The general Latin American population with a physical disability or limited mobility has faced the daily basis challenge of having autonomy in home activities, with low-income or almost no-income. Needy Brazilian communities are examples of poor populations suffering from the lack of autonomy at home, aggravated by scarce financial resources. The authors developed a low-cost home automation system, aiming to assist people who live in Palmeira dos Indios city and Arapiraca city, needy communities located in the Northeast of Brazil. The system is composed of hardware and software components. The hardware comprises of microcontrollers used to actuate over electrical devices at home, while an Android application provides a simple graphical user interface (GUI) to control the devices using touch and voice commands by Bluetooth communication. They evaluated the system by implementing a home model and providing the home for four physical disability persons and one limited mobility person. They considered the system`s effectiveness, the system`s usability, and users` perceptions during the evaluation.
TopIntroduction
The first attempts to apply control automation systems occurred in the United States of America, aiming to assist industrial processes. Since these first attempts, the scope of automation has been increased to cover different contexts, such as home activities (Vacher, Portet, Fleury & Noury 2011). In Latin America, home automation systems have evolved from simple three-way light switches in 1930, video home system in 1976, Internet connectivity and home theater in 1994, and light switches by remote control in 2000, to the integration of wireless devices in 2010 (Mourão, 2012). Nowadays, home automation systems have evolved to multifunctional mobile platforms (Liao, Wang, Tsao, Wang, Jhang, Chu, Tsao, Tsai, Chen, Chuang & Ger, 2019).
Developers of home automation systems use technology to provide some common tasks automatically, such as executing commands (e.g., turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors, irrigating the garden), increasing interior security, monitoring the home remotely, and bringing more convenience and autonomy. Some benefits include (Muratori & Dal Bo, 2017) valuation of the property, since it is an additional comfort for future residents; more security, by integrating alarm systems with home automation systems; and the reduction of energy consumption, e.g., by automatically switching off of lamps and household appliances.
Home automation systems are used not only to provide convenience for users but may also improve the quality of life of physical disability and limited mobility people (Morais, Sobrinho, Oliveira, Silva & Macedo, 2019). The automation can be implemented using, e.g., mobile technologies, sensors, and actuators, to enable these people to conduct daily activities that were before impossible or extremely difficult (Noury, Barralon, Vuillerme & Fleury, 2012).
Our proposed research provides a low-cost home automation system composed of an Android app and hardware controllers to actuate electrical devices. One of the main objectives is to evaluate the benefits and challenges of using the home automation system in needy Brazilian communities. Therefore, we implemented a model (small home) to conduct a case study on two needy Brazilian communities: Palmeira dos Índios city and Arapiraca city.
As an attempt to improve the quality of life of physical disability and limited mobility people, some mobile applications (apps) are available in the market to assist users to conduct home activities. For example, OpenHab (OpenHab, 2020) is a Java application (app) that combines different smart home systems and technologies to assist users. IFTTT (Ifttt, 2020) is an app (Android and IOS) used to integrate devices into a home environment. eWeLink (eWeLink) enables home automation by providing features of remote control.
In addition, Morais, Sobrinho, Oliveira, Silva & Macedo (2019) designed a home automation app using Android and integrated it with Arduino to assist limited mobility people to conduct simple home activities such as light switches. Only a prototype is presented to evaluate the design of the system. Similarly, Liao, Wang, Tsao, Wang, Jhang, Chu, Tsao, Tsai, Chen, Chuang & Ger (2019) present a low-cost system for smart home control and environmental monitoring. In this case, the authors implemented a prototype and conducted evaluations using a model home to validate the quality attributes of the system. Manda, Kushal & Ramasubramanian (2018) provide a cost-effective home automation system using the NXP LPC11U24 microcontroller unit and the global system for mobile communication technology. Kronbauer, Gomes & Campos (2018) developed a platform (universal remote control) to assist limited mobility people to conduct interactions with electronic devices at home. The authors evaluated the platform by conducting usability tests.
Up to this date, we were not able to identify studies focusing on home automation systems used by needy communities in the northeast of Brazil: Palmeira dos Indios city and Arapiraca city.