2018 Fourth International Conference on Research in Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks (ICRCICN)
Voice Over Appliance Management System
Arijit Ghosh Suvojit Sinha
Dept. of AEIE, RCCIIT Dept. of AEIE, RCCIIT
Kolkata, India Kolkata, India
arijitghosh@yahoo.com suvojitsinha12@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper represents a unique home appliance
control system based on voice commands over the internet.
Through this proposed system, any appliance can be
controlled efficiently from any location irrespective of
their distance from the appliance through the help of
Artificial Intelligent (AI) voice assistant over internet using
cloud server technology. Primarily, voice is captured by
the AI assistant and is sent to IFTTT (If This Then That)
open cloud server which then connects to another open
cloud server named Webhooks. It then sends information
to the Blynk application (app) which in turn transmits to
ESP8266 based microcontroller unit and finally passes on
the information to the relay connection module to switch
on the appliances. Almost 100% accuracy has been
obtained by the proposed system with a delay time of 0.99
seconds, considering the fact that internet connection
strength remains healthy. The proposed system has
already been successfully tested from a distance of 10
metres.
Keywords—Internet of Things; Wireless Sensor Network;
Microcontroller; Wi-Fi, Blynk, IFTTT, Webhooks.
I. INTRODUCTION
Voice automation system with the help of IOT (Internet of
Things) is gaining popularity in this intelligent electronics
world. This revolutionary technology lends us to work in a
more sophisticated way, which previously no one has ever
thought of. IOT can be implemented in many application
domains e.g. fields related to high altitudes where people
cannot reach easily, but voice automated robots can and
complete the required tasks. It mainly makes use of wireless
technology such as internet, or bluetooth for communicating
with the microcontrollers and trans-receivers. Users are able to
send commands using voice assistant applications such as
Google Voice Assistant, Alexa to name a few. The aim of this
paper is to discuss about the design and real-time
implementation of an effective voice automated system that
can execute any task flawlessly considering minute details of
voice commands. Here, the voice commands are first being
captured by Google voice assistant, the acquired data is sent to
IFTTT cloud server and then to Webhooks both of which is to
be configured separately using common cloud domain IP
address by inserting the Blynk’s unique identification address
along with GPIO connection pin configuration number, which
in turn sends the data to Blynk app and transfers the same to
ESP8266 microcontroller module and connects to the relay
978-1-5386-7638-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Suhankar Pal Priyankshu Kumar Sarkar
Dept. of AEIE, RCCIIT Dept. of AEIE, RCCIIT
Kolkata, India Kolkata, India
suhankar.pal01@gmail.com priyankshurcciitian2017@gmail.com
which results in either switching on the appliance or switching
it off.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The smart homes were ideas, not actual structures until a few
years ago. The concept of home automation is not only a
theoretical aspect now it has already gained momentum in
practical applications. This section highlights on substantial
inventions leading towards smart homes and what else can be
done in future. This field of study began to increase popularity
with the emergence of affordable yet consumer friendly
technologies. Nowadays smart homes are also sustainable,
secured from invaders, cost-effective and instead of using
conventional energy they use green technologies. Current
trend in home automation includes remote based control
utilizing mobile applications, automated device monitoring
and control, appliance scheduling, transmitting various types
of notification, and also surveillance from remote video. The
notion of home automation which was imaginary even some
time ago has seen the daylight, predominantly due to the
development of IoT. Presently, it is very much possible to
build an automated house using this technology. The three
most significant constituents of an IoT based smart home are:
hardware, software and networking as well as communication
standards. To cope up with technological modifications, the
IoT network should be equipped with proper hardware which
ensures successful prototype development. Earlier due to the
advancement of wireless technology several type of
connections such as GSM, Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth were
used where each of them had their unique feature [1-2].
Though some of the studies on home automation system done
by the preceding technocrats were based on wireless network
[3-5], most of them used wired network systems. The studies
in [2, 6-7] used Programmable Interface Controller (PIC),
where a complicated circuit was required to be designed by
the developers for use. The system which uses Radio
Frequency (RF) module for transferring data are lower in cost
in comparison [3-5] to low powered short range wireless
bluetooth module using frequency hopping spread spectrum
(FHSS) modulation technique [8]. To make the Arduino based
home automation system compact a bluetooth module is
connected and the system is made functional. But we know
that bluetooth uses a short distance radio technology to allow
wireless access whereas Wi-Fi is reasonably a faster method
of information transmission. Here, we have used ESP8266
based microcontroller module which has an inbuilt Wi-Fi unit
thus making it more compact and easy to use. Also
transferring data via bluetooth is less secured in comparison to
