0-7803-9442-9/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE 1

REMOTE MONITORING AND CONTROL USING WIRELESS MESSAGING

Asma Jamal, Hira Mannan, Munira Maqsood

Jinnah University for Women, 5/C North Nazimabad, Karachi {hira_mannan83, muniramaqsood}@hotmail.com

Muhammad Saqib Ilyas N.E.D. University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi

msaqib@ieee.org

Abstract During the recent few years, technologies and standards have been developed that made remotely controlling and monitoring of electronic systems possible. This paper gives an overview of these advancements and describes an implementation of a system capable of controlling and monitoring from remote location using Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Keywords: MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), SMS (Short Messaging Service), ADS (Automatic Door Opening System using MMS), WAP (Wireless Access Protocol).

1. INTRODUCTION During the past decade, the world has seen the paradigm shift into mobile computing and communications. Much of the business and educational work is now heavily relying on the fast access to information and easy communication channels, irrespective of terrain and climate conditions. Ubiquitous wireless coverage has proven itself as of attractive option for B2B and B2C services as well as domestic applications. Remote Home Automation is the proof-of-concept for controlling electronic devices based on wireless messaging. A few years back, interconnecting home appliances was just a thought but now it has become a reality. Using the existing system, it is possible to monitor and control home appliances remotely. Moreover, it can offer other services such as image scanning and status updates. All these features can be accessed via hand-held devices that are used for attending and making calls. The work described in [1], for instance applied

remote monitoring to health care of the elderly in a multi-disciplinary fashion. [2] Discussed using remote devices such as PDAs to remotely interact with computer applications for home automation. The authors in [3] described an architecture for the use of the Internet for home automation. Technologies such as Bluetooth have been used for home automation as well [4]. Automated building control is another area that has seen remote monitoring as an application [5]. Lucenius et al described the implementation of mobile access to home automation in [6]. Protocols such as x10 have also been invented that allow remote sensing and automation. While the Internet is considered a ubiquitous vehicle for such application, the reality is that there are more users of cellular phones than there are users of PCs and hence the Internet. Hence, the paper focuses on the application that uses cellular phones for monitoring, controlling and automation. The application (Automatic Door Opening System), basically works on wireless messages to monitor and control door remotely.

2. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Various challenges and requirements are faced when interacting with home appliances via mobile device. Firstly, device and technology heterogeneity require implementation of gateway function. Secondly, communication infrastructure between users and home appliances must support mobility of both, the user and the terminal as well as various forms of communication. At the same time, solutions must be user-friendly. Finally, new services should be easily deployable and devices accessible with minimal amount of extra effort. Essentially, the same standardized mechanisms and framework should be utilized for different services [6].

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Fig. 1: Architecture of ADS

The architecture of Automatic Door Opening System using Multimedia Messaging Service (ADS) is categorized as: • Home Appliances • Home Server • Communication Infrastructure • User Terminal 2.1. Home Appliances Appliances can be devices such as lamps, TVs, automatic locks, and motion detectors. A typical home contains various legacy appliances, which cannot implement complex functionality. Therefore, complex appliance applications might not be realized on such appliances but on attached control modules. 2.2 Home Server A home server provides communication between different components of the system as well as interoperation of home appliance and networking technologies. It also communicates with a database to save (create log files of each operation) and extract records. It is basically a continuously running service with multiple interfaces under different modules. One module keeps on scanning the electronic devices via a parallel port or hardware interface card, and updates them upon user's request. Second module controls a GSM Modem to receive

wireless messages from remote user's hand-held device, as well as sending the confirmatory reports. Third and most important module initiates the authentication process by capturing the image and sending it to remote user via MMS. 2.3 Communication Infrastructure This is the backbone of the system over which messages propagate to and from Home Server and User Terminal. Based on the type of reply and message contents, the communication network will be adapted automatically. For sending the captured image, the TCP/IP network is used to deliver the message to mail server. After the Mail Server delivers the message to Mobile Message Center, the message then continues to travel over the GPRS network. For receiving the reply from user, Wireless Network is considered, as the user will reply using SMS (Short Messaging Service).

2.4 User Terminal Hand-held devices such as cellular phones enable residents to control and monitor home either from inside or outside the home, but it should be GPRS-enabled, having proper MMS Settings configured. A terminal can send control messages in the form of wireless messages such as Short Messaging Service (SMS).

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3. DETAILS OF ADS This section describes the implementation of ADS. The project is experimental and intended to illustrate the kind of remote monitoring and controlling systems using Java Platform.

Figure 2: Flow Chart of ADS 4.1 Ring Detection As the bell rings, current is established in the circuit and the adapter step-down the voltage to 5V. The resultant TTL compatible 5V is passed as an input to the parallel port. The Operating System notifies the home application about the ring bell.

Figure 3: Ring Detector Circuit 4.2 Image Capturing & Transmission As the application gets the OS notification, it starts initializing the capturing device. Thus, the

capture device captures the image and saves it on a disk for further processing. After the image is saved, the application prepares the MMS message packet with essential information and transports (transfer) the message to the recipient.

