Custom PCB Design 

Developed using the STM32L4 chipset, a custom PCB was designed to allow for low power consumption while still maintaining all its required capabilities.  Some of the things included on the board are a STM32L4 processor, an integrated micro SD card slot, and only required pins being pulled out.  A custom PCB for the central hub ensures full capabilities for the WIFI module, Bluetooth module, audio interfaces, and computation while getting rid of all unused components and pins. 

Audio Systems 

A speaker and microphone are common components included in many smart home systems.  For this project, the microphone is added so that a lightweight command detection algorithm can identify and parse spoken commands to increase the ease of use of this system.  The Speaker is also an important inclusion because it allows for system feedback (such as saying the command given was unclear) or playing music, and much more.  Finally, the micro SD that has been added to the custom PCB will allow for audio recording for various purposes.

WIFI and Bluetooth Capabilities

A smart home system wouldn't work without wireless capabilities, and the Bluetooth modules integrated into the central hub allows for two way communication with all peripheral devices.  Just as important is the WIFI module, which lets the central hub efficiently send all the data ingested from the peripheral devices up to the cloud.  It also is able to accept commands forwarded from the mobile app for full control over all smart devices. 

Smart Camera

Computer vision models can provide real-time contextual information from anywhere around your home.  Using a Haar Cascade facial detection model, bounding boxes are drawn over the video feed to show you when and where people appear in front of the camera.  This smart camera module connects to your WIFI, allowing it to stream the video feed up to the cloud where it can be viewed via the mobile app, giving you live surveillance of anywhere in or around your home.

Smart Lock

A home can be secured anytime with this smart lock module.  The Bluetooth capabilities of this module allow it to connect and communicate with the central hub so that the lock status of your doors are always accessible.  Additionally, it is capable of receiving commands from the mobile app that are routed to the lock module via the central hub, giving you full control of your door locks from anywhere anytime.

Smart Light

Smart lights can light up your home in a multitude of different colors at the click of a button.  After receiving commands channeled from the mobile app through the central hub, users can turn on the smart sunset lamp in their home.  The ease of use along with complete control from anywhere in your home makes this smart light integrate seamlessly into your smart home environment. 

Firebase Cloud

A smart home system benefits greatly from a cloud service backend, which is what we have implemented for this project.  Hosted using the Firebase Cloud platform, we have a database used to ingest and store data received from various peripheral devices so that all information is centralized.  In addition, the cloud is capable of parsing through commands received from the user so that all peripheral devices are accessible and controllable. 

Mobile App

In order for the end user to have full control over their smart home devices, a streamlined user interface is required, and this is what the mobile app accomplishes.  Not only does this app display information collected from the smart home devices (via querying the Firebase cloud), but it can also accept user commands.  This ensures that there is easy and fast communication between the user and all of their smart home devices.