper gives basic idea of
how to control various home appliances and provide a security
Android Device - It is the device through which application
using Android phone/tab. This project is based on Android and
interacts with sensors.
Arduino platform both of which are FOSS(Free Open Source
USB Connector - It is the hardware port in the kit through Software). So the overall implementation cost is very cheap
which the USB device is attached to the embedded kit. and it is affordable by a common person. Looking at the
current scenario we have chosen Android platform so that most
Android Accessory Development Kit(ADK) - ADK allows of the people can get benefit.
Android Phone to act as USB Device where as the “Arduino-
Mega2560 ADK” will act as USB Host. This allows The design consists of Android phone with home automation
communication between Android Powered Devices (like application, Arduino Mega ADK. User can interact with the
phone, tablet) and external Hardware like industrial controls. android phone and send control signal to the Arduino ADK
Embedded Device - It consists of individual embedded kits which in turn will control other embedded devices/sensors.
along with respective sensors. We have discussed a simple prototype in this paper but in
future it can be expanded to many other areas.
V. APPLICATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Following are the applications of Home Automation and We acknowledge the efforts and hard work by the experts
Security System who have contributed towards development of the different
 Medical alert / teleassistance. home automation systems. We also acknowledge the efforts of
the reviewers of the journal for the suggestions and
 Precise and safe blind control.
modifications to improve the quality of the paper and to help
 Detection of fire, gas leaks and water leaks. prepare the camera-ready copy of our paper.

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International Journal of Electronics Communication and Computer Technology (IJECCT)
Volume 3 Issue 2 (March 2013)

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