Figure 4: Send MMS Form 4.3 Unlocking Door After sending MMS successfully, the system starts checking for further instructions from the home owner in the form of SMS. As the SMS is received, first it checks the sender number (for security purpose). If the number is known to the system, the SMS message will be parsed and the system will unlock the door.

Figure 5: Receive SMS Form 4.4 Acknowledgment and Logging An acknowledgment SMS is sent to the user to inform that the operation was accomplished

GRAB PICTURE

PERFORM OPERATION

SENDING MMS

CHECKING SMS

RETURN TO ENTRY POINT

IF true

IF true

IF true

START APP

RING DETECTOR CIRCUIT

SEND CONFIRMATION &SAVE DETAILS

Door Bell

Adapter

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successfully. At the same time, details of operation are saved in the database.

Figure 6: Send SMS form

5. JAVA TECHNOLOGY In this section the programming tools and technologies are discussed that are used in the implementation of the ADS.

5.1. Java Media Framework

Java Media Framework (JMF) is a Java API for incorporating media data such as audio and video into Java applications and applets. The API supports capturing and storing media data and performs custom processing on media data stream [7]. Using the JMF API, the process of capturing and saving of picture is performed. 5.2. Java E-mail API Java E-mail API provides a platform independent and protocol independent framework to build a standard email handling process for a typical client application. Most of the classes use Internet mail protocols that conform to the specifications of RFC822 and RFC2045 [8]. Using the classes in the Java E-mail API, the process of sending MMS is performed. 5.3. Java SMS API Java SMS API is a third-party API designed to send/receive SMS using a GSM device [9]. With respect to ADS, the SMS is received as a control message in the reply of MMS, and sent to the home owner to acknowledge about the successful completion of entire operation.

Figure 7: Java Mail Framework

5.4. Log Files MS Access is used to maintain logs. Using the JDBC class library the server application is connected to a database, so, that the server application can easily insert data (operation details) into the database using SQL statements.

6. FUTURE WORK Currently, the MMS application module is designed using the Java E-mail API. So, it works as an email program for sending MMS. Using the E-mail API, the ADS is applicable only for a single service provider network (Ufone). In future, the module can be implements using WAP technology. In this mode, instead of sending MMS, an SMS notification would be sent to the terminal (cell phone) with a URL (Uniform Resource Location), informing the user about the guest as well as the picture that is uploaded to a web server that can be viewed using the URL. So, the user can view the picture either by using WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) enable hand-held device or a desktop system. This method is faster than sending MMS using SMTP server and makes ADS applicable for every service provider network.

7. CONCLUSION

In our region, 2.5G is the de-facto standard for wireless networks, while the world is implementing 3G networks steadily, and in some places 4G test-beds have been launched. Seeing the fast pace of advancement in this technology, one can say that the dream of 'Global Wireless Voice and Data Connectivity' will materialize in near future, opening the panoramas of multitudes of possibilities. Today's mere messaging service will emerge as live streaming video talks and

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location-based services. Yet, the essence remains the same, sending the information to mobile user in various formats and getting the inputs to be tailored according to the needs, using the underlying communication channel. We have successfully demonstrated a cost effective solution to remotely monitoring and controlling domestic devices primarily with security in mind.

References [1] Celler BG, Earnshaw W, Ilsar ED, Betbeder-Matibet L, Harris MF, Clark R, Hesketh T, Lovell NH, ”Remote monitoring of health status of the elderly at home. A multidisciplinary project on aging at the University of New South Wales,” International Journal of Biomedical Computing, pp. 147-155, 1995 [2] Luca Tarrini, Rolando Bianchi Bandinelli, Vittorio Miori, Graziano Bertini, “Mobile Human-Computer Interaction,” 4th International Symposium, Mobile HCI, Pisa, Italy, pp. 364-368, September 18-20 2002

[3] Raji, Reza S., “Control Networks and the Internet,” Echelon Corporation [4] N. Srikanthan, F. Tan, A. Karande, “Bluetooth based home automation system,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2002 [5] Olken, F., C. McParland, M. A. Piette, D. Sartor, and S. Selkowitz, “Remote Building Monitoring and Control,” Proceedings of the ACEEE 1996 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Washington D.C., 1996

[6] Jan Lucenius, Jani Suomalainen, Piia Ventola.” Implementing Mobile Access to Heterogeneous Home Environment”, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. [7] http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf/index.jsp [8] http://java.sun.com/product/email [9] http://www.java-system.com

About the authors

Hira Mannan and Munira Maqsood are undergraduate students at Jinnah University for Women, Karachi, Pakistan. They have been working with Java and related technologies for some time. Their areas of interest include computer programming, networking, and mobile communication. Asma Jamal is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science department at Jinnah University for Women, Karachi, Pakistan. She has done her BS (Computer Science) from SSUET (Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology) and completing her Masters degree in Telecommunication from the same university. Her areas of interest are computer networks, telecommunication, speech technologies, and mobile communication. Muhammad Saqib Ilyas is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Department of Computer and Information Systems Engineering at NED, Karachi, Pakistan. He holds a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA. His areas of interest include computer networks, computer network security, and connected systems.