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Wi-Fi, which is a major reason why ESP8266 based
microcontroller based home automation system is preferred
over a bluetooth based system. Also the speed of data transfer
from sensors to the cloud network will be more in case of
using a Wi-Fi module. Last but not the least, a bluetooth
module requires external controller, whereas ESP8266
microcontroller module can be programmed and used in stand-
alone (12 usable GPIO) mode and hence it is more preferable.
III. OBJECTIVE
The objective of our work is to establish a wireless voice based
system which can work automatically without human
intervention. The system works on the principle that voice is
taken as an input command from the user which gets executed
through IFTTT server with the help of a Blynk app unique
authentication ID, and then it sends the data to Webhooks
which checks the relay pin configuration to switch on a
particular appliance as requested by the user. While
configuring the IFTTT server, one must remember to put on
the equivalent GPIO pin number of the ESP8266 module,
because when Blynk app sends data to the Wi-Fi Board, it
thinks that it is sending data to any of the microcontroller
modules. The block diagram of our proposed system is
described in subsequent section of this paper followed by
system description and the required components to develop the
prototype. The next part gives the connection diagram of
controller block followed by a flow chart and practical
snapshots of the developed hardware as well as software
network configuration modules. This real-time developed
system can be taken into consideration for operating any type
of home appliance. The paper ends with a conclusion.
IV. BLOCK DIAGRAM AND SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
Fig. 1. Block Diagram of the designed system.
The block diagram of our designed system is shown in Fig. 1.
The command receiver section receives the voice command,
executes its job by sending the information to cloud server and
turns on the relay module after proper determination, which in
return send the data to the microcontroller for execution and
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helps the relay to get switched on and turn on the desired
application. In between this whole process, the Blynk app plays
a crucial role in connecting the devices with cloud server and
Wi-Fi module. The Blynk app has a unique ID which helps to
identify the specific user and it’s applications to work with.
In this paper, the main component used is ESP8266
microcontroller module which receives the information given
by the user as voice command input. Here, Google assistant is
taken into account for performing wireless voice automation
system. Further, a relay board has been used to switch on/off
the appliances, which is able to procure information from the
ESP8266 microcontroller module. Now, IFTTT server is to be
configured by logging into the IFTTT web portal with the
user’s Google account, and the user has to configure the
Google assistant by entering the commands the user want to
say and receive on the other side. After configuring the Google
assistant; Webhooks is to be configured, as Google assistant
would pass information to Webhooks and then it would interact
with the physical components and other software, as directly
Google assistant cannot be linked with other external software
as well as physical hardware components. To do that, the
external components are to be connected with Webhooks
server to receive and transmit information simultaneously. For
configuration of the Webhooks server one must enter the
Blynk’s unique ID, a host server where the connection is to be
established, e.g. 188.166.206.43 and the GPIO pin number
(which is equivalent to the Arduino Uno R3 module and
ESP8266 module). This is how the whole setup is integrated.
Now, configuration of Blynk is to be done so that information
from Webhooks can be received. To do that in Arduino IDE
one must install CP2102 driver software in the form of .zip file
and one should select “Sketch” option and then “Include
Library” option, where “Blynk” can be found and after
selecting it the user has to specify the Wi-Fi connection details
for establishing network connection for executing the data. The
user has to enter SSID and password of the Wi-Fi network and
then the program is to be uploaded to the ESP8266
microcontroller module. Now the system can be used from any
corner of the world, that means any appliance which is
previously been configured over the internet in open source
cloud server can be operated remotely from anywhere, which
would be more time efficient and cost effective as well.
V. CONNECTIONS WITH THE COMPONENTS
The circuit diagram of our designed system is shown in Fig. 2.
ESP8266 Wi-Fi based microcontroller module is to be directly
connected to the external power supply module and with the
Blynk app at the same time. The relay board is connected with
ESP8266 Wi-Fi enabled microcontroller module and with a 5
volt power supply module. Now, one connection wire will be
connected with the appliances and the other one with the AC
power supply. The code has to be uploaded henceforth to the
ESP8266 microcontroller module by entering the Blynk’s
unique ID and Network SSID and Password to get recognized
to the Wi-Fi network. This is how the entire setup will get
completed.
 om_index.json, and after doing so, one must go to “Board
Manager” and install “ESP8266” and “Blynk” libraries. Now,
the user has to provide its network SSID and password and the
code will be ready for getting uploaded to the Wi-Fi module.
Now, the setup is all ready to get into work. ‘1’ or ‘0’ is to be
provided to the associated pins to switch the applications
On/Off.
The flow chart of the proposed system is shown in Fig. 3.

