Chapter One

Introduction

Technologies are developing at a high rate during the last century. Computers become smaller, and their potential, on the other hand, grows more prominent each day. As a result, there is a massive movement towards automation in all areas of our lives. This movement has played a vital role in the formation of the Internet of things (IoT) concept [23], which became the main inspiration for this research.

The Internet of things is a concept of connecting physical devices to a network, where they can exchange data and assist, automate or even manage processes. The system usually includes sensors, electronic devices, the network for communication between the parts and the managing software. This concept has found its application and development in environment monitoring, optimisation in manufacturing or energy management. It brings the advantage of remote control over processes saving time and money for people, like, for example, when the world’s first IP camera saved the customers two air flights a day allowing to monitor oil spills in the sea via the Internet [20]. Application of the Internet of things clearly allows an increase of efficiency and minimisation of the human factor in the area.

One of the biggest concerns for people always was the safety of their belongings and privacy of their living and working space. The modern solutions to this problem are approaching it from angles that vary from using advanced door locks to complicated automatic systems with multi-level authentication, all of which are supposed to prevent illegal access to the private territory. Security has become a giant industry and success factor in many businesses, and developing hardware and software technologies find their application in the field.

The evolution of modern technologies has brought a vast amount of affordable and portable devices to the market, which can be used to provide custom security solutions. Motion sensors, sound alarms, identification cards and card readers are easy to purchase and use. Thanks to the availability of learning materials it became possible to create an automatic security system without any complicated prerequisites. Moreover, the own solution brings the advantage of building the unique application, which meets individuals’ needs.

The mentioned trends in the computer technologies field had a significant influence on the idea of the project. It appeared with the intention to create a custom application for monitoring private space, independent of any commercial services and usable in everyday life.

1.1.  Research goals

The research’s goal is to create a car alarm system based on widely available and affordable components, which allow easy adjusting of the solution architecture. We want our system to be able to detect an intrusion, to notify the users of the event and to take pictures of the space upon the alert.

We also set a goal to design the system so that it can identify the users with tokens, which trigger switching of the system and provide a user management interface. The system is set to be accessible from the local network and the Internet.

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