Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018

ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

CHAPTER 3
i-LAMP: APPLICATION OF SMART HOME LIGHTING

Nurul Azma Abdullah, Magesh George, Nurul Hidayah Ab. Rahman, Isredza Rahmi A
Hamid, , Chuah Chai Wen

Information Security Interest Group (ISIG)

Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat,
86400 Johor, Malaysia.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Technology can provide comfort and convenience life for normal person . However, for
those who are physically imperfect who are struggling to adapt with the environment
may benefit from the introduction of Internet of Thing (IOT). With the introduction of
IOT, more appliances and products are created to be smart. According to [1], smart
homes start to be popular in early 2000s. At first smart home is only an idea and now it
is physically implemented.

For most people, home is the best place where they can take a break of their
bustling life. Therefore, they want to make their day at home to be coordinated without
using any more of their own energy. Moreover, the disabled person has difficulties to
handle even a simple task such as switch on the light by themselves. Typical design of
current electrical product requires a switch to either to switch on or switch off the
product. This means the user needs to get up from seat and walk to the switch to switch
on or off the device. Though, with the introduction of remote control, people still think it
is troublesome to pick up the remote to switch on or off.

One of the facilities that is important to modern life is lighting. In our modern
world, an electric lamp is used to light the house instead of candles and oil lamp as used
few decades ago. A normal lamp can be smart with additional conditions. The problem
with automatic lamp is the control of operation. Most of street lamp is controlled by
certain ways. In some places, the light is controlled by time. If the time is supposedly
daylight, it will switch off and vice versa. For a bit smart lamp, it is controlled by the
surrounding where if the surrounding is dark, then the lamp will be open. If this condition
is applied in our home, the light will switch on all night and waste the energy.
 Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

A solution for this is to have two sensors that can controlled the on and off of the
lamp. One sensor is to sense the lighting of the surrounding and the other is to sense the
motion. Therefore, the light will only turned on if there is somebody in the room and the
room is dark. If one condition is not fulfilled, then the lamp will turned off. The next
section will discuss the related works for this application.

3.2 THE DESIGN OF SMART LAMP

The basic elements of this smart lamp are the motion sensor, the light sensor and
necessary electric component such as a bulb, power supply and Peripheral Interface
Controller (PIC) board. The main components are the motion and lighting sensor.
According to [2], motion detection was used with an alarm system since 1970s. Then, it
used using ultrasonic technology. According to [3] the light sensing technology is
introduced in 1950s. At that time, it is in the form of photodiodes and phototransistors
and not popular.

With the introduction of first optosensors, the devices have gradually found their
place in commercial and industrial applications. However, it was not widely
commercialized due to the size, cost and overall performance. However, with lot of
improvement in light sensing, nowadays, it is implemented in a massive production.

Next important component is the PIC board; a micro controller produced by

Microchip Technology Inc, USA. It is designed to handle a simple program for a simple
PIC tool. It only requires single resistor and loader to add the pin oscillation clock. Table
3.1 shows the electric components usually used in designing a circuit.

Table 3.1 Common electric components for designing a circuit [4].

Component Symbol Features
Fixed resistor  To control the electric current in a
circuit (measured in Ohm ().
 The higher the resistant value, the
lower the current can pass
through it.
Voltage regulator  Used to coordinate the voltan as
required.
 Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Component Symbol Features

Light Dependent Resistor  Resistance depending on the light
(LDR) intensity that fall upon it
 When the light level decreases, the
resistance of the LDR increases.

Infrared transmitter and  Can be used to detect a motion

receiver  The transmitter provides pulses of
infrared radiation while the
receiver detects any reflections. If
there is any reflection, it indicates
there is an object at some distance
in front.
 https://www.allaboutcircuits.co
m/projects/create-a-motion-
sensing-alarm-with-an-arduino-
and-ir-sensors/

Diode  a component that allows the flow

of the current in one direction.
 With two electrodes known as
anode and cathode.

Light transmitter diode  Known as L.E.D, Light Emitting

Diode.
 Light Emitting Diode is lighting
when there are electricity

Integrated Circuit  A complete and simple circuit in a

small case.
 It is also called an Integrated
circuit.
 Can integrated with electric
components such as transistor,
diode, resistor and others
 Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Component Symbol Features

Electrolytic capacitor  Allow adding electrical energy
which is called charging and also
release the energy which is called
discharging.
 Measured in Farads (F) but
commonly the value is measured
in microfarads (F).
 Two types used for this work are
electrolytic and ceramic
capacitors.
Ceramic Capacitor

Variable/ Adjustable  The value can be adjusted between

resistor 0 to the max value by moving the
spindle.

