A Hybrid Approach to Control Home Area Networks

This paper aims to develop and to design a smart home system by using a Hybrid approach. This approach uses a combination of both Bluetooth and GSM, Sending by short message service (SMS) via global system for mobile communication (GSM modem) to access the devices. The concept of smart home is an emerging issue to the modern technology dependent society. Remote control technologies are widely used to control household electronic appliances without walking up to them. Controlling household appliances through computer can also be a possible solution. However, it cannot fulfil the current demand which is to control them from remote places. The system is activated when user sends the SMS to controller at home. Upon receiving the SMS command, the microcontroller unit then automatically controls the electrical home appliances by switching ON or OFF the device according to the user order. In other word, it read message from the mobile phone and response to control the devices according to the received message. The prototype has been successfully developed and it could provide an effective mechanism in controlling and accessing the devices.

Key words: Home Automation, User Interface, and Smart Home Accessibility.