Voice
Artificial Intelligence
command

IFTTT

Webhooks
Fig. 2. Circuit diagram of the proposed system.
VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS
Automation, the word itself in present world scenario has an
everlasting impact in modern society. In this system, the user Blynk App
input is taken as a voice command through an Artificially
Intelligent (AI) assistant which sends the information to cloud
server, i.e. to the IFTTT (If This Then That) which transmits
Wi-Fi Module
information to Webhooks and then sends it to Blynk app
whose data is taken by the ESP8266 microcontroller module
and then the final information is given to the relay board to
switch on the particular application the user has notified for.
Now, for this whole process to work and become active as and
when needed, the cloud server, Blynk app and ESP8266 Wi-Fi Microcontroller
based microcontroller board have to be configured properly.
Next, to configure the IFTTT server, one must login to the
IFTTT web portal through their specific Google account. After
logging in one must setup the desired command to be accepted
by the Google assistant and received at the same time by the Relay Module Appliances
user which is to be done for both criteria, i.e. for switching on
the application as well as for switching it off. IFTTT Server
will now get configured for one application. The similar Fig. 3. Flow chart of the proposed system.
process is to be repeated for multiple applications. Further, the This proposed system has been tested several times and
Webhooks server configuration is done by entering the showed up satisfactory response, with a very minimum time
common domain IP Address, e.g., 188.166.206.43 and by delay, which even worked efficiently when tested from a
providing the unique ID provided while creating “New distance of 10 meters. This automated system is both time as
Project” in Blynk app and GPIO pin number which matches well as cost friendly and can be used to control appliances
with the pin connection of ESP8266 microcontroller module from any part of the world only by applying voice commands
and to do that successfully the format must be as follows: into a global scale making use of Google AI voice assistant.
http://188.166.206.43/Your Blynk Authentication The advantages of this proposed system are that it can work
ID/update/GPIO PIN. This is how the Webhooks will get remotely in a very efficient manner, when connected to the
configured, and it is to be done for both the cases, for specific network SSID and password given by the user during
switching on and switching off the appliances. To upload the setting up the code which is to be uploaded to the ESP8266
program on the ESP8266 microcontroller module one must Wi-Fi based microcontroller module. Moreover, it can be
switch on the Arduino IDE platform and add CP2102 driver taken into consideration when the user is not around the
library and after doing so one must go to “Preferences” and particular application. User may be present anywhere, and can
then to “Additional Board Manager” and enter the link as
follows:http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266c

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operate it remotely just by using voice commands. The
experimental observations are indicated in TABLE I.

TABLE I. EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS

Voice Digital Pin Relay Condition Product status

Command Output (On/Off) (On/Off)

Turn On High On On

Turn Off Low Off Off

Fig. 4 (d). Real-time Webhooks server configuration set-up

snapshot.

The real-time pictures of our developed system with hardware

Fig. 4 (a). Practical hardware set up with a connected appliance.
Fig. 4 (b). Real-time ESP8266 Wi-Fi based microcontroller with relay unit.
Fig. 4 (c). Practical snapshot of AI assistant configuration set-up.
and software are shown in Fig. 4 (a). - Fig. 4 (d). We can see
the performance of our designed system when switching it off
from the mobile application by giving the command ‘Turn
Off’. Similarly, when the command ‘Turn On’ is given from
the mobile application, the system is switched on. The strength
of our proposed system is that it can control multiple
appliances simultaneously to make our task easy and to
control things from any place by a simple voice command.
VII. CONCLUSION
Using this automation system we can control any appliance
through a wireless medium from any place using cloud server
and internet. The developed voice controlled automation
system provides voice command to the microcontroller which
controls the system as per the given command. The system
suffers from the drawback that it can operate only during the
presence of internet connectivity. When the internet coverage
is not present or if it is weak, the system will fail to operate
properly. To overcome this problem, some paid servers may
be used. The system is very sensitive and is susceptible to
noise. If there is some operation delay due to connectivity
error, the system may fail to give satisfactory results. Further
work is going on to eliminate the aforesaid issues. But this
system may find its application in various fields, particularly,
where people work with life risk and all the things can be
controlled using voice commands [9-10]. The system can be
further modified by incorporating artificial intelligent control
or fuzzy logic control and thus the product can be controlled
as per the requirement of operation [11-12]. These are all
possibilities that can be implemented in the near future.
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