A concept and implementation of the embeddable home controller

Abstract

This paper proposes a concept of a home controller for home automation that is embeddable to existing consumer electronic devices in the household, such as TV sets and set-top boxes. The concept is investigated through implementation in a digital set-top box extended with units for both power line (X10) and wireless (Zigbee) communication to control lights and appliances. Main goal was to propose a generic software model that would be able to support the majority of field-proven protocols for automation and lighting. Additional important aspects, such as home behavior modeling, comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) and economic use of resources were covered.