Transistor  a semiconductor device used to

amplify or switch electronic
signals and electrical power.
 Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Component Symbol Features

Relay  An electrically operated switch.

3.3 THE ARCHITECTURE OF i-LAMP

Basically, the i-LAMP application is an ordinary lighting system with intelligent

characteristic which able to sense the suitable time to switch on and off the lamp . The
basic architecture of i-LAMP is shown in Figure 3.1. The design integrates few
components such as a bulb, motion sensor, light sensor and PIC board.

Figure 3.1 The architecture of i-LAMP.

 Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Each sensor provides an input to the controller. The controllers then process the
inputs and decide whether to switch on or off the lamp. The light sensor is used to sense
the lighting of the room. The bulb is switched on when the room is dark. The main
concern is, if the room is dark but there is no person in the room, the electricity is wasted
if the lamp is switch on. Therefore, for i-LAMP, the light sensor alone will not trigger the
switch but it requires the motion sensor to detect movement in the room before it triggers
the switch to switch on the lamp.

The combination of both sensors increases the reliability of the home lighting
system. The controller requires input from both sensors to determine the decision of
switching on and off the lamp. When inputs from both sensors are equal to “yes”, then
only the controller can send the signal to switch on the lamp. Otherwise, it will send signal
to switch off the lamp. Figure 3.2 illustrates the workflow of i-LAMP application.
 Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Figure 3.2 A central process of i-LAMP

By default, the lamp is set to turn off. The light and motion sensor will sense any
changes in the room. The light sensor calculates the amount of light in the room. If the
light is not enough, then, it will send “yes” signal to the PIC board. The motion sensor also
works similarly. If any motion detected in the room, the sensor will alert the controller.
When the controller receives both signals from the sensors, the controller will decide the
next action. It will follow the decision table as shown in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2 A decision table for an i-LAMP controller

Input 1 (light sensor) Input 2 (motion sensor) Output (controller)
0 0 0
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1

Each sensor provides an input either “1” or “0” indicates “yes” or “no” . For light
sensor, “yes” means the room is dark and for the motion sensor, “yes” means there is a
motion in the room. If both sensors are “0” or either one of the input value is “0”, then the
lamp will switched off. The controller will activated the lamp if the input from both
sensors is “1” which indicates that the room is dark and there is someone in the room.

3.4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

i-LAMP is an intelligent lighting system which is designed to improve normal and

disabled person life. The lamp can work automatically without any human interaction to
switch on or off the lamp. The lamp will functions as needed. This can reduce power
consumption and increase product life as it will not switched on if the room is not dark
and no human presence in the room. Therefore, the electricity is only used when required
and this will reduce the product usage. Moreover, this can improve the product life span.

Although the benefit is significant, there is still room for improvement. The
combination of both sensors ensures increment of reliability of the product but there are
few factors that need to be considered. False detection is not an exception for this product
since the motion sensor is designed to detect any movement but not specifically human
movement. Therefore, there is still a chance of false detection when other living things
such as pets enter the room. If any sensor detect incorrectly, then the output will be
 Building Science and Sustainability Series 2 2018
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

incorrect. Therefore, the design can increase reliability of the product but cannot ensure
100% correct detection.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

RAGS Vot R066 from Ministry of higher Education.

REFERENCES

[1] Hendricks, D. (2014) “The History of Smart Homes”. IOT Evolution. Retrieved
from: http://www.iotevolutionworld.com/m2m/articles/376816-history-smart-
homes.htm

[2] Darbee, R. (1995). Smart Home Inc. Retrieved from :

http://www.smarthome.com/solution10.html

[3] Benke, D. (2013) “Evolution of light sensor integration”. ECN Magazine. Retrieved
from : https://www.ecnmag.com/article/2013/05/evolution-light-sensor-integration

[4] Robbins, A. H., Miller, W. C. (2000). “Circuit Analysis: Theory and Practice.” 5th
Ed. USA: Cengage Learning.